First-year teachers get help from experienced instructors

A decade ago, most first-year teachers walked into the classroom on the first day of school with a grade book, key to the supply closet and pack of freshly sharpened pencils.

They stood before a class of 25 bright-eyed students poised and ready to teach.

But left on their own, most quickly learned there was a lot more involved in teaching than standing before a class of eager students.

The result: burn out, and lots of it, said Rita Fisher, assistant superintendent of personnel and instruction for Jackson, Mo., schools. Not having someone to lean on or go to with questions caused many teachers to leave the profession after their first year, she said.

Because of that, steps were taken on local and state levels to support freshman teachers and guarantee children get the best education possible.

Missouri's first step came in 1993 with passage of the Excellence in Education Act, which included a requirement for first-year teachers to be paired with a mentor.

"It's like you have your own guide dog," said Pam Deneke, first-year special-needs instructor at Jackson High School. "You can't see where you're going, but you can hold onto them, and they'll show you where to go."

Because the new teachers are learning as they go, some parents worry their child will not get the same quality education as they would in a veteran teacher's class. Mentors, available to help with specific situations, give new teachers the benefit of decades of experience.

But some parents, like Dru Laurentius, mother of three elementary-age children, likes it when her children get teachers fresh out of college. Her first-grader, Ashley, is in first-year teacher Salli Bollinger's class at Orchard Elementary in Jackson.

New teachers, new ideas

"First-year teachers have newer ideas compared to the teachers who have taught for a while," said Laurentius. "Teachers like Mrs. Bollinger come out of college with new thoughts and ideas and are more energetic about teaching."

Bollinger, who graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in December, said her first month of teaching went surprisingly well because of the support from her mentor, Kay Vangilder.

"Even after the first few weeks I felt like I didn't know what I was doing," Bollinger said. "But Kay was there to pump me up and keep me going."

The first year of teaching is a lesson in itself, said Vangilder, a15-year teacher with nine years in Jackson. Even when student teachers get in the class there are a lot of behind-the-scene things they don't know about, including the amount of paperwork and lack of time, she said.

Mentoring does not just teach new teachers the ropes, Vangilder said. It is also beneficial to veteran teachers who learn the newest approaches and techniques to teaching, she said.

"Mentoring is a two-way street," she said. "Salli gives me a lot of new ideas to work with, and her energy and enthusiasm is contagious."

While every new teacher in Missouri is required to have a mentor, there are no guidelines for the types of activities mentors and first-year teachers must do together.

Teachers from Cape Girardeau and Jackson, as well as from about 35 other school districts in Southeast Missouri, take part each year in a one-day mentor training program sponsored by the Southeast Regional Professional Development Center (SRPD) at Southeast Missouri State University.

Teachers in Cape Girardeau and Jackson also have individual training within their respective districts.

Cape program

Mary Anne Stamp, teacher at Alma Schrader Elementary School, wrote the mentor program for Cape Girardeau schools with junior-high teacher Brenda Woemmel four years ago. Stamp said besides attending seminars, new teachers are given three half-days off to observe other classes within or outside the district to get ideas and see how different situations are handled by different teachers.

In Jackson, the mentors and new teachers spend three days during the week before the start of school at a new-teacher orientation program getting aquatinted, touring schools and going over benefits and payroll programs. They also attend workshops that focus on crisis management, discipline, routines and how to be an effective teacher.

The program at Jackson does not just pair new teachers with mentors; it also pairs teachers like Deneke, a veteran new to the district, with mentors.

Deneke said she has been able to give more attention to her students in the first month of school than she would have been able to give without the program because the training answered all of the introductory questions she had about the district.

Before arriving at Jackson, Deneke spent her first five years teaching at Cahokia, Ill., and even though she was not nervous about being in front of the class on the first day of school this year, she questioned whether her old teaching techniques would be appropriate in the new setting.

Showing Deneke effective techniques for this type of environment is where Mary L. Green, Deneke's mentor and a 19-year veteran of Jackson schools, comes in.

"I was used to teaching gang-bangers in Cahokia," Deneke said. "This is a totally different environment, and I have had to adopt a totally different approach. Without Mary it would be totally chaotic."

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611 ext. 128