As all educators face the pressures of accountability, it has become more important to hire effective teachers skilled at fostering outstanding academic achievement. This book is designed to provide both school administrators and teachers with information and inspiration about what goes into being an effective teacher. Chapter 1 describes a…

This checklist for beginning teachers (as well as school administrators, mentors, teacher supervisors, and student teachers) includes five sections: "Prepare Personally and Professionally" (the last year in college and getting hired as a teacher); "Success on the Job" (know when to say no, take advantage of a mentor, network to keep current,…

The Inland Empire Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (IE-BTSA) is in its third year of funded development and implementation of assessment strategies designed to guide support of beginning teachers. The IE-BTSA program is grounded in a cognitive and developmental model of how beginning teachers move along the continuum from novice…

This paper explores mentorship as a way for college faculty to expand educational computing skills. A technology mentorship program developed at Iowa State University involves pairs of faculty members (who volunteer for the program) working with graduate student mentors; the goal of the mentorship is to provide technological knowledge and skills,…

This collection of papers focuses on community building within teacher education programs in Canada, Israel, Australia, and the United States, suggesting that teacher educators must go beyond localized experiences and reach out to each other in a global discussion. There are 12 chapters in 4 parts. Part 1, "Opening the Conversation,"…

As dispensers of information, mentors can support teachers through career stages from recruitment to retirement. This article explores mentorships as transferable transactions. This concept is particularly valuable in urban areas, where teachers unacquainted with physical and cultural conditions may replicate the practices of seasoned mentors.…

Describes a collaborative effort between a Nevada school district and the University of Nevada to support first-year teachers. The internship program provided mentoring, support, and services to first-year teachers. The article describes the three-phase approach to collaboration and offers recommendations for collaborative programs. (SM)

To prepare for state-mandated mentoring of beginning teachers, educators from North Royalton City School District (Ohio) and higher education faculty developed a graduate course for novice mentors. The Pathwise Performance Assessment provided a framework for discussing teacher behaviors. Mentors learned cognitive coaching skills to implement the…

Describes the development of an award-winning university/school partnership whose core is teacher development through mentoring. The partnership provides ample opportunities for professional development of practicing teachers, cultivates effective field placement sites for preservice teachers, and focuses on helping teachers reach their full…

Examined British mentors' opinions of various issues related to their work in the professional preparation of student teachers. Surveys of teachers from 40 secondary schools indicated that mentors heavily emphasized training on practical classroom and personal development techniques and issues but did not focus on the wider role of the…

To help beginning teachers succeed, principals should identify individual teachers' strengths and weaknesses during the interviewing/hiring stage, balance neophytes' workloads, limit their extracurricular activities, establish expectations, select veteran mentors, offer informal formative assessment, be specific about classroom observations, and…

Observes that mentoring programs for new faculty have grown in recent years. Argues that such programs, although having laudable goals, may have unintended, undesirable consequences. Discusses several possible problems associated with formal mentoring programs and suggests that emphasis would be better placed on improving the graduate training of…

This article describes the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program, a year long supervised internship that provides support and assistance to all of Kentucky's first-year interdisciplinary early childhood educators by a team of resource teachers, principals, and teacher educators. Implementation challenges are discussed, as well as suggestions for…

Effective teaching is not intuitive. Whether new teachers come to the classroom as a second career or directly from a teacher education program, they all share the need for support and belonging. Establishing a learning community that values the ideas and experiences of all its members will sustain new teachers through their early years. Without a…

Mentoring is proposed as an effective strategy for helping novice teachers develop professional knowledge. However, a recent analysis of mentor-novice conversations in the United States about teaching reveals that they may not be important to the development of teachers' reform-minded practice. While this might be the case involving student…