Knowledge and Experience for New Teachers - Essay Example

Heading: Reflection of Expertise and Experience Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Introduction My name is xx. I am a mentor and a supervisor of new teachers in one of the schools in the United Kingdom. I passionate about mentoring new teachers in order to make them excellent teachers that can make teaching and learning of the students fruitful, and make their work exciting and effective. I am interested in serving as an active mentor in order to help novices transfer their knowledge, dispositions, and skills obtained during preservice experience in their initial year of work. I also desire to acquaint new teachers with pragmatics, which include district procedures, policies, resources, and paperwork. My experience and expertise is also vital in familiarizing new teachers with curriculum and content standards, as well as helping them align instruction and curriculum with the set standards. My expertise and experience in the field is also essential in facilitating the development of the new teachers’ professional personality, as well as sharing my realistic experience with beginners in order to enable them develop their strategies and assessment necessary in meeting the distinct needs of learners by use of various abilities and styles. I also work to ensure those novices’ feelings of anxiety isolation, and disillusionment are reduced. Additionally, my work intends to involve new teachers in opportunities, which make them to reflect on their work and effect on students’ learning (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). Ethical and political factors affecting my approach As a mentor, I have numerous responsibilities including leading, mentoring, encouraging, and evaluating novice teachers among others. These roles have given me a position of substantial authority and power; hence the need to maintain an ethical approach. For instance, I have to treat all the novice teachers equally regardless of their racial, religious, gender, political, social, and economic affiliations. This is critical for every successful mentoring program. I have to strive to avoid any temptation to abuse the authority and power earned in my position. Besides, it is critical to maintain confidentiality and respect of each mentee to maintain a positive relationship. Additionally, I endeavor to ensure that evaluation is done fairly, and that new teachers have intellectual freedom to express their thoughts and opinions regarding their work. As a mentor, I also work towards maintenance of positive interpersonal relationships among the new teachers in order to achieve success in teaching and learning. Furthermore, just like other mentors, I encourage my mentees on the significance of maintaining academic honesty and intellectual property. I also advise them on the importance of creating a positive learning environment for their students, research ethics, as well as recommendation letters (Martinez , 2004). In terms of political considerations, I have ensured that my relationships with other people are positive in order to become effective in my work. A mentor is required to maintain honesty, integrity, and friendliness with other people in order to serve as a role model to the mentees. This implies that my interactions with other members of the society, and mentees should be in accordance with the norms and standards, to avoid negative incidences. This in turn, will help me achieve success in my work, as well as make mentoring worthwhile for the new teachers (Hansman, 2009). More so, to succeed in my work, I have to maintain discipline, as my mentees consider me as a leader. This helps in the development of trust and confidence, which is essential for the effectiveness of mentoring program. For instance, I have to desist always from using abusive language, ultimatums, silent treatment, and physical discipline. I also try to discuss my concerns with my mentees in order to understand their problems and look for lasting solutions. I also strive to maintain my mentees’ safety and health, as they are my responsibility. This helps in enhancing a positive relationship between the new teachers, and me and facilitates their success in work (Hansman, 2009). Achievements As a mentor, I have realized that there are many benefits and achievements in every effective mentoring program. To begin with, in my work, I have managed to actively listen to my mentees and help them overcome the feelings of disillusionment, anxiety, and isolation. This has been critical in ensuring that their work is enjoyable, and effective. Furthermore, my mentoring experience has allowed new teachers to get used to the curriculum and content standards, as well as assisted them to align instruction and curriculum with the standards. Another achievement in my work entails the ability to facilitate the new teachers’ development, as well as sharing my practical experience with them so that they can advance their inventory of instructional plans and evaluations in order to satisfy various needs of the students through certain capabilities and styles (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). In addition, in my mentoring work, I have managed to help actively the novices in the transfer of their skills, knowledge, and dispositions obtained in the preservice to their first working years. In fact, majority of the novices joined their working institutions with mere foundation of their profession, which needed to be developed by application of skills and knowledge in order to make it effective. I have also engaged novices successfully in chances that would make them to reflect on their work, and its effects on student learning (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). What is more, my work as a mentor and a supervisor of new teachers has enabled me to work as a service provider in terms of orientating them in the new work environment. I have also managed to provide support in relation to becoming novices’ confidante, friend, and an advisor. In terms of assistance, my work has managed to become new teachers’ role model, coach, and a collaborator; hence, positive results. It has also been possible to understand some of the challenges that new teachers often face while adjusting in the new work environment, as well as way of handling the challenges. Besides, as a mentor, I have managed to provide teaching services, alongside mentoring to act as a role model. I have also grown from a novice mentor to an expert teacher and a mentor. Therefore, the novices assigned to me have developed positive attitude towards work, new working environment, students, as well as other expert teachers. In terms of management, a mentor ought to be a good role model to the mentees and other people in the institution. In this case, I always work hard to make sure that my duties, as a mentor and supervisor are done promptly and effectively. It is my responsibility to ascertain that all activities involving the mentees and me are well planned and coordinated to facilitate success. This also enhances organization individual and institutional organization, which results in effectiveness (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). Challenges faced in mentoring To start with, mentoring is challenging in that it entails investment of time and self in order to meet the set goals and of objectives of a mentoring program. It requires one to keep time and show up in every scheduled meeting with the mentees in order to maintain his or her position. Anytime a mentor attempts to cancel or boycott a meeting demonstrates their lack of commitment, support, and attention to the new teacher. In fact, as a mentor, I would sometimes find it difficult to understand that keeping time and promises is vital in a mentoring plan. It is also imperative to know that effective mentoring is that in which a mentor appreciates his role, and ready to play his part, as well as keeping their commitment to the mentee. Therefore, as a mentor, I face a challenge involving commitment and investment in time and self (Achinstein & Athanases, 2006). Second, working as a mentor or supervisor of new teachers is challenging with respect to compatibility. At times, a mentor and a mentee may belong to the same group or age, hence, the issue of compatibility. This is a common challenge in my work, as I always encounter different personalities among the mentees with whom I work. This happens when they fail to understand that there is no one to blame, but a need to make a distinct match. It is imperative to ensure that new matches are made immediately, upon sensing problems among the existing ones. In addition, Achinstein & Athanases (2006) say that mentoring is challenging because it requires a lot of patience. It is hard to know that a mentee can instantly appreciate mentor’s attention, support, kindness, and friendship. As a mentor and supervisor, I have realized that it is hard to expect appreciation from the novice teachers immediately after every program. This is because positive changes take time to manifest among the mentees, even many months. In fact, a friendship can develop steadily for some time and in certain instances, friendships may stagnate. Therefore, to enhance growth of friendship, I have learned the significance of both parties giving the mentoring association an opportunity to develop. Moreover, Martinez (2004) says that mentoring of new teachers can be challenging due to other relationships involving the mentees. For instance, for the novices in steady relationships with their parents, children, friends, or spouses, there is a probability of growing jealousy from any side. Others may feel threatened by the mentors, as they spent some of their time with the mentees. Additionally, mentors are required to maintain support and respect of the spouses, parents, or children’s rules and demands in order to build a positive relationship, and ensure success in their work. Finally, Achinstein & Athanases (2006) assert that mentoring leads to a development of a positive relationship between a mentor and mentee. Just like any other program, mentoring program ends a certain point; hence, causing a ‘goodbye’ situation between the two parties. As a mentor and supervisor, I have learned that it is hard to say goodbye to my mentees at the end of each program, say one year. This is because interacting with the other person creates a strong and positive bond, which becomes hard to break. In order to eliminate this challenge, it is critical for both parties to prepare adequately, in advance for the parting time, in order to reduce the negative effect of separation (Martinez, 2004). Conclusion Overall, my experience and expertise as a mentor and supervisor of the novice teachers has been successful. My interests in the development of effective teachers, as well as effective student learning motivate me in the field. To succeed in my work, I had to consider certain factors including ethical and political issues. Some of the ethical factors that influenced my success include honesty, confidentiality, equality, and fair treatment among others. Regarding political considerations, I strived to maintain positive relationships with other people through discipline, respect, appropriate communication, and organization. As a result, I managed to encourage, advise, guide, and understand the mentees. Additionally, I managed to orientate them into the new environment, and ensure they achieve success. Nevertheless, I experienced certain challenges including incompatibility, need to invest in time, and self, saying goodbye, and needs a lot of patience. Therefore, it is imperative that mentors understand their work, and become committed to achieve success. References Achinstein, B. & Athanases, S.Z. (2006). Mentors in the Making: Developing New Leaders for New Teachers. New York: Teachers College Press. Pp. 1-20. Hansman, C.A. (2009). Ethical Issues in Mentoring Adults in Higher Education. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2 (123), 1-12. DOI: 10.1002/ace http://www.columbia.edu/~sf2434/mentoring%20literature/Ethical%20Issues%20in%20 Mentoring%20Adults%20in%20Higher%20Education.pdf Martinez , K. (2004). Mentoring new teachers: Promise and problems in times of teacher shortage. Australian Journal of Education, 48(1), 95–108 http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/AJE_sample_vol48_1k.pdf Nolan, J. & Hoover, L.A. (2010). Teacher Supervision and Evaluation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Pp. 85-90. Read More