what new teachers really need

8/9/2019 What New Teachers Really Need

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What New TeacherWhat first-year teachers say they need to survive on the job is ofienmarkedly different from what schools provide.M

onica quit. ^ ^ ^ HOne year of ^ ^ ^ ^ |teaching was ^ ^ ^ Hmore tban ^ ^ ^ Henough for ^ ^ ^ ^ |

Scott Mandel

l ^ ^ ^ l the s tudents that did her in; it^ ^ ^ H wasn't the parents . It was the^ ^ ^ H inadequacies of today's system^ ^ ^ H of preparing and suppor ting^ ^ ^ ^ 1 n ew teache rs.her. She had looked forward to

teaching for years and didquite well in all of her educa-tion preservice classes. But shecouldn't take it anymore.Wh en her principal ques-tioned her decision, she toldhim it was the stress. Henodded, shook her hand,wished her luck, and led herto the door.

However, it wasn't the kids.Monica related well to herstudents and truly enjoyedmost of her classes. The stresswas tbe result of everyday frus-trations associated with h erfirst year of teaching. No oneseemed to understand whatshe was going through; no onewas there to help her survivethat first year.

Sure, the district offered herspecial workshops designedfor new teachers. They hadimpressive titles and dealt with w hatthe district considered importantsubjects for a teacher to master,including "Aligning Your Curricu lum tothe State Standards" and "AnalyzingStudent Data to Achieve Proficiency onState Exams." Monica dutifully went toall of these mandatory workshops. Shetook the handouts and placed them in

the trunk of her car. Then sbe sat onher couch at home and tried to figureout the problems she really neededhelp witbhow to set up her class-room for the first day, or how to teachfive hours of material in three h ours .

Sadly, in tbe long run, Monicabecame another first-year teacher whodidn't survive. It wasn't problem s with

New Teacher Mentoring:A Crucial SupportRegrettably, Monica's story isbecoming comm onplace. SinceNo Child Left Behind wasenacted, school districts havefelt forced to focus solely ontesting. Virtually everystatewide and districtwidecurricular decision today isbased o n raising test scores.Consequently, nearly everyeducation decision at the localschool level involves "teachingto the stand ards." This exces-sive focus on testing and stan -dards has led to a lack of focuson the practical guidance andsupport that would help first-year teachers stay afloat.

I New teachers are nota thinking about raising scorese on the standardized test in

May; tbey are more concernedabout getting throu gh fifth periodtomorrow. First-year teachers have onebasic goal in mindsurvival. Experi-enced educators tend to forget what itwas like when they were new to theclassroom; they tend to get out of touchwith what new teachers really need.And mu ch of wbat new teachers needcan only be provided through


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ally Needsupportive interaction with veteranteachers.

Help from a trained, caring mentor isa crucial ingredient in helping newteachers survive their first year. Yetteacher mentoring programs are heingeliminated in man y states because ofhudget shortfalls; in California, state-funded mentoring programs have heeneliminated entirely The Los Angelesschool district used to assign one expe-rienced classroom teacher trained inmentoring to meet with every two newteachers 10 hours a m onth each. Withrecent budget cuts, the district nowassigns 1 teacher to meet with 3 0 ne wteachers in a group once a mon th. Newteachers in th is district are clearly notgetting the individual attention theyused to get.

Even when mentor programs arewell staffed, mentors can't help first-year teachers unless they understandand provide the kinds of informationand support that new professionalsreally need. For mentoring to trulyhelp new teachers, the agendas formentoring sessions need to come morefrom the new teacher than from thementor. A mentor is there to make theteacher's first year easier, not to teachthe new professional how to teach or topush the school district's agenda.What New TeachersWant to KnowDuring the last 15 years, as I havementored new teachers and trainedteacher m entors in Los Angeles schools,I asked approximately 50 othermen tors about what kinds of help newteachers had requested, and what skillsthey had asked for help with. 1 alsoasked approximately 50 teachers intheir second, third, or fourth year onthe job what information and skills

they had needed h elp with during theirfirst year.

None of the first-year teachers saidthey wished they'd had more informa-tion on how to align the curriculum tostate standards or on how to analyzestandardized test scores. Rather, theywished that they'd had help withspecific practical information and skills.The c oncerns of the new teachers fellwithin five broad areas: Setting up the classroom andpreparing for the first weeks of school.

New teachers haveone basic goal inmindsurvival.

Covering the required curriculumwithout falling behind or losing studentinterest.

Grading fairly Dealing with parents. Maintaining personal sanity.

The Classroom an d the First WeeksThe information provided in the schoolhandb ook or in orientation m eetingsrarely goes far enoug h in ad dressing themyriad of questions that most newteachers have in the ir first weeks. Thenew teachers I interviewed most oftenmentioned such questions as,

How do I arrange the physicalclassroom for the first week?

Wha t books and supplies do Ineed, and where can 1 get them? Do 1have to buy them with my own money?

What should 1 put on my bulletinboards? Do I leave them blank until Iget student work?

To wh om do I go for help withdiscipline p roblems?

How do 1 decide what to teach thefirst days and weeks of school? Should1 give homework? When and howshould 1 test students?

Who is going to evaluate meand how?

Whe n I mentored new teachers inour district, I suggested they keep anotepad with them at all times duringtheir first few weeks and jot down everypractical question that oc curred tothem. Even in the absence of a formalmentoring program, schools should atleast assign a veteran teacher to eachnew teacher to answer practical ques-tions like these throu ghou t the yearand, ideally, to answer questions thatthe teacher doesn't yet know to ask.

Covering the CurriculumAs the school year progresses, newteachers' questions tum to themecha nics of everyday teachingspecifically, how to keep students inter-ested and ma intain control in theirclasses while still covering the requiredmaterial. New teachers often sense thatwhat they are doing is not working butdon't know how to fix it. Teachers begito notice that they are calling on thesame students during each class discus-sion or that discussions are not as richas they had ho ped. By the third m onthof school, new teachers realize that theyare already behind in teaching thecurriculum. Feeling pressure to coverthe required curriculum in any possibleway, teachers may cut out creative ideasthey had planned to try Deletingcreativity often leads to studentboredom and discipline problems.

Mentors should m odel cu rriculumplanning and time management. I ofteshare vidth new teachers two strategies


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for keeping up with required contentmaterial while keeping lessons inter-esting. First, I recommend combiningseveral teaching goals in on e lesson orassignment, even across disciplines. Forexam ple, if one of your language artsgoals is to teach research pa per writing,use o ne of your social studies topics forcontent. Second, teachers can usehom ewo rk no t only for review, but alsoto introduce new concepts. If you havefour sections of a social studies text tocover, cover three in class and assignone as homework. Review the basicconcepts in class the next day

Grading FairlyMany teachers I interviewed said thatthey wished they had had more guid-ance on grading during their first year.New teachers want to grade accordingto school policy but still be fair to theirstudents. They want the grades to beaccurate, but not to hurt a student's self-esteem. And they don't want to have tospend hours figuring ou t grades.

Efficient and fair grading, one of themost fundamental teacher tasks, is nota skill normally taught in educationclasses or new teacher workshops.Somehow, our education system seemsto assume that new teachers alreadyknow effective grading techn iques o rcan easily leam them on their own. Butfair grading is complicated, as thefollowing example sho ws:A new teacher gave five tests, each worth100 points. She graded on a scale inwhich 90 or above = A, 80-89 = B,70-79 = C, 60-69 = D, and below 60 = F.One student scored as follows: 95 (A),85 (B), 30 (F), 80 (B -), 20 (F). With anA, two Bs, and two Fs, the studentexpected an overall grade of C. However,when the teacher numerically averagedthe five grades, she came up with anaverage of 62, which figured out to agrade of D -. The teacher knew that thisresult was mathematically correct, but itsomehow didn't seem fair to this studentand she didn't know why.So they are not regularly stymied bygrading dilemmas like this one, new

teachers need explicit, practical trainingin grading technique s from professionaldevelopment early in the school year orfrom a teacher mentor. The inexperi-enced teacher in this example did notrealize that by using straight averageswith grades, she unfairly weighted theFs. If she conve rted all Fs below 50 to astraight 50 for averaging purpo ses, shecould recalculate the student's testscores as 95 + 85 + 50 + 80 + 50 and

Schools shouldhelp novices m eetpractical classroomchallenges.divide the sum by 5. This would resultin a grade of 72 or C-, a much fairergrade for this student.Dealing With ParentsMany of the new teachers I interviewedsaid they had wanted more guidancefor dealing with parents, especially atconference time. Professional develop-ment for new teachers should addressthis need early in the schoo l year.Mentors might, for example, role-playpossible parent meeting scenarios withnew teachers. I also share with newteachers the following principles fordealing with parent conferences:

Think of the pare nt as an ally, notan enemy (the golden rule of confer-encing).

Always begin the conference with apositive comm ent about the studen t.

Insist on the presence of thestudent. Whe n parents report to theirchild what the teacher said in theconference, the child may contradict orobject to what was said; miscommuni-cation and mistmst may result.

Use positive statements whendiscussing the student's personal quali-ties. If you mu st m ake negative state-ments, make clear you are talking

about the student's behavior, not his oher character.

Be objective. Use numerical factsmore than adjectives.

Do not say anything you cannotdefend objectively

Do not take verbal abuse. If youare not treated with respect, end theconference or send for assistance.Maintaining Personal SanityOne of the central concems of newteachers is dealing with the daily stresof the job. New teachers need to leamhow to deal with their stress as much they need to leam how to teach. Othewise, they bu m out and leave theprofession. Notice how many newteachers you see in your school'steacher lunchroom during breaks.Instead of taking breaks, new teachersoften are in their rooms, trying to keeptheir heads above water with grading,planning, and paperwork. W orking inthe classroom without a break ulti-mately leads to physical and mentalexhaustion.

A supportive mentoring relationshipcan ease stress, and mentors shouldhelp new teachers leam to reduceanxiety I share the following strategiesfor alleviating stress with every newteacher:

Prepare well for your lessons. Keep your grading and p aperwork

up-to-date, even if you must do sobefore school or on a weekend.Allowing paperwork to accumulate is great source of stress.

Seek advice from experiencedteachers. You will leam that you r classroom problems are not unique, andthat others have successfully resolvedsimilar problems.

Make a list (realistically short) ofwhat you ho pe to accomplish in a dayor throughout the week. There is greatmental satisfaction in crossing off item

Avoid becoming isolated. Socializewith your colleagues, talking aboutnonsc hool subjects, every day. Accept your mistakes as learning


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in their lessons are the ones who

eaching knowledge or even actualis

specially true in accelerated credentialrograms.

After ne w teach ers begin teaching,their schools should continue the

rocess of helping them meet practicalclassroom challenges. In addition to

entors, schools might provideonthly professional development

workshops on timely issues; forexample, a workshop on conduc ting apositive parent conference in the weeksbefore conferencing or a session on howto figure out grades before the firstreport cards are due. The content ofprofessional development workshopsmust derive from the expressed needs ofnew teachers themselves.

New teac hers' needs differ marke dlyfrom those of more experiencedteachers. Keeping the status quo willonly result in continued new teacherattrition. We must provide new teacherswith the kind of information they mostneed to make it through their first year.Otherwise, we vidll continue to lose theMonicas of our profession, B!

Scott Mandel teaches English, history,and musical theater at Pacoima MiddleSchool in Pacoinna, California; 818-970-7445; mandel@pacificnet,net. He isauthor of The New-Teacher Toolbox:Proven Tips and Strategies for a GreatFirst Vear (Zephyr Press, 2003),

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