So what can you do?

Please read the following list for some good suggestions.

Here is a link to a list of topics that new teachers need to know about in your school.  This list was put together by a group of principals in the ND South East Education Cooperative.  It might be helpful for you in preparing to meet with your new teachers at the beginning of the year.

http://www.ndseec.com/education/components/docmgr/default.php?sectiondetailid=990&fileitem=495&catfilter=ALL

Here is another link, this one to a calendar of suggestions for supporting your new teachers during each month of the school year. It contains suggestions for both building administrators and mentors. We’ll be sharing this list with your mentors and your first-year teachers, also.

Monthly Mentoring Ideas

Another interesting resource can be found at

The Vital Role of the Principal in New Teacher Induction

This is a volume of the New Teacher Center's Reflections newsletter devoted to The Vital Role of the Principal in Teacher Induction.  Other articles include Convergent Coaching, A Theory of Action for Coaching-Based Supervision, The Principal:  A Key to Beginning Teacher Success, and A Culture of Collaboration.

One of the most worthwhile things you can do for your mentor pairs is to provide them with schedules that allow them time to communicate and work together.

Two kinds of support that new teachers require are psychological and instruction-related (Gold 1996). We all know that good collaboration takes time … and unless the mentor and new teacher have time to work together, it’s unlikely that the relationship will actually be much more than a buddy system … and we won’t see the kinds of improvement in instructional skills that we would like to see. As much as possible, when you are doing planning for a new school year, try to support your first-year teachers by scheduling shared lunch hours or preparation time with their mentors.