TEA: Mentor-brogenski- -- Overview

TEA Collaborative Learning Group
Overview of Plan

Brogenski

What professional growth goals do you and your team members hope to reach through this partnership?

How will you and your team reflect on these goals and on learning and classroom practice (e.g., pedagogy, the use of technology, content, the process of science)?

Mentoring Plan (Revised from Orientation)
Mentoring Plan

The opportunities to share ideas and resources and brainstorm with motivated colleagues makes the mentoring component of the TEA program an attractive venture. In terms of personal professional growth, I hope that the mentoring experience will provide me with practice in organizing meetings, designing and implementing school- and community-wide forums, and better hone my communication skills. As a new teacher, I feel that all of these skills, practiced at the professional level, will be transferred over into my classroom and complement my management and communication styles.

Ensuring a successful mentoring experience requires the commitment of both mentor and associates. I would like to initially recruit teachers from St. John’s School for the core mentoring group. I plan to attend the first faculty meeting of school year for each division and present a general overview of the TEA program and the Antarctic research programs. Incorporated into the presentation will be a brief explanation of the mentoring component of the TEA experience. At this initial presentation, I will set a time for an extended presentation that focuses on the mentoring experience. I would like to invite anyone interested in becoming an associate to meet as a group and discuss the value of and commitment to a mentoring group. From this meeting I hope to attract at least 4 or 5 interested candidates for a core group.

I envision a core group consisting of at least a lower, middle, and upper school teacher, and potentially a representative of the fine arts department. While I feel that it is important to reach out to surrounding schools, I believe that a core group of St. John’s teachers would offer the smoothest logistical transitions. Once the core group is firmly established, I would then like to open up selected sessions to a general audience. I will address this further as a topic of interest for the group to pursue.

Prior to the first session the associates will have heard an overview of the TEA program and attended an extended discussion of the goals of and commitment to the mentoring component. However, a restatement of the TEA, NSF, and personal goals for the experience would be an appropriate introduction of the first meeting. An initial session may be structured as follows:

Introductions (as appropriate)

Readdress NSF details - requirements, paperwork, details, timeframes, (know what you are getting into)

General questions regarding TEA, Antarctic trip, mentoring experience

Personal goals/objectives of each member Brainstorm topics of interest/common goal for group

Brainstorm mentoring experiences/activities

Generalize format for meetings (when, where, who leads, topics, etc.)

Wrap up (identify new ideas/questions to be addressed at next meeting)

The initial meeting is critical in setting the tone of the group. This means a balance between maintaining a focus and exploring and encouraging people’s interest and ideas. By the close of the meeting, I would expect to have a roughly defined goal for the mentoring experience, a plan for meetings (will we rotate meeting sites? Frequent short meetings or few long meetings?).

A common group goal both individual meetings and the overall mentoring experience is important. In the initial meeting, we will discuss the need for the definition of such goals. The brainstorming session at the initial meeting will provide the first forum for development of a topic of interest. The overarching topic of interest will likely drive the goals for each meeting, so establishment of common interests is important. After the brainstorming session, each member will be asked to list their interests. At the second meeting, the group members will compare their lists for areas of overlap. Within each overlapping area, we can better define parcticular interests. This process will be continued until the group feels that it has defined a common interest with achievable end products. Recognition of the fact that the specific details of the mentoring experience will evolve with subsequent sessions is important. However, the group interest should be inclusive enough that each team member can ask his/her own questions and pursue individual goals within the framework.

An area of interest that I have identified as a possible group goal is the question “How can we better align science curriculum between grade levels and develop a unified image of what we want students to achieve in K-12 science?” Better communications between grade levels is needed in terms of consistence and continuity of curriculum. A second question that I am concerned about is how to better integrate science, math, and arts and humanities within grade levels. There are numerous areas of overlap in subject material and undeveloped opportunities for cross-curricular projects. Well-developed scientific inquiry projects offer a prime opportunity for radiation into all subjects. Finally, St. John’s is implementing an Upper School research program for faculty and students. A critical component in making this program successful is to ensure that we are laying the proper groundwork in the lower grade levels for independent research. A reevaluation of how our 6-10 science classes are preparing students for this experience would be a valuable contribution to the Upper School program.

Regardless of the long-term focus of the mentoring group, a first-year priority is to ensure that my associate group is well-versed in the TEA program, the Antarctic experience, and the technology associated with the live broadcasts. I hope that my associates would want to be the liaisons between my experience and any other classroom teachers at St. John’s that plan to parcticipate in the live broadcasts and online experience. Familiarity with the program and technology would be crucial to this role in the Antarctic experience. In addition to defining our overarching goals, a parallel thread will be preparation for the Antarctic trip. I will encourage associate involvement in my research opportunity by seeking their knowledge of various components of the research topic.

Making the associates equal and contributing members in all phases of the mentoring program is key in sustaining involvement. Prior to the trip,

Skills

Strategies

The “success” of mentoring meetings and the evaluation of implemented projects will serve as a tangible measure of professional growth. By “success” of mentoring meetings, I do not expect each meeting to go according to a pre-arranged schedule as some of the most productive ideas come out of unforeseen situations. A successful meeting to me implies one where each member walks away with a new insight and/or a question that keeps them thoughtfully engaged until the next meeting. Evaluation of mentoring endeavors is also an important measure of growth. While a given projects may meet with varying levels of success, the recognition of parcticular strengths and weakness within each activity is a valuable learning tool. This is an important aspect of science that I emphasize in the classroom during labs and seems applicable in any mentoring group. Just as negative results in an experiment often yield the most interesting questions for further study, obstacles and setbacks in mentoring activities can also be learned from. If each meeting and activity is critically evaluated and a new idea or question generated, then I view this as an indication of professional growth. As a more direct measure of how the mentoring experience is developing, I will incorporate a feedback device into the meeting itself. Periodic redefinition of our goals and group focus is important. This ensures that the group does not drift away from the mutually agreeable topic of interest toward one person’s individual agenda.