I recently went through training to become a mentor to new teachers. It seems like a really good program. They certainly are asking for a serious commitment from me, but the statistics that they cited are scary. In the first five years, nearly 50% of new teachers leave the profession. They had other first year and second year, etc… stats, but I can’t remember them offhand. The important statistic that they showed, though, was that their mentoring program had a 97% retention rate. That is to say that new teachers that had a mentor through those first few years didn’t quit.
It really is a simple concept. Don’t close the door. Offer help. Work together. Collaborate. They do have some more specific guidelines, of course, but that’s really what it comes down to.
There’s so much talk about good, bad, and ugly teachers, but this seems to be a really effective and smart way to help our profession out. Help out the new teachers. Set them on a good path. Keep them in the profession, unless they need to leave.
You should do it, too.
