This weekend, I power read (meaning "read for essence," a phrase I learned in graduate school) through a very valuable booked entitled New Teacher Mentoring: Hopes and Promise for Improving Teacher Effectiveness. Although the authors (Moir, Barlin, Gless, and Miles) refer to successful mentoring programs in urban public schools, they outline principles that should be guidelines for all mentoring programs, regardless of a school's classification, including "recruit and select the best mentors" and "ensure that teachers have sufficient time for interacting." We are very proud of our new teacher orientation and mentoring program at Calvert, which flourishes under the skillful guidance of veteran faculty member Peggy Szczerbicki. New teachers are assigned a carefully-chosen mentor and then attend the following events and activities, among others: shadow day in the Spring, after they are hired; half-day orientation in June; summer meetings, as needed, with mentor and academic division head; four-day orientation in August, before the veteran teachers return, then five-days of faculty meetings as a "full" faculty before school begins; new teacher group meetings about once every six weeks during the school year, focusing on a topic, such as parent-teacher conferences and technology. New teachers at Calvert are under our watchful eye, for sure! We all know that teachers make the Calvert experience special for students and parents. Our new faculty orientation and mentoring program is the first step along the path of a long and successful Calvert teaching career!
