The Why, How, and What of Mentoring

Abstract

Based on his own experience mentoring a new teacher, Mr. Trubowitz offers valuable tips for those considering entering into this challenging and mutually enriching relationship. THE PRACTICE of mentoring new teachers is spreading widely. School systems are finding that beginning teachers who have access to intensive mentoring are less likely to leave teaching. With the growing acceptance of the need to mentor novice teachers comes the danger that schools will attempt to implement mentor programs without paying adequate attention to the factors that create mentor/mentee relationships that provide growth and satisfaction for both participants. Simply bringing two adults together is no guarantee of success. If the mentor/mentee relationship is to be productive, the following questions will need to be addressed. How Do People Become Mentors? The way in which someone becomes a mentor influences how that person will work with a mentee. If administrators pressure an experienced teacher into working with a novice, the likelihood that resentment will taint the relationship is high. If individuals become mentors because they see honor and prestige coming from the role, the interests of the new teacher may not be well served. If a mentor is selected to fix a problem teacher or to help implement district office directives, the road to professional development may be a rocky one. Applying rigid criteria to mentor selection may result in a limited approach to new teacher development. For example, it is often recommended that districts require mentors to be either currently teaching or only recently retired. The assumption is that only someone familiar with the system in which the novice is teaching can be of help. Mentors may find it valuable to have direct experience in the mentee's environment or one that is similar. However, there may be a downside for the novice teacher's professional development if a mentor who has experience in only one or two schools adheres to the status quo, focusing on survival skills and eschewing innovation. This approach to mentoring will merely reproduce existing practices rather than move toward positive change. People with broad backgrounds, who are unaware of existing bureaucratic strictures, may make suggestions free from traditional thinking. I was rejected as a mentor for new principals because I had not been a school administrator in recent years, even though I had been both a principal and a professor of educational administration. Despite the fact that for over 20 years I had been the director of the Queens College collaboration with the Louis Armstrong Middle School in Queens, New York, and that part of my role was to serve as a counselor to the school's principal, the district chose to go with recent experience. However, I was allowed to mentor a new teacher, even though I had been retired longer than the three-year limit imposed on mentors, because district personnel familiar with work I had done for them on other occasions chose to make an exception. The task of mentor selection goes beyond simply taking inventory of such desirable mentor characteristics as being professional, positive, collegial, responsive, supportive, empathic, and nonjudgmental. Unless these qualities are applied to the relationship in a sensitive and imaginative manner, they mean nothing. Districts need to identify people of maturity, insight, experience, and interest to guide newcomers on their path to professionalism. And mentors need programs to prepare them, so that they don't get caught up in jargon, don't use mentoring to gratify personal needs, and don't view mentoring as a simplistic, mechanical process. What Are the First Steps? When working with a new teacher, the mentor's first task is to read the mentee. For many new teachers, the immediate goal will be survival. In these cases, the mentor needs to provide specific suggestions, to focus on minimal norms of expected behavior, and to discuss how to handle the first day and the first week. …