New Teacher Mentoring - Creating a New Teacher Support Plan
By Dorit Sasson

The teachers who graduated with me left teaching right after their first year. They complained of a lack of new teacher support and difficult teaching conditions. I believe that if they had the right teacher mentorship, guidance and proper support, they might have reconsidered their teaching posts and might have stayed on in their teaching careers.

Teacher mentorship is one way to foster a feeling of support. I have seen too many times teachers walking out of classrooms feeling isolated and alone because they feel they need to show the system that they can manage a class. While this is true on one hand, it does not mean that you are not allowed to receive support and guidance. In fact, it is necessary right for first year teachers - full stop!

Teacher mentorship is an active approach. The rationale is that through observing a teacher, a teacher acts as a shadow, observes and sees what works and what doesn't for his/her lessons and can take good and helpful things. It is preferable to write down what works and what doesn't. You will see that over a period of time, you will have already acquired another set of teacher eyes for difficult classroom situations that you will unexpectedly encounter There is nothing better than feeling you can handle a class all on your own.

Like many new teachers, I had to sink or swim, but, I refused to give in to the isolation and loneliness. It is hard to ask for help especially for a new teacher who is expected to take charge of his/her class in a relatively short period of time, but it can and should be done.

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