Welcome!

"We want to develop teachers who are thinkers and problem-solvers, who ask questions about their practice and constantly seek solutions, who are committed and passionate advocates for all children." New Teacher Center Santa Cruz, CA

The statement above expresses the goals of the Education Standards and Practices Board Teacher Support System (TSS) Mentoring Program. Building administrators are an important part of that work and we want to make sure that you feel well prepared to fulfill your role.

All building administrators who have first-year teachers in their buildings being mentored through the Teacher Support System (TSS) must complete the activities included in this blog by Friday, October 12, 2018 if you haven't completed the training previously. You may stop and start as often as needed.

Please bookmark this site on your computer so you can refer to it later when questions arise.

These are the questions we hope to help you answer in this training.

1. What are the requirements to complete this training?
2. What do I need to know about the Teacher Support System Mentoring Program and what are my responsibilities?
3. Why is mentoring important?
4. How do I select the best mentor for my new teachers?
5. What can and should I do to support new teachers in my building?

Please feel free to contact me at any time with any other questions, concerns or ideas you have about this program or how you can help new teachers and mentors in your building.

Erin Jacobson, Teacher Support System Coordinator
Education Standards and Practices Board 
ecjacobson@nd.gov
701-328-9644

Question One - What are the requirements to complete this training?

This is a one-time training you must complete in order for your school to participate in the Teacher Support System (TSS). Once you’ve completed it, we’ll have a record of your participation and you will be all set to provide mentors for your first-year teachers from then on.

After working your way through this blog, you will need to send me an email that includes answers to the following questions:

1. How closely do the mentors you have chosen for the first-year teachers in your building fit the guidelines for selecting a mentor?
2. Do you have any concerns about how you will meet the requirements of the Teacher Support System program?
3. Does your building presently have a culture that is supportive of new teachers? If so, what are the characteristics that make it so? If not, what can you as the building leader do to make it a better place for new teachers to work?
4. What are your personal plans for how you will support the new teachers in your building?

Please complete the activities, answer the questions and send the email by Friday, October 5, 2018 to this address: ecjacobson@nd.gov

Question Two: What do I need to know about the Teacher Support System (TSS) and what are my responsibilities?

The following is a list of major players in the Teacher Support System (TSS) mentoring program and their titles:

• State TSS Coordinator: Erin Jacobson ecjacobson@nd.gov 701.328.9644
• TSS Coordinator Assistant: Marijke Leibel mleibel@nd.gov  701.328.9648 
• Building Administrator: Usually the principal of the building where the first-year teacher (and usually the mentor teacher as well) work. In some cases it may be the superintendent or the special education director.
• Mentor teacher: This person must complete ESPB approved training and will work directly with the first-year teacher to provide support and to help improve instructional skills.
• First-year Teacher: As you are no doubt already aware, only teachers who are in their first year under contract can be mentored under this program.

PLEASE CLICK on this line to read everyone's responsibilities in the program.  

As the building administrator, you have a significant role to play in the Teacher Support System (TSS) mentoring program. Your responsibilities include:

1. Participation in this one-time training 
2. You are responsible for selecting the best mentor for your first-year teachers. 
3. You are responsible for supporting the work of the first-year teacher and the mentor in your building. This means providing them with the resources necessary for their success, including time to work together. Please see the section below on “What can and should I do to support new teachers in my building?”
4. You are responsible for communicating to the Teacher Support System (TSS) coordinator (Erin Jacobson) if you feel a mentor partnership in your building is not working. The TSS coordinator will then follow up with you, the mentor and the first-year teacher to see what needs to be done to provide needed support for the new teacher. It is important to understand that once in a while a partnership just does not work and it’s no one’s fault. On the other hand, sometimes adjustments can be made to remedy a situation. The TSS coordinator will work with everyone involved to ensure that the new teacher receives the necessary support to continue to improve his/her teaching. Mentors and first-year teachers are also encouraged to communicate with the TSS coordinator if needed.
5. You are responsible for signing off on documentation from the mentor and first-year teacher showing they have met all of their requirements. This documentation will be sent on to the State Coordinator, who will provide payment to the mentor. 

Collection of Documentation

All forms necessary for the Teacher Support System (TSS) Mentoring Program are available online at the Education Standards and Practices website at https://www.nd.gov/espb/resources-mentoring-program-1.  Please bookmark this page for future reference.

At the end of each semester you will need to verify that the mentor and mentee have completed all requirements in order for the new teacher to receive the university credit and the mentor to receive the stipend. These are the forms the teachers will need your signature on:

• SFN 59279 Record of Observation and Videotape Time--Fall Semester
• SFN 60347 Record of Observation and Videotape Time--Spring Semester
• SFN 59233 Request for Payment of Mentor Stipend (The mentor will fill this out and you will verify it. It will be sent in so the mentor can receive the stipend.)

Please go to the website https://www.nd.gov/espb/resources-mentoring-program-1 and look over these forms now so you are familiar with your responsibilities.

Please Note: It will be important for you to complete these responsibilities within one week of receiving the forms in order for the mentor and mentee to receive proper credit for their work.

One-on-One First-year Teacher/Mentor Conferencing requirement

The heart of the Mentoring Program is the 30 hours of required conferencing time for mentors and first-year teachers to meet and work together.  Please take a look at the Conference Log (link below) that will be used to guide and record what happens during those meetings.  NOTE:  Conferences of 40 min. to one hour are considered to be one hour.  Shorter meetings can be added together an hour and long meetings can be counted as more than one hour if appropriate. 

The meetings will follow a protocol that will take the teachers through a cycle that includes Reflection, Focus, Possibilities and Planning to be followed by Implementation during the time before the next meeting.  The teachers will also identify the professional competencies they are working on, using whatever standards of good teaching your district is using for your teacher evaluation system. The intention is that this protocol will allow teachers to make the best use of their time together and to make sure their meetings are productive in improving the competence of the new teacher.  Mentors will be trained in the use of this protocol during their Mentor Training sessions. 

You will not have access to see these completed Conference Logs, as will be explained in "The very important firewall" section below.


These one-on-one conferences are to be in addition to what you are already paying teachers to do.  For example, if your school provides PLC time or grade level meeting time, those hours would not count toward the one-on-one conference requirement since that time is what your school is already providing for all teachers.


Here's the link to a blank Conference Log on the ESPB website:

Conference Log

Requirements for release time for mentors and mentees to do observations.

In applying to be part of the Teacher Support System (TSS) Mentoring Program, your district agreed to provide a total of two days of release time each semester for the mentor and the first-year to teacher to share for observing each other and/or other teachers. The district has agreed to pay for the substitutes for this required activity. The TSS does not pay any travel costs for observations.

1. Mentors must observe mentees teaching 6 times per year in September, October, November, January, March, and April.
2. First-year teachers must record themselves teaching and discuss this with their mentors in October and February. 
3. First-year teachers must spend a minimum of 9 hours per year (6 by January 15, 3 during the second half of the year) observing other teachers (possibly including the mentor). 

Mentor Seminars

The Teacher Support System will be holding a half-day seminar for mentors in the fall. These seminars will be held regionally in the state and participation will be required, so you will be expected to support your mentors' attendance at the seminar. The Teacher Support System (TSS) project will pay for travel expenses.  Your district will cover costs of substitutes.  Mentors will also participate in online training later in the year.

Substitute Coverage

We do understand the difficulty of taking teachers out of their classrooms to do this work. Outside of the initial mentor training, the total amount of substitute coverage you can expect your mentors and first-year teachers to need will be the total of two days of shared coverage for observations each semester and the one-half day fall seminar for the mentor.

Mentor Compensation

Mentors will receive a stipend of $800 and Advanced Mentors will receive a stipend of $900 per semester for meeting all of the requirements of the TSS program and first-year teachers will have the opportunity to earn two credits for their participation. These are offered to compensate for the time outside of the school day that will be needed for either the mentoring activities themselves or to make up for the class planning and preparation time that was missed during the school day because of mentoring activities.

Triad Meetings (First-year teacher/Mentor/Principal)

Early on, it will be important to meet with the mentor and the first-year teacher so you all have the chance to discuss, ask questions and make sure everyone has the same understanding of the goals and requirements of the work they’ll be doing in the program. It is important for both the mentor and the first-year teacher to feel your support for their work.  The mentor will contact you to set this up and will have a protocol to use for this meeting.  You could meet with all mentors and mentees in your building at one time for this fall meeting.


You will have a separate follow-up meeting at midpoint in the year to touch base with each pair.  The mentor will arrange this.  These mid-year meetings should be held with just one mentor-mentee pair at a time so you can discuss individual information.

The very important "firewall"

It's very important that you watch this to learn about how the firewall works in our program!

Please click below to watch this important video.

Click below on the word "TRUST" and then click on the play button.  Be sure your speakers are turned up. Be patient while it starts. 

TRUST

If you have questions about the firewall or if the link does not work for you, please contact us at 701.328.9644 or ecjacobson@nd.gov.

Question Three-- Why is mentoring important?

Research has shown over and over again that providing mentoring for your new teachers is an important part of helping them be successful in supporting the learning of the students in your school. Below is a list of what mentoring can provide. (This list was provided in the Guidelines for Mentoring Teacher Programs for Beginning and Experienced Teachers from the Virginia Department of Education.)

• Retaining quality teachers

• Improving beginning teachers’ skills and performance

• Supporting teacher morale, communications and collegiality

• Building a sense of professionalism, positive attitude

• Facilitating a seamless transition into the first year of teaching

• Putting theory into practice

• Preventing teacher isolation

• Building self-reflection


The ACE Mentor Program at the University of Notre Dame has collected research that supports the use of mentoring.  According to their research, strong mentors:

• cut new teacher attrition rates in half (Ingersoll, 2000) 
• improve teacher quality - often moving the skill level of a teacher finishing the first year to that of a 4th year teacher (Villar, 2004)  (Wow!)
• improve student assessment and achievement (Claycolmb and Hawley, 2003) 
• benefit veteran teachers through new leadership opportunities and time for professional reflection and development (Villar, 2004)

Teacher Retention Statistics

78% of first-year teachers in North Dakota, who participated in our program in 2010 were still teaching in the state in their 8th year of teaching in 2017-18.

A concern that some North Dakota districts have is that some teachers leave the district in which they were originally hired. They might want to consider this quote from Harry Wong,
“It is far better to train your new teachers and lose them, than not to train them and keep them!”

Double barrier to assistance

As you can see from the illustration here, there are two things that get in the way of new teachers getting the information and support that they need. The first is that they are hesitant to ask for what they need; they don’t want to appear to be “stupid” or ill-prepared and they don’t want to “bother” the more experienced teachers. On the other side of the barrier is the experienced teacher, who doesn’t want to look like a know-it-all or to appear to be “nosey” and interfering with the new teacher’s work. Acknowledging these natural hesitations and creating an “official” mentoring relationship breaks down the barrier and allows both people to talk about what needs to be discussed.

In the end, we really have to ask ourselves why in the world we would hire new teachers and then not provide them with support. It is unreasonable to expect brand new teachers to step right in with all the skills and understanding of both teaching and of the culture of our particular schools and communities that they need in order to be successful in helping our kids learn. We must all work together to develop the kinds of teachers we want our kids to have!

Question Four -- How do I select the best mentor for my new teachers?

(We understand that selection of mentors has already taken place for most of you, but this information is still very important for your work in the program.)

One of the most important decisions you will make is who to choose to serve as the mentor for your new teacher. Please read this article about what makes a good mentor.  I think you'll find this article to be very insightful.

A Mentor Is...

A really important understanding for you to have is that the best classroom teachers sometimes DO NOT make the best mentors. 

Question Five--What can and should I do to support new teachers in my building?

It’s beneficial to understand the phases that new teachers go through in the course of their first year of teaching. Ellen Moir of the New Teacher Center in Santa Cruz, CA has created a graph of what first-year teaching often looks like. Click on the picture above to enlarge it.

Please read this article where Ms. Moir explains the different stages … I think it will give you great insight into what’s happening with your new teachers … and it will probably bring back some memories from your own early experiences.

Phases for First-Year Teaching by Ellen Moir

Now please take a few minutes to think about where the new teachers in your building are at the present time and what kinds of things you might do to support them in this phase.