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Home > Archive > Aug 2, 2007

Mentoring Program Keeps an ‘EYE’ on New Teachers
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
About three years ago, the Washington County School District decided it was out with the old and in with the new when it came to supporting and training new teachers. The EYE (Entry Years Enhancement) program was subsequently born, and through that program, mentors are now being provided to first-year teachers, giving them a lifeline and a support system where formerly there were very few resources to help them get through those rough first years of teaching.
“What sets Washington County apart from other districts who have a lot more money than we do, nationally and across the state, is that we have a commitment and a structure for job-embedded professional development,” Robert Proffit, professional development coordinator for Washington County School District said. “With what we know now, going back to the old way would be educational malpractice.”
In the past, a mentoring program for teachers existed in Washington County, but it wasn't adequate to meet the needs of new instructors, Proffit said. Though they may have been well trained in college, new teachers often feel around blindly when it comes to taking over their own classrooms. Despite everything they've been taught, facing a classroom full of kids (or multiple classrooms for secondary teachers) is a daunting task for newly hatched educators.
“You'll hear this from a lot of teachers in our district,” Proffit said, “but when I first started teaching, they gave me a mentor and said, 'If you have any questions, go ask her.' And you go to them, and they say, 'How are things going?' and you say, 'Oh, not too well,' and they say, 'Well, just hang in there. It'll get better.' And that was the extent of it, really, because there wasn't any support for that mentor. She was a great person, a great friend, but she didn't know what to do with me, and she didn't have the time for it. She had her own classroom.”
Departing from that informal approach to teacher mentoring, wherein new teachers were simply introduced to a fellow staff member to whom they could go if they had a problem, the EYE program provides dedicated mentors who are actively involved in helping new teachers. Known as staff developers, these mentors are appointed in each school on a full or part-time basis, depending on how many new teachers there are in the school. Part-time staff developers still carry several classes at their sites in addition to mentoring new teachers.
“The criteria to be a staff developer is that you have to be a dynamic teacher, a master teacher,” Mike Grisenti, EYE coordinator for the school district said. “We're taking mentoring even to a further level than just being a building buddy.”
The first two weeks of the school year are critical for teachers, Proffit said, because in those two weeks, teachers either gain or lose the control, respect and interest of their students. But for brand new teachers, who in the past have been essentially thrown into their classrooms with no one to turn to for advice and support, getting control of the classroom is just one concern on a very long list.
“Teaching is as difficult as brain surgery,” Proffit said. “You have so many different variables. You have so many different things going on, and it's a lifetime pursuit to get to the point where you master it.”
Many new teachers get frustrated in their early years of teaching, he said, but with WCSD's EYE program, some of the obstacles they face are becoming less mountainous.
Staff developers have at least one weekly contact with the teachers, Proffit said, and more if it is needed. They don't simply wait passively for teachers to come to them with problems; they are actively in the classrooms with the teachers, observing, coaching, helping them set goals and connecting them with other educators when specific advice is needed. Staff developers will even take over a new teacher's classroom for a period if that teacher is getting overwhelmed, and they will also mind the classroom so a new teacher can go observe the teaching of another educator.
Staff developers are often veteran educators, Grisenti said, so they're in positions to help and advise new teachers regarding everything from lesson plan development to teaching more effectively and engaging students.
“We haven't made an attempt to hide our weaknesses,” Proffit said. “We know that this was rough. When we started out with this program, it was a big change, so there's a lot of learning. We made a lot of mistakes early on, but we're good at learning from our mistakes.”
Each year, the EYE program has been working out the kinks and becoming more effective, he said. Every year, teachers in the EYE program are surveyed, the program's effectiveness is evaluated and subsequent changes are made, and the progress has been encouraging.
“Every year, those survey results from our new teachers have gotten better and better,” Proffit said, “to the tune of a 32 percent increase in one of our areas of concern.”
“That leads to a decrease in attrition, an increase in job satisfaction, and an increase in student achievement,” Grisenti said.
It's important to note that in the EYE program, a definite line is drawn between coaching and evaluating, Proffit said. Mentors in no way set out to evaluate the teachers they work with; they are simply there to support, encourage and help. Staff developers, for example, will not disclose information to school principals about what they have observed in a teacher's classroom; everything is kept confidential between the mentor and teacher.
“The purpose of our program, really, is to increase student achievement by increasing quality mentoring. And in the process, you end up keeping a lot more teachers,” Proffit said. “One of the resistances we had early on is principals were saying, 'I don't want to pull this great teacher from the classroom. I want them teaching kids.' And our answer is, 'Do you want to create more teachers like that? Then put them in a position where they can influence other teachers.'”
The bottom line of it all, he said, is helping the teachers and, thereby, helping the students.

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