Part A – A Practical Professional Problem
A practical problem that I have encountered in my professional life is the lack of mentorship available to brand new teachers.
Imagine, being a new parent and all of a sudden being responsible for not 1 but 30 children. All of whom who have different needs, at different times of the day. While there is sympathy and understanding for new first time parents of infants as well as a transition period where people are quick to offer assistance and support; new teachers are expected to step in from day one, and run their classrooms as efficiently and affectively as an experienced teacher. Oftentimes, new teachers struggle with balancing new curriculum, lesson planning, classroom management, special needs, communication with parents/other staff/administration, report card writing and authentic assessment. The struggle is real.
It is so real, and overwhelming that a large number of teachers want to leave the teaching profession within the first five years. With our current teacher shortage in British Columbia, we cannot afford to lose more teachers. As a Nation, we are doing a very poor job of supporting new teachers. Why is this and what can we do to change it?
Teachers go to teachers college where they mostly learn the theory of education. They write anticipatory lesson plans and spend a few weeks of time ‘practicing’ in someone else’s classroom. And then, they are placed (sometimes with only a few day’s notice) into a classroom of their own. The classroom is a much different environment than teacher’s college or even their practicum. There are so many variables at play! Often times, new teachers feel isolated, overwhelmed and nervous about admitting that they are struggling for fear of appearing incompetent.
What if new teachers had a support group to turn to? What if they had a mentor they felt comfortable with? Would this help them feel more successful and enable teachers to want to stay in the profession?
Part B: Please click on the link below. A huge shout out and much gratitude to Dr. Strong who copied my file onto Soundcloud for me.
Excellent action research project idea! It is clear that you are very passionate about mentoring new teachers and this project would great to implement in your school district. It would be interesting to see what results you gather.
Well done!
Dr. Strong