New teachers are often overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to get done during any given day of the week. Finding a mentor can be a huge help, but how do you ask for help when you need it? Knowing what to ask and who to ask can make a huge difference in the new teacher's first year.
Asking for Help with Lesson Planning
Writing lesson plans takes up a huge amount of time for new teachers and those teachers who switch grade levels. The smarter you plan, the easier each subsequent year will become as you are able to reuse your plans from previous years. When asking for help with writing your lesson plans, consider the following questions to help guide your mentor to the specific areas where you need the most assistance.
How do you know what to plan?
Mentors should explain how to use a curriculum map to help the new teacher work through the curriculum. Knowing what to teach can be difficult when each day is not laid out step by step. Understanding how to wade through the information in any given curriculum is important, and vital to knowing what to plan.
How do you organize your lesson plan?
Mentors should explain which components of a lesson plan are vital to a good lesson. Making sure that the objective, direct instruction, guided practice, independent practice and assessment are all included in any given lesson plan will help new teachers think through each lesson. Although it does take more time to write out lesson plans in this way, the more thought out the lessons, the better they will go.
Asking for Help with Teaching
All new teachers are observed by their principal and possibly even the vice principal several times the first year. These formal observations are nerve wracking, and although they often provide excellent feedback, having informal observation may be even more useful. New teachers should ask for informal observations by a mentor at least once a quarter. Discussing this type of observation with a principal will often result in a temporary substitute for the mentor.
Ask the mentor to give feed back about classroom management. What worked well for the students? What are some new ideas to help with different problems that came up? Feedback on the delivery of the instruction is also helpful. Were any students left behind during the lesson? Ask for suggestions on new ways to differentiate the lesson for all ability levels. Mentors should find things to praise and areas to suggest improvement with each observation.
It is very important for new teachers and mentors to work closely together. Understanding how to write and deliver good lesson plans is vital to each teacher's success. Administration in each school should make it a priority to pair new teachers with veteran teachers and provide opportunities for conferences, observations and common planning times.
You may be interested in more information about writing lesson plans, and other tips for new teachers.
