New Teacher Mentoring Program
Each teacher who is new to the teaching profession or new to Lawrence Public Schools will be assigned a mentor in their first year of practice. ** Mentors will be seasoned professionals who are familiar with the particular school and the district as a whole. They will spend one-on-one time with their mentees, while also serving as the induction coordinator for their mentees, connecting them to other professional resources within the school or district.
Lawrence Public Schools follows the guidelines established by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for new teacher mentoring and induction.
However, because Lawrence Public Schools operates under a system of district management called Open Architecture, we leave it up to principals to decide what is best for their new teachers. Because of this, mentoring may look different depending on how the school structures it.
For instance,
- Beginning teachers will absolutely receive a full-year of mentoring, while incoming teachers may only participate in certain activities at the beginning of the year, such as Orientation activities.
- Principals and their Leadership Teams will identify the differentiated support needs of beginning teachers, incoming teachers, or second and third year teachers, which may involve a mix of classroom observations, collaborative planning, or formal professional development sessions.
- After the full year of mentoring, the new or incoming teacher will receive a letter from the district stating that they have completed the required mentoring program for the district. This letter, plus employment verification provided by the Human Resources Office, will be required in order for you to attain your Professional license. YOU are responsible for keeping these documents and submitting them at the appropriate time.
- While there are no strict requirements as to the specific number of hours mentors and mentees must spend together, there is a requirement to track the types of activities and the total time spent together. Lawrence Public Schools suggests many different activities for mentors and mentees to engage in with each other, and we require that this is tracked and closely monitored by the principals, particularly the number of classroom observations.
Suggested activities include:
- Structured meeting time for mentors and mentees to plan together
- Structured meeting time for mentors and mentees to meet with school leadership
- Mentors and Mentees observing each other and debriefing these observations
- Mentors and Mentee observing other excellent educators and debriefing these observations
- Mentors and Mentees co-teaching a lesson
- PD sessions facilitated by Advanced Educators, Master Educators, or coaches (suggested topics would be: standards-driven lesson planning; ESL strategies across content areas; integrating formative and summative assessments and engaging with data; parent engagement best practices; Educator Evaluation, etc.)
**Note: if you are a new teacher in Lawrence Public Schools and you believe you have not been assigned a mentor, please reach out to your principal and Office of Human Resources.
