Shadowfax Publishing: Beginning Teacher/Mentor Handbook

Beginning Teacher/Mentor
Handbook

Background Information: A draft of the Beginning Teacher section of this handbook was written. Other educational professionals gave input on the draft. The handbook has been used by teachers in Washington State's Teacher Assistance Program.

Introduction to the Beginning Teacher Handbook

"The teacher's side of the desk is different."
Ryan (1980)

The teaching profession presents challenges which make entering this profession a unique experience. A beginning teacher has a more difficult talk ahead, in many ways, than a beginner in another profession. The research on beginning teachers has focused on their concerns: classroom management, student discipline, time management, motivating students, isolation, developing relationships, and coping with heavy workloads. (See Mentor Handbook, pages 2 and 3). In addition to the concerns expressed by beginning teachers, research by Brown & Williams (1977), Bush (1966), and Ryan (1980) outlines the following characteristics of the first year of teaching.

A beginning teacher's job description is essentially the same as the teacher's down the hall who has five, 10, or 15 years of experience.
Beginning teachers often get the most difficult to teach students and other "hand-me-downs" of the systems: textbooks, desks, and schedules.
Teaching is something that has to be experienced in order to be clearly understood. Sitting in a student's desk for 16 years does not give one a true picture of what teaching is really like.
Student teaching experiences, in general, are not extensive enough to provide a teacher with the full breadth of experiences necessary to be a master teacher.

Literature on beginning teachers has outlined the stages in teacher development. The induction stage, or the first few years of teaching, has been identified as a unique and important time in a teacher's career. Through programs like the Teacher Assistance Program (TAP), the educational community has come to realize the need to provide support to beginning teachers.

During the induction period, first-year teachers generally experience what Ryan labeled "reality shock." This is the transition from being a student who learns about teaching, to being a teacher. Individuals experience "reality shock" in a variety of ways and to different degrees. Some factors which influence "reality shock" are ones's preparation, familiarity with the setting of the first job, and the difficulty of the teaching assignment. Because "reality shock" is so context- and person- specific, a mentoring approach for supporting beginning teachers is a very effective approach.

The mentoring process is an excellent way to help make a beginning teacher's transition into teaching easier. TAP has provided this opportunity to a large number of first-year teachers in Washington. The Mentor Handbook has been a useful tool for the mentor teachers in TAP. This section of the Beginning Teacher/Mentor Handbook is intended to be a tool for beginning teachers as they enter the mentoring process.

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