One Schoolhouse

  • STUDENT COURSES
    • School Information
    • Student Information
    • Parent & Guardian Information
    • Summer Courses
    • Register
  • ACADEMIC LEADERS
    • Association for Academic Leaders
    • Join the Association
    • Lisa Damour: The ​Emotional ​Lives of Teenagers
    • Open Doors Blog
  • CONSORTIUM
    • Join the Consortium
    • Our Schools
  • COURSE LOGIN
  • STUDENT COURSES
    • School Information
    • Student Information
    • Parent & Guardian Information
    • Summer Courses
    • Register
  • ACADEMIC LEADERS
    • Association for Academic Leaders
    • Join the Association
    • Lisa Damour: The ​Emotional ​Lives of Teenagers
    • Open Doors Blog
  • CONSORTIUM
    • Join the Consortium
    • Our Schools
  • COURSE LOGIN

... And Some Reminders to Schools About their "New" Teachers

7/28/2011

0 Comments

 
PicturePeter Gow
I’ve offered up a pep talk to new teachers, but the experience of each new hire is as much a responsibility of the school as it is of the teacher. Assuming that the school handled its recruiting and hiring process well, the odds are already well in favor of success, but there are some key points to keep in mind to make sure things go well. Remember, too, that even experienced teachers who are new to your school will be climbing a learning curve as they adjust to a new culture and new demands.

Who minds the new faculty? Is there someone in the administration whose responsibilities include checking in on new faculty, looking after them not just as new employees but as new members of the school community—or, since many independent schools refer to themselves as families, as members of the school family? This responsibility goes beyond making sure new teachers have chalk, erasers, and email accounts. It’s about making sure that they can breathe. We tell them they are not alone, and so we have to show that we mean it.

I hope every school’s induction or orientation program really inducts and orients. New teachers need to understand the culture of their new school as quickly as possible. Is there a handbook? Does it cover the little things that can be embarrassing not to know as well as the big things like the evaluation and benefit programs? A great handbook gets at everything that someone can remember to write down—including a “walk through the year” (what to expect and plan for from month to month and season to season) and a glossary of those idiosyncratic words, phrases, and usages that serve as the argot of the school. (I immodestly link to one I’ve had something to do with, although the 2011–12 edition is still in the final editing phases.)

The few days that new teachers have together and with school folks before full faculty meetings begin and everyone is off to the races are critical. A re-tour of important places (offices, bathrooms) and opportunities to put faces with names and functions are key, as are serious mini-workshops in the things that matter most at your school—advising, ongoing strategic work, living and working in the community in all its diversity, understanding what those job responsibilities on the contract really mean, standards and grading norms and policies. Give the new folks time with supervisors and/or colleagues to plan the first few weeks of classes, to get a sense of the trajectory of weeks, units, and academic terms as they play out in real life. If there are chances to meet a few parents or students, all the better—try to set up some circumstances so the pre-start-of-school buzz about the new people is warm and positive.

Ideally, in those awkward, scary minutes before the first full faculty meeting is called to order, your new faculty should know a critical mass of friendly faces—people they have chatted with and worked with enough in preceding weeks to regard as allies, and not just two or three of them, either.

In the first weeks of classes the people overseeing new teachers need to be alert, present, and helpful—without hovering. Some brief classroom drop-ins by smiling supervisors can be really helpful—and watch your body language, even if there are things you may need to discuss later. Plan some check-in times in each of the first few weeks—and this means plan, as in, get them (and some walk-around time to stop in on classes) on your calendar. We all know what happens when you don’t.

I haven’t talked about mentoring here, which is a whole other topic. If you assign mentors and have what you think of as a program, make sure your approach is as serious as possible, and put the time on the calendar for whatever kinds of interactions you expect mentors and their charges to have. Make it be a program if you call it that.

A great new teacher program includes regular times through the year to work on things, individually and sometimes as a group. Prepare new teachers for ongoing success with workshops (perhaps over dinner) on comment-writing, parent conferences, and expanding professional knowledge in areas specific to school aims (teaching with technology, social justice education, child and adolescent development, differentiated instruction…). Perhaps you have some second- and third-year teachers who can be especially helpful, as they will have a good sense of stumbling blocks the “old pros” take for granted.

As the year goes on there should be multiple opportunities for new teachers to receive feedback on their performance, but make sure the feedback is based on real observations. Sometimes there will be hard conversations, but do your new teachers the honor of basing what you must talk about on evidence, and give them a chance to explain their own aims and express their own concerns. Many schools claim to be all about “letting kids make mistakes” these days, and we have to have the same kind of patience—even though the stakes seem higher—with new teachers.

In the end most of it boils down to relationships, which are the stock-in-trade of independent schools, in particular. We really mustn’t let new teachers feel alone, or confused, or (certainly) hung out to dry. Even if things do not in the end work out, we owe it to our students as well as to our faculties and communities—I would say we owe it to our values, but that may seem old fashioned—to make new teachers’ experiences as successful as we would have wanted our own to be. This doesn’t mean all smooth sailing, but it means treating them with respect and treating their struggles with concern and with the same confident optimism we offer our students.

Great schools, I think, can even expect to bask in the reflected glory of their new teachers’ successes. And they do this by setting each new teacher up not just to make it through but truly to thrive.

Afterthoughts: I’ve got a presentation that addresses ways for schools to support teachers and another, if you feel that the needs of veteran teachers are neglected here, on their revitalization. Yet a third covers the whole “build a great faculty” subject.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Don't miss our weekly blog posts by joining our newsletter mailing list below:

    Authors

    Brad Rathgeber (he/him/his)
    CEO & Head of School
    Beta Eaton (she/her/hers)
    Director of Student Support
    Corinne Dedini (she/her/hers)
    Senior Director, Academics (retired)
    Elizabeth Katz (she/her/hers)
    Senior Director, School Partnership
    Kerry Smith (she/her/hers)
    Instructional Designer for Professional Development
    Peter Gow (he/him/his)
    Independent Curriculum Resource Director
    Sarah Hanawald (she/her/hers)
    Senior Director, PD & New Programs
    Sienna Brancato (she/her/hers)
    Program Manager for PD & New Programs
    Tracie Yorke (she/her/hers)
    Instructional Designer for Equity, Inclusive Innovation & Accessibility
    ​Lorri Palko (she/her/hers)
    Finance & Operations Advisor; CFO (retired)
    Karen Douse (she/her/hers)
    Director of School & Student Support (retired)

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    October 2013
    August 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    July 2011
    June 2002

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Organization

About
Welcome
​History
FAQs
​Calendar
​
Team Members
Board of Trustees
Employment Opportunities
© COPYRIGHT 2020, ONE SCHOOLHOUSE, INC.. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Policies

Tuition & Policies
Equity and Inclusion & Non-Discrimination Policy
Technology Requirements & Policies
​Privacy Policy

School Resources

Advanced Independent Curriculum
​Partner Professional Learning Courses

Get In Touch

Have any questions?
Send us an email or give us a call.
info@oneschoolhouse.org
202.618.3637

​1701 Rhode Island Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036


We'd love to hear from you!​