Too often, the school leaders who construct a school's master schedule and decide the teaching assignments for new teachers assign the newcomers the most difficult schedules. The difficulty might include multiple preparations for classes with the neediest and most-challenging students, and moves to three or four different classrooms throughout the…

When given the opportunity to work with mentor programs in schools, this author has recommended a global prescription for mentors to help new teachers make the transition into the world of teaching: encourage them to follow the practices that are most like those of good, experienced teachers. Experienced teachers are different from new teachers;…

Saying "teaching matters most" is easy, and seems obvious. Making it the top priority for school leaders and staff is not so easy--in fact, it's messy. If we want to change how students write, compute, and think, then teachers must change how they teach. They must transform the old "assign-and-assess" model into engaging, compassionate, coherent,…

Mentors need to be proactive in helping the newer teacher to anticipate the critical episodes that inevitably face any teacher. These episodes include the challenge to manage a daunting workload while following habits necessary to stay healthy; to recover from disappointments, errors, and disrespect; to form positive relationships with students,…

Beginning teachers face many challenges and difficulties; as a result, one-third will leave the profession in the first three years and nearly half will be gone within their first five years in the profession. The challenge facing university teacher education programs is to fix the hole in the bottom of the bucket and find strategic new ways to…

This article discusses the results of interviews with eleven new teachers about what their major fears are when starting to teach. Previous research about teachers' concerns points to a number of problem areas (Fuller 1969; Rutherford and Wall, 1990; Borko and Putnam 1996; Veenman 1984). New data reveal underlying patterns that, at first glance,…