Areas in which first year teachers indicated they need further assistance

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Areas in which first year teachers indicated they need further assistance by Mind Map: Areas in which first year teachers indicated they need further assistance

1. Explain who she (as itinerant Student Services staff) needs to know in each building and what their roles are. Encourage collaboration between certain individuals in each building in order to be more efficient/successful.

2. Number things including coat hooks, cubbies, bulletin board spaces and then assign class numbers to students. It will allow you to reuse materials from year to year instead of starting from scratch and writing names.

3. Providing examples of ways to help solve behavior problems in their classroom. Offering different ways of individualized behavior plans and suggestions to use. This then goes hand in hand with parent communication.

4. My mentee is still finding herself and her demeanor with her students. She is trying to balance being nice and approachable, while also holding her students accountable and to expectations. We are planning on doing another school-based observation, and will continue to talk about this balance together.

4.1. My mentee and I connect on a daily basis and give each other feedback. At times "I have found that him giving me feedback on my instruction and analyzing our procedures and approaches helps him improve on his own while also increasing his confidence. I also try to have things prepared well in advance so that I can show him what is coming down the pike, be it doc logs, IEP assessments, grading comments or school events.

5. special education procedures

5.1. For social workers, have them shadow you in a home visit. Also, offer to edit the first social history reports they write and give feedback.

5.2. Share your organizational tips for maintaining files and keeping track of due dates and important information.

5.3. Share my "special ed" binder that I created that contains a wealth of information from procedures, definitions, suggested strategies, forms, etc

5.4. Continue to check in before upcoming IEP meetings to make sure my mentee doesn't have any questions and feels prepared

5.5. In addition to special ed it is important to go over policies and accommodations for HILT and other second language learners. This was new to my mentee and tips were important here

5.6. Co-write the first IEP of the year together. Review the meeting process and share how to write an agenda and keep a meeting on track. Also work to report progress together after the first quarter closes.

6. sounding board

6.1. EX: continue to provide weekly checkins

6.2. I am still meeting with my mentee weekly since she started the school year late. I keep notes about what we talk about so I can check back with her later in the week. Our classrooms are close together so it is easy to pop in before or after school to see how a meeting went or how her day was. I tell her to stop by my room if she has a questionor wants to talk during the week.

6.3. I also still meet with my mentee weekly and it continues to be a great time for her to ask questions and me to let her know about upcoming deadlines/events/procedures.

6.4. Being a sounding board has been so crucial for my mentee. We still meet weekly sometimes more, and it's a great time for her to reflect on how things went, or get feedback on plans she has, and other questions about random things like school culture.

6.5. Schedule an informal get together outside of school so that my mentee can discuss topics of her choice

6.6. My mentee will ask me to review more sensitive e-mails to parents so I can assist with wording. We discuss how to handle complex social, emotional and academic issues students may be having and why certain lessons run better than others.

6.7. In order to be a sounding board for my two mentees, it has been imperative to keep an open line of communication and balance. We continue to meet regularly once a month, and then on an as needed basis, especially as the school year has progressed. We are now at a place where we are reflecting on who they are as teachers, as they continue to craft and define their teaching. We touch base on communication- emails, evaluations, teacher-teacher interactions, etc. I also address their needs of what they want to work on or discuss next so that they feel as they are continuing to grow and learn.

7. school procedures:

7.1. Explain the procedures as needed, giving examples from previous experience. Provide guidance with contact persons names who can help in the field that she needs assistance. highlight the steps in the handbook. keep her informed with what is happening around the school and administrative meetings.

7.2. Stay available by email or text for quick questions

7.3. Will stop in often to make sure that my mentee is doing fine with the various procedures as grade input at the end of the quarter, overall grade calculations (especially since we need to calculate it two different ways) and help with the upcoming senior experience program at WL.

7.4. Stay ahead of schedule by informing my mentee of end of year procedures well in advance so she feels prepared

7.5. I made sure to go through the staff handbook with my mentee. We didn't read every line, but glanced through the topics and addressed any questions he had. We also had a rolling, informal "Q&A" on the unwritten rules of the building, which are often equally if not more important than what's in the handbook.

7.6. Meet with my mentee to talk about all of the end of the year procedures. I'll share my lengthy "to do" list with her.

7.7. A few years ago, we had many new teachers, so several veteran teachers decided to offer new hire orientation throughout the year. These 30 minute sessions occurred before big things (e.g., Back to School Night, report cards, parent-teacher conferences). Sometimes the teachers running the group provided information, sometimes others were invited to do so (Math Coach, E/H teacher, etc.). It was very useful to the new teachers. I think it could be recreated on a smaller scale, maybe by teaming up with other mentor/mentee pairs so that multiple perspectives can be provided.

8. The gift of time to plan is instructional support. I would remind and strongly urge my mentee to utilize the two professional leave days alotted for a first year teacher if they have not done so already

8.1. Keep referring back to county/state documents including scope and blueprints. Many wonderful links and lessons including VDOE lessons.

8.2. Especially useful for modified materials: provide mentee with a template that she can then adapt for her own purposes. Much better than constantly reinventing the wheel.

8.3. Review standards with my mentee and choose areas that we feel our students need to review. We can then co-plan activities that will help meet the students' needs.

9. Classroom routine and schedule

10. classroom management

10.1. have an award system for classes and at the end of every quarter, give that class a prize. They can gain "stars" for behavior, Also, have children sit in same seats so it's easier to get to know names. Discuss management problems regularly and problem solve on each issue.

10.2. Provide suggestions on how to keep the classroom routines as consistent as possible with the end of year activities and assessments that take place.

10.3. Offer to make parent phone calls or sit with mentee while he or she makes the calls. Do an observation and give feedback or ask questions about the reasoning behind certain decisions.

10.4. For Mentees who departmentalize and share students with other classroom teachers, I would encourage them to come up with a management plan that is either the same as, or complements, the management plans of their team mates. It makes it less confusing for the students if procedures and award systems are the same across classrooms.

10.5. Have clear objectives displayed on the board or chart paper; make students aware of the objectives (creates purpose for learning and helps maintain focus). Refer to objectives throughout the lesson (check-ins). Plan for 'more' not 'less' so students stay engaged and busy throughout the lesson. Plan for extension activities (what do I do when I'm finished).

10.6. Provide additional visuals for students to make transitions and communicate their wants and needs.

10.7. It is also important to establish rules when students are in groups and/or collaborating. May issues can come up with kids working together away from the eye of the teacher.

11. teacher evaluation

11.1. EX: provide time to look over mentee's document log

11.2. share an example of a document log (either your own from last year, or find someone in your mentee's content area who is willing to let your mentee take a look)

11.3. I have my completed teacher evaluations for the past three years that I would share with my mentee. I stress to work smarter not harder and would assist them in finding already created materials that would meet each standard.

11.4. I suggested a goal that had been used and applied to the work we do and didn't require unrelated work

11.5. I helped set up folders in my mentee's Google Drive and have suggested he file things into them as we have discussed things.

11.6. After a recent staff meeting detailing the teacher evaluation scheme, I set up a meeting with my mentee to review his portfolio.

11.7. I have shared my documentation log from the past few years with my mentee. We also have a meeting set up so that I can help her get started on hers.

11.8. Share ideas of what I am including in my document log since my mentee and I are co-teaching. We may be able to use similar materials.

11.9. I plan to share my past document logs with my mentee. I think that will start a conversation about what both of us can include in this year's log. This will help both of us!

11.10. I worked with my mentee on my document log and we taught the same lesson and were able to talk about what went well and what didn't.

11.11. I went through the Teacher Evaluation book with my mentee and highlighted important pages. The, I showed her my old evaluation folders and showed her where to find them on our shared drive. This way, my mentee has an idea of the formatting and depth needed for each strand.

11.12. Share examples of document logs from other teachers (there are some on the APS site that can be used as models). Also give the mentee several examples of what kinds of things/document would best fit into each standard.

12. classroom management

13. Special Education

13.1. Being a special education teacher has its own challenges in itself. Just taking the time to observe each student on your caseload and collect data on IEP goals can be so time consuming, confusing and exhausting! I tried to encourage my mentee to set weekly routines of following through with all of his special education tasks that week including seeing students, IEP or re-evaluation meetings, checking in with parents and checking students' grades online. This was helpful for him to get in a routine of when to do what. I did also share my system of organization and help put together one of his own. This way, no matter what room he is in or what teacher he is working with, he has access to important paperwork we use to write IEPs, his parent contacts, his IEP documentation log..etc. I think both of those were useful in tackling all that sped paperwork!

13.2. I've provided continuous support to my mentee regarding co-teaching, planning for students diverse needs, and keeping track of IEP progress.

13.3. Through the year I've helped with several special accommodation clarifications since there are times when things can be vague (e.g. extended time) just to give a rule of thumb to work off of in the future.

13.4. I will continue to review IEPs with my mentee before her meetings. We have also spent some time discussing which trainings might be helpful for her to go to this summer to support instruction for next year. I will make more of an effort to help my mentee find a system to keep track of due dates.