International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
them within their own classrooms. Additionally, they will see how helping novice teachers allows them as the
veteran teacher to personally be more innovative and engaging as opposed to either teacher left to his/her own
accord.
According to Danielson (1996) more experienced teachers can step into a mentorship role through
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in order to help support new colleagues. Creating these
collaborative teams can be quite time consuming when utilizing proper PLC techniques described by Dufour
(2007), factoring in common planning time, creating common formative assessments, analyzing data from the
assessments, creating new student groups based on the data shown, and reassessing students (McLester, 2012).
Collaborative teams need to find common ground and agree on effective methods for working together before
they can do this work. While some may argue that the culture of a school is comprised entirely of what the
administration makes of it, the culture of an organization goes beyond the influence of management. Teachers’
values, shared visions, and a commitment to working collaboratively affect a team’s culture (James & Connolly,
2009).
An additional result of this mentorship experience, working with both local and international based first year
teachers, provides the opportunity to evaluate the teacher preparation program at the university level. This
allows the mentors to witness, first hand, where potential strengths and weaknesses lie. Therefore, revisions
within the teacher preparation program can be implemented to further ensure a smooth transition from the role of
student to the role of teacher.
Conclusions
With the experiences of both local and international mentoring opportunities, it was evident that needs of
mentees are different based on the community in which they are teaching as well as the mentee’s individual skill
base. It is critical that mentors understand this and adapt to the needs of the individual mentee and their
students to best support the mentee with where they are.
As seen from these mentor experiences, many teachers who are leaving are not lacking in professional
competence. The reasons given for leaving are numerous and categorized as contextual reasons of support from
the district as well as personal reasons for individual teachers (Schaefer et al., 2012). Better understanding the
reasons behind teachers leaving the profession will allow districts to put forth needed energy to retain these
teachers. Districts can do this through “school-wide mentoring practices” that will help “reduce the attrition
rate” (Hollabaugh, 2012, p. 19). Further, a district in close proximity to a university is encouraged to build a
relationship with the university. Professors in a teacher preparation program can act as mentors to first
year/novice teachers within that local school district, helping to transition from role of student to that of teacher,
working to lower attrition rates within that community.
Studies have shown that teachers who engage in teacher leadership are more inclined to stay within the
profession because they have opportunity for personal growth within their building. The researchers will
continue the mentorship program with first year teachers, both locally and internationally, ensuring the smooth
and effective transition from the role of student to the role of teacher. It is also the researcher’s goal that
mentees, once veterans themselves, become leaders within their profession, ultimately becoming mentors to first
year teachers. This experience will provide the leadership opportunity many teachers desire, yet never reifies.
Ultimately, this mentorship experience will help drive improvements in the teacher preparation program
ensuring teaching candidates are adequately prepared.
References
Allen, M. B. (2005). Eight questions on teacher recruitment and retention: What does the research say?
Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States.
Alliance for Excellent Education. (2005). Teacher attrition: A costly loss to the nation and to the states. From
www.all4ed.org/files/archive/publications/TeacherAttrition.pdf
51