A Life Saver for New Teachers

Mentoring Case Studies to Navigate the Initial Years

By (author) Richard E. Lange

Publication date:

16 June 2011

Length of book:

90 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781610483759

Navigating the initial years of teaching can be daunting yet exhilarating. While all new teachers want to do their best to help their students succeed, they also need to learn how to navigate the often bumpy road of education. This book contains interesting scenarios and case studies that ask the reader to solve everyday school situations. Teachers will have varied reactions to each case study as the scenarios are designed to challenge readers to decide:
What is the key issue?
Who would you go to for help?
What is your action plan to solve the situation?
This book guides new teachers through difficult situations towards viable solutions. Great care has been taken to relate real life stories from classroom and school situations. New teachers and mentors alike will have ample opportunity to read compelling stories and decide on the best ways to resolve these every day challenges of school life.

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Foreword
Chapter 3 Chapter One: Whose Job Is It Anyway? Defining the Roles of the Mentor and New Teacher
Chapter 4 Chapter Two: So What's the Point? Some Common Sense Solutions
Chapter 5 Chapter Three: How Can We Make This Work? Mentors Overcoming Obstacles
Chapter 6 Chapter Four: Isn't My Mentor Supposed to Help Me? When Mentors and New Teachers Struggle to Connect with Each Other

This book is a collection of 65 scenarios, vignettes, and case studies meant to be an interactive guide for novices in the profession and to stimulate discussion between new teachers and mentors. This format is particularly useful for teacher educators and teacher induction programs, as the "set-ups" are a great way to introduce different concerns that student and beginner teachers might encounter in their first years of teaching. With each scenario, the reader is encouraged to envision the key issues and to develop specific strategies for an action plan that might be used to resolve the issues. Following the scenario, some evidence-based solutions are provided for each dilemma. While these potential resolutions are not universal, they are crafted from surveys of new and experienced teachers and from the education literature and, therefore, seem well grounded and plausible. In addition, the case studies are followed by questions for discussion that challenge the reader to imagine all perspectives. While solving some issues would simply require referencing a particular school's handbook (e.g., how to reserve the gym for a large-space classroom activity), other issues are crafted to fuel a meaningful discussion (e.g., roles of a mentor). Summing Up: Recommended.