Getting Ready….
1. This month, planning should become more “long-term” and include the time through the holidays. What are the expected interruptions and what can be accomplished in the areas of content instruction? What ways can we find to integrate content instruction with holiday themes and activities? What must happen in November to prepare for December?
2. What are school, grade level, and classroom traditions and expectations that relate to:
· Voting and Election Day
· Veteran’s Day
· Thanksgiving and related topics
· Christmas, wintertime, holidays of other faiths and cultures
· Issues of teaching tolerance and the respect for differences
3. As the end of the first semester approaches you should take time as a pair to examine where you are in the curriculum year and what remains to be learned in the second semester. Are you half way done? If not, what are the biggest priorities for the next term? Discuss the issues of rushing to “cover” the curriculum versus in-depth teaching and learning. Point out that there is always more to do than time to do it so the need to focus on essentials is critical.
4. What is the “big picture” of the new term’s curriculum? How should the units in each subject fit together to create a sequential connection in the children’s minds? Also, how do the different subjects support each other and integrate into a whole? Suggest some ideas.
5. After discussing the semester ahead and the necessary curriculum, ask the new teacher which areas of the semester do they feel confident about and which areas will require them to grow most. What can you do together to help the growth areas to be more successful and less stressful?
Evaluations….
Many mentors find that the new teachers build up a huge concern over the principal’s visits and their evaluation. Mentors can do a great deal of good by ensuring that truth and not myth is known about the process. Since this event will happen, it is a wonderful way for the mentor to initiate the role of coach and support for the new teacher. Consider having the mentor role-play the pre-and the post-conference and observation so that the experience is a “known,” not “an unknown” when it involves the principal:
· Choose a specific question to answer in the area in which the new teacher would like to learn.
· Decide what data would help the new teacher answer the question or assess a strategy.
· What form will that data take? Traffic on a seating chart? Who asks questions? Time?
· Use these decisions to plan the observation, pointing out that the mentor will only comment on the area the new teacher has selected.
· Conduct the observation. Collect any information that was requested and leave your notes with the teacher. Do not make judgmental comments about how it went.
· In a post-conference later solicit the new teacher’s reactions and thinking about the lesson. Try to avoid offering evaluations and suggestions unless they are requested and then only offer them after the new teacher has finished a response and reflection. In that case point out that “the new teacher’s use of the info and learning from thinking through the issues and developing options is the most important,” not just coming up with specific answers to short term problems.- Refer to the Planning and Reflective Conversations from BELL Mentor II training sessions. Use the cheat sheet. :)
· Try to offer only positive comments.
He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.
