Indiana Department of Education -- Education Matters E-News

Spotlight on Teacher Mentoring

Acting as a representative of superb Indiana teachers is a rewarding part of being the 2008 Teacher of the Year for Pike Freshman Center math teacher Dan Kuznik. In addition to his duties as the award recipient, Kuznik is acting as a representative of effective teaching by serving as a mentor to a first-year teacher and a student teacher.

Four years ago, Kuznik’s department chair recommended that he become a state-certified mentor for the Indiana Mentoring and Assessment Program (IMAP) that all beginning teachers are required to complete under Rules 2002. As a part of the program, beginning teachers are assigned a mentor for two years while they complete the requirements of their Initial Practitioners License to receive their Proficient Practitioner License.

“The old-fashioned way of making sure department chairs are looking in on new teachers wasn’t working,” Kuznik said. “The mentoring program is a great process where teachers aren’t just thrown in the classroom. Mentors look in daily to check on new teachers and meet daily or weekly to discuss the positives and negatives of challenges.”

From the first recommendation of his department chair to attend the training, Kuznik was enthusiastic. “I saw the value of it from day one,” he said. “During my student teaching, I was fortunate enough to have two teachers I worked with, so I saw the value of having a mentor. Whether you’re a freshman in high school or a teacher with 30 years experience, you need someone else you can call on for advice or just to talk to. There is a roller coaster of emotions you can go through in your career.”

Kuznik meets with his mentee, math teacher Sara Gallagher, a first-year teacher who graduated from Butler University, every Wednesday. If something comes up in between the weekly meetings, Gallagher can email him or come to his classroom across the hall to chat.

In his second year as Gallagher’s mentor, Kuznik will use his training to help guide her in the creation of a portfolio she needs to gain her teacher’s license. Kuznik created his own “mini-portfolio” during his mentor training to better prepare him to help his mentee. He learned more about the Rules 2002 license and other requirements for Gallagher to get her five-year license.

In addition to his role as a teacher mentor, Kuznik is also serving as a mentor to his student teacher, Tony Gutierrez, a senior at IUPUI. “It’s been very rewarding to see him develop his teacher voice,” Kuznik said. “He’s able to demand the respect and control of the classroom. Sometimes we love to think that we could do that on our own, but we often need one suggestion or one change that can be offered by a mentor that might work or might not work. Seeing another perspective sometimes offers a great resource.”

Serving as a mentor to a first-year teacher and a student teacher has given Kuznik the opportunity to become a better teacher himself. “You know something best when you can teach it to someone else,” he said. “To help Sara and Tony grow in their own style and their own personal ways has made me a better teacher. It’s a win-win situation.”

Kuznik encourages other teachers with at least five years experience to consider becoming a teacher mentor. “Sometimes you learn more from firsthand experience, and that’s the best thing about having a mentor. Some people think they can do it on their own, but I think more so the case is where we need someone to help us grow in our profession.”

Visit www.doe.state.in.us/dps for more information on teacher mentoring. Visit www.doe.state.in.us/toy for more information the Teacher of the Year program.

Q&A with Debby Williams

The Indiana Department of Education’s (IDOE) Division of Professional Standards pairs beginning teachers with veteran teacher through a mentoring program designed to offer the guidance and support new educators need to be successful in the classroom. Assistant Director of Assessment, Induction and Continuing Education Debby Williams tells us about the program.

How does Indiana’s teacher mentoring program work?
DW: The teacher mentoring program is part of the state’s Rules 2002 licensure. Beginning teachers enroll in the Indiana Mentoring and Assessment Program (IMAP) and are assigned a mentor. We strongly encourage all teacher mentors to complete a state certification program that offers 40 hours of training to mentors in best practices. The mentors learn tools and information about working with adult learners. They also get training in the Indiana State Standards and the standards of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC). Mentors learn how to assess student work in a meaningful way and how to be more reflective practitioners. They learn how to stop and assess what they have taught, how effective the instruction was and how to look at the measures that show the effectiveness of learning. All of these items help mentors better provide guidance and direction to beginning teachers.

The focus of the mentoring program is not about evaluating new teachers, rather it’s supporting them. The mentor can be there to provide support and suggestions and answer questions. The first year of the program, the beginning teacher and the mentor have an informal partnership.

What happens during the second year of the teacher mentoring program?
In the second year of IMAP, the beginning teacher begins to create his/her portfolio. The teacher and the mentor download a manual and use it as a guideline. The portfolio has sections that show evidence of good planning and good teaching. We also look to see that teachers can reflect well, evaluate their overall performance and make suggestions for improvement. The reflections go deeper than the surface. For example, a teacher wouldn’t write about how he/she wouldn’t reuse a lesson because it was messy. Rather, the teacher would reflect upon why the lesson reached some students but not others and how that could change with different instructional methods.

What kind of feedback do you typically get from teachers on the mentoring program?
What I’ve found as I’ve listened to veteran teachers is that they have overwhelmingly supported the mentor training process and program. Young people coming out of school have many tools to teach, but often becomes overwhelming when they are there alone with 25 young, eager faces. It’s hard to take all that you learned at the undergraduate level and process it and figure out how it fits into being a teacher. If you have a veteran teacher to support you rather than faulting you, it is an easier transition to becoming an effective teacher.

What is the difference between a Rules 46-47 license and a Rules 2002 license?
Under Rules 46-47, a beginning teacher was given a five-year license. He/she was enrolled in the program and assigned a mentor. At the end of the teacher’s first year, the school principal was responsible for a checklist of items. If the teacher completed the items, then the principal and superintendent validated the back of the license. In four more years, the teacher sent in the license and got a new one.

Under Rules 2002, which was first implemented in 2002, a teacher is issued a two-year initial practitioner license. Beginning teachers have a mentor for two years and must successfully complete a portfolio. They send in a letter of successful completion with their license renewal, and then they are granted a five-year license.

How does the Division of Professional Standards support teacher mentoring?
We have several committees to address different areas. For example, the Beginning Teacher Assessment Committee, which consists of a superintendent, a principal, teachers, a university faculty member and an IDOE employee, meets to review portfolio requirements. We also approve mentor training programs and provide support to school systems in securing certified mentor or approving veteran teachers who have not had the opportunity to obtain certification. We warehouse enrollment forms, update the Web site and edit portfolio manuals. Additionally, we work with a group of lead scorers, who are veteran teachers who have learned how to score beginning teacher portfolios. We instituted an email address, imaphelp@doe.state.in.us, to answer problems related to IMAP.

We are also working on a Mentor Faculty Academy. These mentors are more extensively trained in implementing best practices and working with adults so that they can devise their own program at their school to get more certified mentors. We offer the academy and encourage school corporations to send teams so that they can develop the program at their own levels.

Visit www.doe.state.in.us/dps for more information.

Visit www.doe.state.in.us/lmmp for more information.

Did You Know?

The Division of Professional Standards (DPS) processed over 37,000 licenses in 2006. These include substitute teacher licenses, emergency permits, Transition to Teaching licenses, occupational specialist licenses, initial licenses and renewal licenses.

Of the 37,000 licenses, 6,172 were two-year initial practitioner licenses. In 2005, the number of initial practitioner licenses was 3,884. Only teachers employed in an area on their two-year Initial Practitioner Licenses are enrolled in the Indiana Mentoring and Assessment Program (IMAP).

There were 61,183 teachers in Indiana in the 2006-07 school year.

DPS handles approximately 900 telephone calls and 200 email messages per week regarding licensing.

A beginning teacher’s license is called an Initial Practitioner License and is valid for two years while the teacher completes IMAP. After fulfilling the requirements in two years, beginning teachers are issued a Proficient Practitioner License, valid for five years.

A Rules 46-47 license requires that a beginning teacher complete a one-year internship and renew with CRUs or a Professional Growth Plan. The last Rules 46-47 licenses were issued in from 1977 to June 2006.

All licenses are now issued under Rules 2002. Beginning teachers with these licenses must complete a two-year IMAP and renew with a Professional Growth Plan.

Rules 2002 also applies to administrators and school services workers such as social workers, counselors and school nurses.

Visit www.doe.state.in.us/dps for more information.