An Administrator's Guide to Better Teacher Mentoring
By (author) William L. Fibkins
Publication date:
16 April 2011Length of book:
272 pagesPublisher
R&L EducationDimensions:
239x165mm7x9"
ISBN-13: 9781607096764
This book address a major gap in the current mentoring programs at the secondary level. Staff development resources are often concentrated on helping new teachers be successful in their early school experience. Yes, a good idea, but a limited vision. Meanwhile many veteran teachers go without the mentoring assistance they need to be effective classroom teachers. While a few become mentors themselves, many veteran teachers just settle, slowly giving up, and become at risk of failure, burnout, and thinking only of retirement. This book is a call to school superintendents, building administrators, department chairs, school board members, union leaders, parent leaders, and teacher educators to address the need to provide ongoing mentoring for all teachers.
I highly recommend this new edition of Bill Fibkin's book on mentoring. Over the years, I have worked closely with teachers in both primary and secondary education. In my experience the well-trained, collaborative teacher may be the one consistently responsive adult in a child's life. Many of us retrospectively credit a teacher for our own productive adult lives. Bill's prescription of mentoring is a critical asset for both experienced teacher preservation and new teacher retention. The mentor learns anew by supporting a grateful young colleague, and the young teacher grows in respect to self and chosen profession. Better yet, isolation is relieved for both. As Bill suggests, teacher and student are inextricably connected on a path to learning. For the abused and/or neglected child, the connection can lead to life long healing. .