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Program or no program, there are plenty of things veteran teachers, administrators, and other school staff members can do to improve beginners' first years on the job. For starters, everyone in the school community can pitch in to welcome newcomers to the school. Teachers, principals, and staff members can ask new teachers to lunch, invite them to school sporting events, and make an effort to introduce them to other people in the district and the community (Heidkamp & Shapiro, 1999). Department lunch gatherings and other informal meetings go a long way, too. Although it might not seem like much, these gestures help set the tone for teachers' early experiences in the school (DePaul, 2000).
The following sections describe other important steps that veteran teachers and principals can take to ease the beginners' transition into the profession.
Veteran teachers:
Don't wait for new teachers to ask for help, or assume that someone else is looking out for them (Gordon, 1991). Most beginning teachers want the advice and assistance of veterans, but are afraid of looking incompetent if they ask questions (Paese, 1990). They may also feel that they are being a burden, or worry that they are taking up your time.
Help new teachers locate classroom materials (DePaul, 2000). Too often, first-year teachers walk into an empty classroom stripped of the best equipment and supplies (Renard, 1999). Veteran teachers can help beginners gather supplies, find working equipment, and track down other necessary teaching tools before students arrive. New teachers may also need help setting up their classroom for the first time.
Invite new teachers to observe your classes (DePaul, 2000). Set aside time afterward to answer questions and discuss the techniques you used during the lesson (Huling-Austin, 1992). You may also want to share books and information from workshops that relate to your teaching style. Most new teachers appreciate opportunities to exchange ideas with more experienced educators (Heidkamp & Shapiro, 1999).
Offer to visit or observe new teachers' classes. Most new teachers welcome the opportunity to get feedback on their teaching, especially when it occurs under less threatening circumstances outside formal performance evaluations (DePaul, 2000). It is very important to first establish a relationship of trust with the teacher before an offer to observe is made. Avoid conveying any impression that your observations will be used to evaluate the new teacher. A violation of trust can destroy respect and any future relationship of collegiality. Inviting the new teacher to observe your class first may make the experience less threatening.
Share your materials. There is no more valuable gift to a new teacher than a collection of detailed lesson plans and successful activities that have been tried and tested by an experienced educator. Even if your lesson plans aren't totally applicable to the new teacher's classes, they will provide great models for developing daily activities.
Make yourself available to mentor a new teacher. Whether your school has a formal mentoring program in place or not, you can offer to set aside a certain amount of time each week to discuss problems, share resources, or just talk with a beginning teacher.
Volunteer to take on the more difficult classes and teaching loads. This might mean agreeing to a higher number of preps each day, or trading the higher-level classes for remedial ones so that new teachers aren't left with the most challenging assignments (Halford, 1999).
Offer to lead, or at least to assist with, extracurricular activities and special projects. Too often, new teachers agree to extra responsibilities as a condition of being hired: the school newspaper, the volleyball team, student government, etc. Not only do these tasks eat up time new teachers need for developing lesson plans and becoming acclimated to the profession, they are also likely to entail more interaction with parents and responsibility for students off school grounds, both of which can be especially stressful for a beginner (Huling-Austin, 1992).
Principals and other administrators:
Make new teacher support a priority and take the lead in developing a formal program (DePaul, 2000). Find out what kinds of assistance beginners in your building need, offer incentives to veteran teachers willing to work with them, and build time into the schedule for teachers to meet and observe one another's classes (DePaul, 2000; Halford, 1999). Plan for new teachers to participate in induction programs for their first two to three years on the job.
Make a commitment to fund programs for new teachers. Ciardi (1995) suggests several innovative ways to come up with money for induction, such as setting aside salary differentials left over from the retirement of higher paid teachers, using money saved from not having to recruit and hire as many replacements, and asking foundations and local businesses to fund a part- or full-time new teacher coordinator.
Don't assign new teachers the most challenging classes (DePaul, 2000). Avoid burdening beginners with multiple preps, remedial classes, and the most difficult or needy students (Bloom & Davis, n.d.; Halford, 1999).
Make an effort to assign new teachers to the same grade level and subject area in which they student taught (Bloom & Davis, n.d.; Huling-Austin, 1992). This will allow them to get their bearings as a first-time teacher while limiting the amount of new material to which they must adjust. Plus, research has shown that new teachers "learn more about teaching when they teach the same content multiple times" (Huling-Austin, 1992).
Provide orientations for new teachers at the beginning of each school year (Bloom & Davis, n.d.; DePaul, 2000). In the orientation, introduce new teachers to the faculty and staff and cover important school policies. Set aside time in the orientation to discuss the school's mission, vision, and philosophies of teaching, and talk about how each is reflected in school practice. Don't count on the orientation sessions to take the place of a formal induction program, however (Gordon, 1991).
Give teachers as much information as possible about their students prior to the first day of school. Provide them with student reading scores, numbers and proficiency levels of English-language learners, information on special needs students, and demographic information. Then help them interpret these data.
Provide new teachers with the materials they need to get started. Make sure beginners get a faculty handbook, along with curriculum guides that include teaching materials, required curriculum or texts available for teaching, specific learning outcomes, and assessment tools for each grade level (Bloom & Davis, n.d.). Also, make sure that beginners have or know where to find all the supplies and equipment they need for their classrooms.
Make your expectations for beginning teachers clear. Ensure that new teachers understand what you expect in terms of job duties, professionalism, teaching methods, and discipline. Having a clear idea of what they are being asked to do will reduce some of the beginners' anxiety (Bloom & Davis, n.d.).
Tell new teachers that you are invested in their success. Let them know you will support them when it comes to discipline and confrontations with parents (DePaul, 2000), and encourage them to talk to you about any problems they are not sure how to handle.
Set aside time to drop in or meet with new teachers on a weekly basis (Bloom & Davis, n.d.). This not only cuts down on teachers' sense of isolation, but also shows your supportiveness, and provides a forum for discussing issues teachers are facing before they become overwhelming (DePaul, 2000; Sullivan, 1999).
Find ways to draw new teachers out of their classrooms and into the larger school community. Bloom and Davis (n.d.) advise administrators to "integrate new teachers into the teaching staff, the site council, and the school community. Do so in ways that allow new teachers to showcase their strengths, and that don't pile on added responsibilities."
Support new teachers' participation in professional development activities. Administrators can help beginners identify priorities for development, and point them toward inservice opportunities that, at least for the first year, are "relevant to the day-to-day" (Bloom & Davis, n.d.). Also, help new teachers understand state recertification, clock hour, and endorsement requirements.
For additional resources on ways to develop a mentoring relationship with beginning teachers, see the Appendix.
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