Monday, April 3, 2017

Day 3: 2017 April Blog A Day Challenge - Professional Mentoring

Prompt: What role has professional mentoring played in your teaching career?

Image via Here (Also a great article!)



Today, my field supervisor for my graduate program came to observe me working with one of the teacher teams I am coaching this semester. Because half of the team was out with the flu, it was 1:1 coaching time!  It can be a double-edged sword.  Is there going to be enough to discuss with one teacher instead of two?  Is the teacher going to have enough autonomy in the pair to make decisions and keep the work moving forward? As we began the work together, all the while being watched by a field supervisor I had met only an hour earlier, the discussion flowed. We dug into thinking about the development of the new mastery skills for the upcoming unit.  The thinking the teacher was doing was exciting to experience and as a coach, it pushes my own understanding of the process of developing mastery skills for content outside my expertise.  

I share this story because it is an important reminder for me about the importance of coaching and mentoring to support the development of teacher capacity.  I have had a number of coaches and mentors over the years- Marci and Courtney have been the most pivotal in the context of teaching English.  My current administration- a team of three that have each made themselves available to me to be think partners as well as critical evaluators of my work and development as a leader. 

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