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Hello, my name is Anna Thaler Petersen, and
I’m the fieldwork coordinator for the
Secondary Education Program at Humboldt
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State University. This presentation will provide
you with information regarding what’s
involved in being a mentor teacher for our
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program, as well as for the Elementary and
Special Education programs at Humboldt
State. By the conclusion of this presentation,
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you’ll be able to identify the roles, behaviors,
attitudes, and skills of an effective mentor.
Before we get into the thick of things, take a
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moment to think back to your own student
teaching experience. It is, after all, how we all
learn how to teach. What was your mentor
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like? What did they do that was helpful? What
did they do that challenged you? And in the
years since what have you learned?
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There are five areas in which mentor teachers
have responsibilities to their student
teachers.
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1. The relationship
2. The school site
3. Preparing to teach
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4. The university supervisor
5. And with regard to HSU
It’s the mentor’s responsibility to establish a
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positive professional relationship with the
student teacher. They’ll need support and
guidance during their transition from student
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to teacher. Mentors need to watch their
student teachers’ interactions with students,
parents, and colleagues, and provide
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feedback about how they’re doing with those
members of the school community. Student
teachers will be doing solo teaching during
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their year in the credential program- they’ll
need their mentor’s help to prepare, present
and assess the lessons they teach. They’ll
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also need to learn by watching, so mentors
need to serve as a model of excellent
teaching and professionalism.
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At the school site, student teachers will rely
on mentors to orient them to the layout and
rules, to provide them some space in the
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classroom, and to introduce them around to
other teachers and school site personnel.
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The student teacher will start the year just
observing in the classroom, but they’ll need
their mentors’ help in transitioning into
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greater involvement with students. Assign
them one-on-one work to start, then some
small group work, before asking them (when
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appropriate) to run a mini-lesson or activity.
Set aside time for talking with them, share
strategies for planning and classroom
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management. Make sure that any
assessment of their progress that you’re
involved in is completed in a timely manner,
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and, at the end of the year when they’re ready
to begin the job search, write them a letter of
recommendation and help them through the
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search process.
The university supervisor is the link between
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the public school site and the Education and
Credentialing Office. The mentor’s
responsibility to the supervisor is to inform
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and update them about the student teacher’s
progress, and to provide a mutually
convenient time for conferences with the
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supervisor. Since the mentor sees the
everyday work of the student teacher, it’s their
responsibility to document that and share
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with the supervisor and student teacher on a
regular basis. For the most part, the
supervisor will be in touch with Humboldt
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State about anything going on with student
teachers, but we do ask that mentors attend
university-sponsored in-services, complete
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evaluation forms promptly, and inform the
Fieldwork Coordinator if there are issues not
being satisfactorily resolved with the
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university supervisor.
The California Commission on Teacher
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Credentialing requires that mentor teachers
be certified and experienced in teaching the
subject or subjects of the class where the
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student teacher is placed. Mentors must be
trained in supervision, and be evaluated,
recognized, and rewarded by the institution
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with which they are affiliated.
Humboldt State’s School of Education
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requires that mentors have a minimum of
three years of successful teaching experience
in the subject area(s) in which they’re
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mentoring. They must have tenure in the
school district where they teach. They need to
effectively model instructional and classroom
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management strategies with student
teachers, and give them feedback. They need
to communicate effectively, and commit to
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providing support for student teachers
throughout the year.
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The credential programs select mentor
teachers from those who meet the CCTC and
HSU requirements, and who model the six
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California Standards for the Teaching
Profession. Mentors for our programs have
English Language Development (ELD)
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certificates, model effective ELD strategies,
commit to professional development in
mentoring, and (for Elementary and
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Secondary Education Programs) fill out and
return a Mentor Teacher Service Agreement—
available on our website. In making matches
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between student teachers and mentors,
consideration is given to geographical
preferences, personalities, and similarity of
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teaching styles and philosophies.
I’m going to talk now for a bit about best
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practices in mentoring. A lot of this (as in most
professional relationships) depends on
effective communication, so I’m going to
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spend some time talking about good
mentoring communication styles.
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It’s useful in providing feedback to student
teachers to speak about your observations in
evidence-based language. Opinions are
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valuable too, but in talking about the student
teachers first attempts at teaching, feedback
based just on what you’re seeing is most
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valuable to them.
Here is an example of what I’m talking about
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–when your student teacher is teaching you
see a group of boys at a table in the back of
the classroom talking quite a bit during class
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work time. There are two ways to talk about
that with your student teacher—using opinion
as your starting point, or using evidence and
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neutral observation language.
The benefit of neutral observation language is
that there is often more than one way to
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interpret what goes on in a classroom,
depending on the classroom set up and the
teachers’ style. You can provide the most
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support and help to your student teacher by
respecting their approach and offering
evidence-based language in your
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observations.
Be careful about these conversational styles.
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Your conversations with your student teacher
will be of most benefit to them if you refrain
from talking about yourself too much, set
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aside the need to know all the details about
everything, refrain from too much comforting,
and feel ok with not “fixing” everything. Not
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every situation has a neat and tidy solution—
and even if it does, sometimes student
teachers need to learn that for themselves.
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Paraphrasing is a great strategy for talking
with student teachers about their progress.
It’s a strategy that requires listening,
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capturing the intent of the message, and
restating what you’ve heard. It’s validating for
the student teacher to hear that you’ve
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listened to them, and allows them a chance
to reflect on their experience by hearing their
words echoed in someone else’s
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perspective.
Here are some examples of sentence
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starters that can be used in healthy mentoring
conversations – acknowledging, restating,
summarizing, and shifting focus to the next
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step of establishing goals for improvement.
The opportunity for reflection that your effective
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mentoring provides for our student teachers
is tremendously valuable in their
development as educators. They’re much
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more able to explore their practice as it’s
developing, and be in control of their own
learning throughout the credential program
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experience.
Some student teachers require more help
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than others during their credential program
year. Here is a list of some teaching issues
that can be indicators of a need for increased
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support.
If they’re often verbalizing concerns and
anxiety about their abilities and faults.
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If they have trouble reflecting on their
strengths and weaknesses.
If they have a hard time with timing.
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If they show an inability to conduct lessons or
seem frequently unprepared.
And if they have multiple issues with behavior
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management.
And here are some issues with
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professionalism that can mean your student
teacher needs some extra guidance:
If they have issues with punctuality and
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attendance.
If they disregard students’ safety at school
If their personality seems ill-adapted for
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teaching – showing a lack of tolerance,
inappropriate language, disrespect toward
you as their mentor, and poor communication
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skills.
If they fail to use good confidentiality
practices.
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If you develop concerns about your student
teachers’ progress, there is a sequence of
steps to take in order to get them some extra
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support and structure.
1. Talk with your student teacher—share your
observations about their strengths, and areas
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in which they could improve.
2. Document your conversations.
3. Share your concerns, and the
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documentation that you’ve talked with your
student teacher, with their supervisor.
4. Arrange for their supervisor to observe, to
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see if they share your concerns.
5. Discuss the concerns with the supervisor
confidentially to see what they’ve noticed.
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6.Have a meeting with both the supervisor
and student teacher to document your shared
observations about their strengths, and areas
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for growth.
7. Write specific goals for the student teacher,
connecting them to the Teacher Performance
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Expectations.
8. Review any upcoming fieldwork
assessments to emphasize the need for
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them to meet those criteria by the date of the
assessment.
9. If the criteria aren’t met by that date, then a
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Performance improvement Plan should be
put into place.
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A performance improvement plan is a contract
put into place when goals for improvement
are not met in order to promote student
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teacher growth. The PIP documents unmet
goals, and includes a timeline for meeting
them. I’m going to take a moment to show
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you a sample PIP so you have an idea of what
they’re like…
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You can see here that it describes the history
of attempts to assist the student teacher in
meeting the goals necessary to begin his
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solo student teaching. The student teacher,
mentor, and supervisor have agreed on
conditions that he must meet before earning
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university credit for his fieldwork, and so that
he will be prepared to do his solo student
teaching during a later semester. The PIP is
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signed by all three people, and a date is set
for evaluation of the student teacher’s
progress. It is advisable for clarity to decide
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on a consequence that will occur if the
evaluation date arrives without sufficient
progress having been made.
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Per the CCTC’s requirement, we do evaluate
our mentor teachers in the course of each
placement. The description here of
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evaluations is how the Secondary Education
Program is set up. Humboldt State wishes
we could offer additional compensation to our
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mentors—they certainly deserve it!—but for
now, we can offer HSU library privileges for
the year of service, as well as an HSU
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employee discount on computers and
software in the HSU bookstore.
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We’re coming to the end of our informational
presentation, so I’m going to point you to
some useful resources that appear on our
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website: www.humboldt.edu/education,
including program handbooks, assessment
forms, a video about PACT for Secondary
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Education mentors, (PACT being the
Performance Assessment for California
Teachers) and a PACT calendar for both
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Secondary and Elementary Education
Programs.
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Thank you for your time, and for all your hard
work on behalf of our student teachers. We
appreciate you so very much! If you have any
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questions about the information in this
presentation, or about anything else, you can
contact the fieldwork coordinators for our
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three programs listed here.
Thanks again, take care, and have a great
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day.