Supporting Beginning Teachers

A teacher’s first year in the classroom is crucial. New teacher require time and professional guidance to become successful expert teachers. Without support, new teachers may not gain the confidence and knowledge necessary to continue teaching. 

In Supporting Beginning Teachers, author Tina H. Boorgen outlines four types of support – (1) physical, (2) emotional, (3) instructional and (4) institutional – and provides essential strategies for F–12 mentors, coaches and school leaders to develop an effective mentoring program schoolwide. Using Supporting Beginning Teachers, school leaders can:

• review research related to high teacher turnover rates
• consider the important components and new-teacher supports that school leaders should have at the forefront of mentoring programs
• learn how to ascertain which teachers have the skills and experience to be effective mentors and how these mentors can form prosperous relationships with their mentees
• answer chapter-ending comprehension questions to retain each chapter's main topics
• read the author's personal essays from her first year of teaching, each accompanied by questions that mentors and mentees can use to spark discussion.

Part of the Classroom Strategies Series, this clear, highly practical guide follows the series format, first summarising key research and then translating it into recommendations for classroom practice. 

The Classroom Strategies Series offers in-depth research-based instructional strategies that can be used in the classroom to enhance student achievement. Classroom teachers as well as building- and district-level administrators will benefit from sharing the knowledge in this library and building capacity as a staff to implement strategies for school improvement.