Mentoring & Induction

Teaching all students well requires creating a classroom culture that promotes student well-being and provides an environment where all students feel safe to take risks.  Creating such a classroom culture depends upon the norms and structures teachers establish, and the beliefs about student learning and success they communicate explicitly and implicitly throughout all aspects of their practice. 

In this course, participants will examine how norms and structures are currently working in their classrooms, explore what they need in order to bring their best selves forward on a daily basis, and develop strategies to help them nurture and sustain classroom communities where students learn to take risks, learn from mistakes, think critically, and work collaboratively to solve complex problems and engage actively in their own growth and learning.

Participants can expect to:

• Explore their beliefs about teaching and learning and how those beliefs are reflected in their classroom and classroom practices.
• Develop techniques for establishing an engaging and responsive learning environment with clear objectives and standards.
• Consider best practices for addressing disruptive behavior and working collaboratively with families.
• Examine the relationship between curriculum and assessment, and how that relationship promotes an on-going cycle of inquiry where students and teachers work toward known goals, assess and reflect upon their progress, and adjust and refine their work based upon what they learn and what they need.
• Improve and expand their toolkits with high-impact instructional strategies that support the development and delivery of standards-based, student-centered lessons that are designed to meet students’ needs and readiness.
• Participate in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) where we will use protocols and other structures to explore professional dilemmas, analyze data, and look at student work to reflect on our practice and advance our classroom effectiveness.
• Explore themes of equity and cultural responsiveness and utilize those lenses to improve what is/isn’t working for different subsets of students.

25 contact hours using a hybrid model.

Graduate credit available upon request.

Ideally Mentors and Mentees participate in this program together.

Length / number of sessions can be flexible depending on the overarching goals - e.g. 8 x 2.5-hour topical sessions supplemented with five 1-hour circles; Building in office hours (or interim coaching) for small role-alike groups or 1-1 options can serve to accelerate learning and growth. Some hours may be held remotely (live) or asynchronous depending on the preferences of the district.

A calendar of discrete topics/skills each month will be built with input and feedback from the participants.

In order for teachers to create the learning culture needed for all students to learn and grow optimally, they must learn to be leaders of the classroom and life-long learners themselves.

Together we will construct the optimal learning environment we want teachers to establish and maintain in their own professional practice. Teachers will improve their skills in designing lessons, giving and receiving feedback, engaging in dialogue around student work, taking risks and experimenting with valid, data-informed practices, embracing a growth mindset for themselves and others, and learning how to reflect productively on the results of their work. Teachers will expand their strategies and techniques in building a rigorous, relevant, trauma informed and culturally responsive student-centered classroom that fosters both individual and collective accountability.

Participants can expect to:

• employ the tenets of backward design and UDL
• engage in and form habits around evidence-based reflection in order to continually adjust their practice
• shift to an increased student-centered approach to teaching that emphasizes student learning over teaching behaviors
• explore their beliefs about teaching and learning and how those beliefs are reflected in their classroom and classroom practices
• examine the relationship between curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and how that relationship promotes an on-going cycle of inquiry where students and teachers work toward identified goals, assess and reflect upon their progress, and adjust and refine their work based upon what they learn and what they need
• improve and expand their use of high-impact instructional strategies that support the development and delivery of standards-based, student-centered lessons that are designed to meet students’ needs and readiness
• explore equity centered, trauma informed instructional practices to meet the needs of all learners in an inclusive learning environment

All techniques and tools are supported by the research of leading theorists in the field and built on the MA State Standards and the MA Model System for Educator Evaluation.

Appropriate for teachers in either year 2 or year 3. Ideally Mentors and Mentees participate in this program together.

25 contact hours using a hybrid model - Some hours may be held remotely (live) or asynchronous depending on the preferences of the district.

25 PDPs awarded upon successful completion of course requirements

Graduate credit available upon request

Length and number of sessions can be flexible depending on the overarching goals - e.g. 8 x 2.5-hour topical sessions supplemented with five 1-hour circles

Office hours (or interim coaching) for small role-alike groups or 1-1 options can serve to accelerate learning and growth.

Teachers will improve their skills in using collaborative structures to give and receive feedback, to engage in dialogue around student work, to take risks by publicly sharing the results of their efforts and experiments with high impact practices, to embrace a growth mindset for themselves and others, and to learn how to use the group's collective experience and wisdom to make productive adjustments to their practice. 

Throughout this course, which focuses on Standards III & IV of the MA model rubric for educators, teachers are immersed in the learning environment we want them to establish and enjoy in their own professional practice. Teachers will improve their skills in using collaborative structures to give and receive feedback, to engage in dialogue around student work, to take risks by publicly sharing the results of their efforts and experiments with high impact practices, to embrace a growth mindset for themselves and others, and to learn how to use the group's collective experience and wisdom to make productive adjustments to their practice. Teachers will expand their toolkit with strategies and techniques to employ in building a rigorous, relevant, student-centered classroom that fosters both individual and collective accountability.

In The Exemplary Teacher (III & IV), participants will focus on developing knowledge, skills and habits embedded in Standards III and IV of the model educator rubric around collaboration with colleagues and community members. Through protocol based experiences, they will examine practices and key issues in Standards III & IV.

Through protocol based experiences, participants will examine practices and key issues in Standards III & IV so that they will be equipped to answer the following essential questions:

• To what degree am I establishing an environment where parents/ caregivers are partners in their student’s learning?
• To what extent am I providing data-rich feedback and information in order to partner with caregivers in a thoughtful, student-centered way? 
• What mechanisms, if any, am I incorporating into my practice in order to fully inform parents/caregivers of student growth and performance?
• To what degree am I creating and fostering a culture of continuous improvement?
• To what extent am I modeling goal setting and professional development as a tool to improve teaching and learning? 
• To what extent am I demonstrating my professional expertise to others? 
• How can I build my own professional, collaborative, and reflective skills to increase student learning and student investment in learning?
• What high-yield strategies can I implement to develop home-school connections, community involvement, and authentic assessment practices in service to meeting the needs of all students and supporting them to perform at high levels? 
• In class and out of class activities may include critical readings, written assignments, videos, small and large group discussion/activities, protocols, mini and full lectures, role plays, presentations, classroom experiments, student surveys, peer observation, peer feedback and simulations.

All techniques and tools are supported by the research of leading theorists in the field and built on the MA State Standards and the MA Model System for Educator Evaluation.All techniques and tools are supported by the research of leading theorists in the field and built on the MA State Standards and the MA Model System for Educator Evaluation.

Appropriate for teachers in either year 2 or year 3. Ideally Mentors and Mentees participate in this program together.

25 contact hours using a hybrid model - Some hours may be held remotely (live) or asynchronous depending on the preferences of the district.

25 PDPs awarded upon successful completion of course requirements

Graduate credit available upon request

Length and number of sessions can be flexible depending on the overarching goals - e.g. 8 x 2.5-hour topical sessions supplemented with five 1-hour circles

Office hours (or interim coaching) for small role-alike groups or 1-1 options can serve to accelerate learning and growth.