Ideas for mentoring
To engage communities
as part of their regular teaching practices, beginning teachers need to
develop an awareness of:
- Why engagement with
communities is important
- What options exist
at the school and classroom level
- Specific strategies
that they can use to get started
How can you help? The following segments provide a “road map” for materials and approaches
included in the Engages communities section:
For more,
see the module on Home, school, and community partnerships in Continuing to Learn.
Listen
and respond to beginning teacher’s questions and concerns
Sometimes teachers feel
like things are not going right, but they’re not certain what “the
problem” is.
- Use the Critical Incident Technique to think about what, exactly, the beginning teacher’s
concern is about and decide whether or how it relates to the issue of
engaging communities.
- After working with
the critical incident, you might explore the tools in the “Strategies” sections and help the beginning teacher select
one or two that could be helpful. A scenario, followed by a “Talk
about” section to help you begin a conversation, introduces each
of tools listed in the “Strategies” section.
- Knowing families
- Communication
- Volunteers
- Learning at home
- Providing support
for parenting
- Help the beginning
teacher realize that s/he is not alone! The “Stories and questions” section leads you to
lots of examples that the beginning teacher might resonate with. It suggests several tools that could help with the situation.
- Background information
or further resources may be needed to address a particular concern. The Resource list could be a helpful place to start.
- Looking directly at
a List of tools can spark conversations about where the beginning teacher
can begin or suggest ideas that would address a particular concern.
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Make
suggestions about places to start that could make a difference
You will learn a lot
about the beginning teacher’s practice by having regular conversations.
Through these conversations you may begin to get ideas about one or more
areas regarding engaging communities that would be especially helpful
for the beginning teacher to address. What are some constructive
ways to bring up an issue or suggestion?
- One way to introduce
an area of concern is to decide to work on it in your own practice and
invite the beginning teacher to think about it with you. You might
begin with the Critical Incident Technique (share a story about your
own practice) and try to pinpoint which area of Engages communities could help you address your concern.
- Based on what you
learn from your conversation about your critical incident, the two of
you might decide that both of you will try using some of the tools in
the “Strategies” sections in your classrooms and
compare notes about how things are going. A scenario, followed by a
“Talk about” section to help you begin a conversation, introduces
each of tools listed in the “Strategies” section.
- Knowing families
- Communication
- Volunteers
- Learning at home
- Providing support
for parenting
- Perhaps you have read
a scenario in the “Stories
and questions” that seems especially to match the beginning teacher’s
situation. You could suggest that the two of you read it together
and select from the list of tools to get
started.
- As an experienced
teacher, you have likely tried out many of the ideas in the List of tools section. Look them over and add your own examples
to share with the beginning teacher.
- Sometimes background
information or further resources are needed to address a particular
concern. The Resource List could
be a helpful place to start.
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