Being an Effective Mentor: How to Help Beginning Teachers Succeed

by Kathleen F. Jonson (Editor)

Overview

Strengthen your mentoring skills to significantly impact a new teacher′s career!

A skilled mentor can make a major difference in helping novice teachers succeed and thrive during that all-important first year. This updated edition of the best-selling book, Being an Effective Mentor strengthens practicing mentors′ skills with updated strategies to help protégés develop confidence and expertise as teachers.

Educator and mentoring expert Kathleen Feeney Jonson identifies the skills and experiences that nurture beginning teachers and provides specific, research-based techniques for mentors, such as demonstration teaching, positive observation and feedback, informal communication, role modeling, and providing direct assistance. Readers will find guidance for using reflections to promote discovery, an action plan for professional development, and month-by-month mentoring activities for building productive mentor/mentee relationships and promoting best teaching practices.

This second edition demonstrates how to help new instructors improve instructional, interpersonal, and coping skills; examines the components of successful mentoring initiatives; and offers new information on:

• The stages of teacher needs and development
• Professional growth for long-term teaching success
• Assessment of student work
• Working with difficult mentees
• The role of mentors within teacher induction programs

This straightforward resource helps mentors guide beginning teachers on a rewarding and satisfying path of careerlong development and offers invaluable assistance for administrators who plan to establish a mentoring program or revitalize an existing one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452294032
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/17/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

In her 40 years as an educator, Kathleen Feeney Jonson, Professor Emeritus, has been a teacher, taught director of staff development, principal, director of curriculum and instruction, and university faculty. She conducted numerous workshops for teachers and administrators on such topics as reading comprehension strategies, writing process, portfolio assessment, peer coaching, and beginning teacher assistance programs. Until her retirement in summer 2009, Jonson was professor of education and coordinator of the Master in Arts in Teaching Reading program at the University of San Francisco′s School of Education. She published three books with Corwin Press, including The New Elementary Teacher′s Handbook (1st edition 1997, 2nd edition 2001), Being an Effective Mentor: How to Help Beginning Teachers Succeed (1st edition 2002, 2nd edition 2007), and 60 Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension in Grades K–8 (2006).

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Part I. Setting the Stage for the Teacher-Mentor
1. Passing the Torch
2. Set up for Success
3. Remembering the First Days
4. Beyond Survival
5. Moving Toward Professionalism
Part II. Effective Strategies for the Good Mentor
6. Working as a Partner With the Adult Learner
7. Stages in Teacher Development
8. Practical Strategies for Assisting New Teachers
9. Overcoming Obstacles and Reaping the Rewards
Part III. Putting It All Together
Month-by-Month Mentoring Activities
Year-at-a-Glance Checklist
Appendix A: First-Day Checklist
Appendix B: Mentor-Mentee Action Plans
Appendix C: Supervisory Beliefs Inventory
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"From establishing a new career path as a mentor to revitalizing an existing one, this book covers many basics and is a fine survey for any college-level education collection. "

The Bookwatch

"This is the book I have been looking for to help us grow our fledgling mentorship program. Dr. Jonson has answered all our questions, from how to select and support good mentors to how to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. Her book is filled with sound research-based ideas that we can—and will—implement tomorrow! "

Kathryn Carlson

"Dr. Jonson’s book provides practical ideas for every mentor of new teachers. She gives concrete examples of how, when, and what to do to ensure that new teachers receive appropriate guidance in order to increase student achievement. "

Kristine Parker

"All educators, administrators, and classrooms will benefit from reading Kathleen Jonson’s excellent handbook for mentor teachers. Readable, well-organized, and thorough, it contains everything a mentor teacher needs to know to establish a successful partnership with a beginning teacher. "

Susan Gold