Adam M. Ingano is the Coordinator of New Teacher Mentoring at Clinton Public Schools.
Many districts use the great reflection assignment for their final meeting of the year concerning a new hire writing a letter to next year’s group or a future version of themselves. This assignment is so rich with possibilities in its paper form, imagine how much more it can do “live”.
Over the past several years Clinton has used the previous year’s new hires to come and be part of the district orientation. In many cases these “no longer that new” hires love sharing a brief word about the problems that the new hires will face and about the opportunities for growth along the way. One new hire in particular, Meaghan, had some difficulty during her first year, but by the start of the next year she was doing very well. Meaghan said, “After college, I worked as a dental hygienist for 12 years. I came into teaching with zero formal education regarding how to teach or how to manage a classroom. It was something I had to do wrong, in order to figure out how to do it right.”
Her classroom started out having all the charm of a doctor’s office waiting room, but throughout the course of the year transformed into a shining example of what engagement can look like. Meaghan said, “When Adam was my mentor, he always encouraged me to have as much information readily available for the students to use. He said this would reduce student anxiety and eliminate the non-stop question such as ‘What are we doing today?’ or “What was homework? ’”.
She had created a space that easily showcased student work, displayed the objectives, welcomed students and encouraged learning. Meaghan said, “These areas not only provided valuable information for the students but also gave me an opportunity to showcase my personality. Students now often say my room is so fun.”
She allowed the next year’s mentoring cohort to come and tour her room. Meaghan talked not only about her classroom, but the mistakes that helped her to create such a space. Over the course of the next week several teachers from different grade levels reached out to Meaghan with their own questions and she willingly answered all of them. Meaghan said, “Even now teachers come to me and ask if I would be willing to help them organize their classrooms.”
This story reminds us all that not only can mentoring guide teachers to success but it can also empower them to become leaders.