The Good Teacher Mentor: Setting the Standard for Support and Success - Softcover

As districts across the U.S. struggle to find and retain qualified teachers, more and more schools are turning to mentoring as a solution. Data suggests that mentors not only guide and orient new teachers, but also help to keep them in the profession. But what makes mentoring successful? This book is a rare, behind-the-scenes view of mentoring that lays bare the actions of both partners and shows how mentoring actually worked in an urban public middle school.

Follow the experience of Trubowitz (an education professor-emeritus) and Robins (a first-year teacher) as they tackle everything from classroom management to the politics of paperwork. Their story, told in two voices, describes the day-to-day flow of events in such a way that readers feel the satisfactions, the frustrations, and the sense of fulfillment that are all part of becoming a teacher. The authors share their initial reluctance about entering a mentoring relationship, debate the merits of observation in the classroom, describe a lesson that failed, explore the school community, prepare for parent-teacher conferences, deal with standardized tests, and review what they learned as a result of working together for a year. Beyond supporting new teachers, mentor programs also give veteran teachers a chance to pass on their valuable experience and to reflect on their own practice. This volume also includes checklists for good mentoring and suggestions for improvement and future learning.