Mentoring Beginning Teachers
Essential Information for Effective Instructional Leaders

Richard Sorenson, Ed.D. and Lloyd Goldsmith, Ed.D.

Mentor was the loyal and wise advisor whom Odysseus trusted to run his household and to see to his son’s education when Odysseus went off to fight the Trojans!

Homer’s Iliad

Mentoring

Mentoring has been defined as a means of support from a more experienced and qualified educational professional who has agreed to help a beginning teacher perform at a higher level in order to promote job performance and self-reflection. Webb and Norton (2009) describe mentoring as a method of identifying “an experienced professional who guides the personal development of a less experienced individual by serving as a role model; a wise and faithful advisor or tutor” (p. 357). However defined, the mentoring of beginning teachers is a necessary building block or foundation for true individual achievement and professional success at the campus level. Regrettably, mentoring is something many school professionals, most notably instructional leaders, talk about publicly, but privately fail to implement appropriately, effectively or enthusiastically. In fact, Kelley (2004) asserts that instructional leaders have historically ignored the support needs of beginning teachers, leaving these valuable employees to simply sink or swim in a profession which desperately needs these new and enthusiastic recruits to replace an aging and at times disgruntled workforce.

Mentoring has at least two potential applications relative to improving schools. First, mentoring is the basis for ensuring that a beginning teacher understands the procedures, policies and practices of a school. Second, effective mentoring also addresses the practical preparation of the beginning teacher by helping new personnel understand how to handle discipline problems; manage classroom concerns; develop lesson plans; learn campus norms, procedures and expectations; utilize socialization skills; develop techniques for conferencing with parents; and overcome other challenges and concerns facing beginning teachers.