A Workshop for Cooperating Teachers
Through use of web-based assignments participants will learn about mentoring student teachers. Participants read background and practical information on exemplary education sites, write a reflective paper based on these sites, and develop a handbook to help orient student teachers to their school.
Goal
The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effect of his or her choices and actions on pupils, parents, professionals in the learning community and others and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.
Assignment 1
Read the following web sites and answer the questions below based on your reading and your own reflections. Maximum page lengths follow each question.
- What qualities make a good mentor of a new teacher? (1 page)
- What roles must a mentor of a new teacher take? (1 page)
- What information does a new teacher at your school need? (1 page)
- What must you do personally to prepare to mentor a new teacher? (1 page)
Information on mentoring new teachers:
- Is a Good Teacher Always a Good Mentor? http://www.mentors.net/03journal/j1_gt_chr_gmentor.html
- The Self-reflective Mentor http://www.mentors.net/03library/whatdistmentor.html
- The Mentoring Process http://www.mentors.net/03library/m_process.html
- Advice to Beginning Mentors http://www.mentors.net/03library/advice.html
- Stages of Mentoring http://www.mentors.net/03library/hum_dev_relat.html
- Mentor Boundaries In Balance http://www.mentors.net/03library/thinchalkline.html
Review the Wisconsin Standards for Teacher Development and Licensure and our rubric for evaluating student teachers:
- Which Wisconsin Teacher Standards are the most important focus in the first few weeks of student teaching? (1 page)
- In what ways can you communicate with a student teacher his/her development in Wisconsin Teacher Standards? (2 pages)
Please send your paper as an attached file, email text, or US mail to Mark Stensvold.
Assignment 2
Read the following web sites of new teacher information.
Other useful information for New Teachers:
- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FirstYear/ch3.html
- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FirstYear/ch2.html
- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FirstYear/ch6.html
- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FirstYear/ch8.html
Design an outline of what you would put in a binder to orient new teachers to your school and a brief explanation of the item. The binder should include at least the material in the list below. Please send only the outline as an attached file, email text, or US mail to Mark Stensvold.
- A school calendar
- Work hours
- Parking procedures
- Procedure for illness
- Library procedures
- Computer lab procedures
- Playground/hall procedures
- First aid/medicine procedures
- Your school discipline policy
- Emergency procedures (fire drill, etc.)
- Faculty and student handbook
- Classroom procedures (attendance, class lists, seating chart, rules, daily schedule, lunch count)
- Planning requirements and forms
- Extra duties
- How to communicate with parents
- Contacts for special education teachers
- Report cards
- Ordering supplies and equipment
- Parent-teacher organization
Here are the rubrics for this Cooperating Teacher workshop:
Reflective Paper (assignment 1)
|
10 |
8 |
6 |
Thoroughness |
All questions are clearly answered with complete thoughts. It is evident that all materials have been examined thoughtfully. |
Answers are given, but don’t show the clarity and thoroughness revealed in a “Wow” response. References to resources provided are unclear. |
Answers are written without regard to the provided resources, and/or are incomplete in some way. |
Quality of Reflection |
Discussion of topics, especially WI Standards, is reflective and insightful, revealing significant internal processing of the mentor’s role. |
Discussion reveals some personal processing of the topics and the mentor’s role, but lacks the depth of a “wow” response. |
Topics are paraphrased without any personal reflection or connection to the individual topics. |
New Teacher Binder (assignment 2)
|
10 |
8 |
6 |
Required components |
All required components are listed and organized in a user-friendly manner, additional site-specific items are added to the list. |
All components are included. |
Some required components are missing and/or items are organized in a confusing manner. |
Explanation of items |
A concise ‘gloss’ or explanation of each item is included and appears to contain useful context for and insight into the item. |
Explanations are attempted, but are either too long to be useful or are merely a description of the item itself. |
Items are listed without any contextual information |