Mentoring Information and Resources

• Toms River Regional Schools Mentoring Handbook
  The district mentoring handbook for the novice teacher and mentor teacher.
• Side by Side: A Mentoring Newsletter
  A newsletter for novice teachers, mentors, local professional development committees, curriculum coordinators, and all those who are involved in mentoring practices in the State of New Jersey. The mentoring newsletter will have bimonthly editions available in PDF or MS Word format.
• New-teacher.com
• National Staff Development Council
• InspiringTeachers.com
• Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development
• TeacherMentors.com
• National Education Association
• A to Z Teacher Stuff
• Department of Education New Teacher Survival Guide
• ADPRIMA for New and Future Teachers
• DisciplineHelp.com
  Excellent resource for teachers, administrators, and parents. A discipline model for handling over 100 different misbehaviors at school and at home.
• Wong, Harry and Rosemary Wong, First Days of School. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, 1998.
• Steffy, B., Wolfe, M., Pasch, S., and Enz, B. (ed.), Life Cycle of the Career Teacher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2000.
• NEA Teacher-to-Teacher Books. The Ultimate Beginner's Guide. Washington, DC: NEA Publications, 2000.
• Gordon, S. and Maxey, S., How to Help Beginning Teachers Succeed. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2000.
• Jonson, Kathleen, The New Elementary Teacher's Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 1997.
• Posamentier, A. and Hauptman, H., 101 Great Ideas for Introducing Key Concepts in Mathematics (secondary teachers). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2001.
• Staff of Canter and Associates, First-Class Teacher. Santa Monica, CA: Canter and Associates, 1998.
• Rossemblum-Lowden, Renee, You Have TO go TO School--You're The Teacher. Thousand Oaks, CA: 2000.
• Orange, Carolyn, 25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How To Avoid Them. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press 2000.

Classroom Tips

Tip No. 1: Responding to Children
During a lesson, teachers want their students to master the content and integrate the skills into their knowledge base. The following suggestions are "power behaviors" that foster a student's engagement in the lesson and encourage the use of higher level thinking skills:

• Provide wait time by pausing to allow the student more time to answer instead of moving on to another student when the response is not immediate.
• Dignify a response by giving credit for correct aspects of an incorrect response.
• Restate the question using the same words.
• Rephrase the question using different words that might increase the probability of a correct response.
• Provide guidance giving hints (verbal or visual) that will help the student determine the correct answer.

From: Connecticut Education Association New Teacher Program

Tip No. 2: Making Transitions

An effective classroom is a constant hive of activity where one activity blends into another. A transition to another lesson, a group activity, or the changing of a period requires careful planning and preparation by the teacher and a full explanation to the students. Momentum is built and propels the class into new learning experiences. Order is maintained and chaos remains at bay. How does this happen?

• Develop short mini-activities that require one or two-step directions to be used while waiting for other students to finish assignments.
• Be specific about the rules for transitions and practice the expected outcomes. Children will welcome direction for end-of-the-period, end-of-the-lesson or end-of-the-day routines.
• Be consistent in YOUR expectations and routines in order to increase the comfort zone in the classroom.
• Be sure all the students are ready and listening before beginning a new lesson.

A great mind once said that "For success, you need to go slow to go fast." Always explain what you expect and how you expect it to be achieved. Success, after that, is inevitable.

Tip No. 3: Strategies for Students who Seek Attention
Behavior problems in the classroom often create disruptions that interfere with the learning of every student in the classroom. Often students who are misbehaving are "simply" seeking attention. Consistency, fairness, and calmness in handling student behavior concerns is the first priority for establishing effective classroom management. For attention seekers, the next priority is to redirect the behavior with a minimum amount of extra attention given to the student. The following strategies have proved to be successful:

• Acknowledge the students who are behaving appropriately.
• Give the student an errand to run.
• Give positive reinforcement when the student is on task.
• Develop a special signal with the student to alert him or her to misbehavior.
• Encourage the student to write in a journal about his or her feelings and possible triggers for the misbehavior.
• Encourage the student to further develop an area of expertise.

Tip No. 4: Invitations to Student Success
It is the teacher who molds and shapes the learning environment in the classroom. Harry Wong, in The First Days of School, describes the characteristics of a teacher who invites the students to learn together. He states that "attentiveness, expectancy, attitude, enthusiasm, and evaluation are the primary forces" within the teacher that create and atmosphere in which students can reach their potential in all learning activities. He further explains:
"Intentionally inviting teachers have a professional attitude, work diligently and consistently, and strive to be more effective teachers. They have a sound philosophy of education and can analyze the process of student learning. Most important, they are purposively and explicitly invitational. They know what it means to be invitational, and they work at it. They say things like this:

• "Good morning. Have a great day."
• "Let me show you how to improve."
• "If you try this, it will be sensational."
• "Please tell me about it."
• "I know that some day you will be best at. . ."
• "Would you like to help me?"
• "You can do better at this; let me show you how."

They use the appropriate emotion at the appropriate time. Invitational education states that all people have limitless human potential and should be cordially summoned and invited to develop intellectually, socially, and physically." (Harry Wong, The First Days of School, p. 67-68)

Copyright 2007 Toms River Regional Schools. All rights reserved. Not responsible for external content.