About Assist

Assist Partners
Assist Site Developers
Assist Reviewers
Assist Advisory Board
Site Outline

Tools and Resources

Tool: Refining and teaching routines to promote learning
Tool: What does "family" mean?
Tool: Assessing our learning Volunteer orientations
Types of discussions
Involving socially and culturally diverse students

Michigan Department of Education Professional Development and Induction Resources (PDF Links)

Professional Development Vision and Standards for Michigan Educators
Code of Ethics for Michigan Educators
Teacher Induction and Program Standards
Teacher Induction and Mentor Program MDE Resources
Alternative Funding Sources

Newsletters

Working Together

What is Induction?
Components of Strong Induction Programs
Characteristics of Strong Induction Programs
Benefits of Strong Induction Programs
Planning for a Strong Induction Program

---planning grid for school-based induction program
---planning grid for district-wide induction program

Assessing Your School's capacity for induction - Part I
Assessing Your School's capacity for induction - Part II
Michigan State Laws
Professional Learning Communities
Organizing Time and Resources for Professional Learning Communities
Beginning Teachers Study Groups
Mentor Study Groups
Learning

Organizing Induction Tab: Principals
For Principals

Cultivating a School Culture that Supports Induction

Purposes of schooling and induction
Organizing time and resources for professional learning
Allocating staff to support PLC's
Allocating teaching staff principles and practices chart
Finding time to support PLC's
Banking time examples
Buying time examples
Common time examples
Freeing teachers from instructional duties examples
Adding professional days examples
Using existing time examples
Using time to sustain PLC's
Assessing school beliefs about time
Guidelines for successfully reorganizing time
Resources for teacher collaboration
Working with teachers unions to support PLC's

Identifying a supportive environment
Beginning the year visualizing the future
Articulating a Shared School Vision
Building a school's capacity to support teaching and learning
Self test about the process of change
Associating new initiatives with familiar patterns
Frustrations about the process of change

Working with Beginning Teachers

Meeting the challenges of induction
Difficult work assignments
Helping beginning teachers deal with difficult students
Inadequate resources
Unclear expectations
Limited views about teaching
Tapping into beginning teachers' portfolios
Elements of powerful teaching
Elements of powerful teaching observation

Culturally responsive teaching

Developing the knowledge base and understandings of culturally relevant teachers
Acquiring knowledge of cultural characteristics and contributions
Culturally relevant teaching resources
Contributions worksheet
Learning from your students, their families and their communities
Learning about culture from and with your students
Becoming knowledgeable about cultural differences among your students
Lines of communication
Students and their families
Examine assumptions about parents and families
Exploring my assumptions
Survey families
My child as a learner(elementary)
My student as a learner
Involve students in making connections
Student inquiry projects
Examine what "family" means
What does "family" mean
Ask your students about their family experiences
What type of families are in our class
Reach out to the community
Investigating your community's resources
Planning cultural exchange events
Home visits
Learning from and with the community
Connecting to community resources
Making the connections action plan
Affirming attitudes towards students from
Culturally diverse backgrounds
Communicating care and high expectations
Enacting an affirming attitude
Examining assumptions
Enacting culturally relevant teaching
How principals can support culturally responsive teaching
Culturally relevant teaching resources

Contributions worksheet

Lack of dialogue about instruction
Lack of involvement in school-wide curriculum and instructional decisions
Helping teachers take control of curriculum
Sink or swim mentality
Preparing beginning teachers for "firsts"
Helping beginning teachers seek advice
Orientation handbook
Reality shock and disillusionment
Identifying the signs of disillusionment

Monitoring Teacher Commitment and Abstraction

What the New Generation of Teachers Seeks for Job Satisfaction
Assessing your school's culture and its capacity for induction
School Culture and Induction Assessment

What Beginning Teachers need, want, and value in Principals

The Individualized Development Plan (IDP) and principles of adult learning
Is developmental supervision working?
Direct assistance to improve instruction
Helping beginning teachers in the classroom

Process for supporting beginning teachers in the classroom
Worksheet for analysis and interpretation of data
Observation techniques
Verbal flow
At task
Sampling
Overview and scripting
Tally marks
Class traffic
Selective verbatim

Tool: Teacher attribute that contribute to student success
Building safe and supportive learning environments
Helping beginning teachers form positive relationships with students

Helping beginning teachers form positive relationships among students

Dealing with bullying
Forms of bullying
Consequences of bullying
Identifying bullying
Responding to bullying and harassment
Intervening in bullying situations
General guidelines for intervening in bullying
Providing follow-up and support
Tool:Follow-up to bullying and providing support chart
Educating students to prevent bullying
Working constructively with parents
The whole-school anti-bulling approach
Bullying resources and references
Sources of information on bullying

Engaging 2nd and 3rd-year teachers in professional activities and leadership roles

Selecting and assigning mentors
Professional learning communities
Organizing time and resources
Allocating staff to support PLC's
Allocating staff principles and practices chart
Finding time to support PLC's
Using time to sustain PLC's
Working with teacher unions to support PLC's

Beginning teacher study groups

Starting and sustaining the work
Setting the agenda
Setting norms
Sustaining the work
Learning through conflict
Assessing or learning
---Learning from problems of practice
---Learning from our successes
---Learning from and with the community

Mentor study groups

Mentors:Starting and sustaining the work
Setting the agenda
Setting norms
Sustaining the work
Learning through Conflict
Assessing our learning
developing a shared vision of teaching
Strengthening conferencing skills
Strengthening observational skills
Learning together
Sustaining the work
Standards-based planning
Analyzing student work
Knowing myself as a leader

Organizing Induction Tab: Mentor Teachers

For Mentor Teachers

Self-evaluation
Educative Mentoring
Orientation handbook
Observation techniques
Self-assessment

Should I be a mentor?
What can I offer a beginning teacher?
How can I be responsive to a beginning teacher’s needs?
How can I work with beginning teachers to foster their professional growth?
I’ve decided to become a mentor; where should I go from here?

Selection of mentors
Support of mentors
Educative mentoring

For Beginning Teachers

Questions to ask about a lesson
Questions to ask about your teaching
Questions to ask at the end of the year
Questions to ask about your professionalism
Assessing the effectiveness of your teaching
Just-in-time resources
Sample letters to families (1st grade)
K-2 Sample schedule
Sample letter to families (5th grade)
3-5 Sample schedule
Sample middle school letter
Sample high school letter # 1
Sample high school letter #2
Sample high school class schedule
Skittle mania (icebreaker)

Getting-to-Know-You Scavenger Hunt
History icebreaker
Managing a class
Engaging communities
Planning instruction
Leading discussions
Assessing learning
Responding to students
References and resources

-For Veteran Teachers in new assignments
Section I - Veteran Teachers new to Michigan
Section II - Veteran teachers moving to a new district or state
Section III - Veteran teachers new to an urban setting
Section IV - Veteran teachers transferring to a new grade level or subject
Section V - Veteran teachers assuming leadership roles

List of Resources

Class Management

Stories
Questions
Suggestions for mentors and principals

Engaging Communities

Questions (and stories) about working with parents and community
Question 1. How can I organize and manage communicating with parents?
Question 2. Where do I get time and resources to promote family and community involvement?
Question 3. How can I help parents understand my curriculum and instruction?
Question 4. How can I learn more about my students’ families and their situations?
Question 5. How can I organize and support parent and community volunteers?
Question 6. What else do parents need to know to be involved in their children’s education?

Planning Instruction

Julie gets bogged down
Ernest wants to branch out
Kyra thinks about quitting

Section I: Grasp the pattern of the Michigan standards to get the "Big Picture."
Section II: Plan the year to guide your unit planning.
Section III: Unit planning focuses on important ideas and is responsive to all learners.
Section IV: Daily planning supports meaningful learning for all students.

Classroom Discussions

Questions and resources.
Questions and tools.
A story

Assessing Learning

Questions
Stories
Section I: Using assessment to guide and adjust your planning and teaching.
Section II: Using assessment to inform and engage students, their parents and school administrators

Teaching Content

English Language Arts
Elementary
Middle school
High school
On teaching English language arts

Math
Elementary
Middle school
High school
On teaching math

Science
Elementary
Middle school
High school
On teaching science

Social Studies
Elementary
Middle school
High school
On teaching social studies

Responding to Students

All students feel like valued members?
My students' families
Maximize the success
Students who are inattentive
Class discussions?
Use assessment

Mentoring as Partnership

To the stories
To the strategies

List of Resources

About classroom management
About engaging communities
About planning instruction
About leading discussions
About assessing learning

Building Student Comprehension

Comprehension strategies
Discussion
Comprehension difficulties
Comprehending Text

Developing Curriculum

Part One: Deciding What to Teach
Part Two: Finding and Evaluating Resources
Part Three: Developing Lessons, Activities, Centers, and Projects

Developing Home, School, and Community Partnerships

Parent stories
Demographic profiles
Scope and sequence of family involvement
Parent involvement

Developing Literacy in Early Childhood

Differentiating Instruction through Technology

Inclusive Instruction

Promoting Student Achievement in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Language Diversity in the Classroom