And what I still need now.

I just read this blog post by Nancy Flanagan asking if first-year teachers are ever proficient. It got me thinking about my own first year, and about my continuing growth from year to year. I feel like I have been lucky in a lot of ways, but my development has still been far from ideal.

I was lucky in my student teaching. My program had a part-time pre-student teaching course that was required before going full time, and I was lucky in that my cooperating teacher from that part time stint wanted me back. That gave me the chance to be in one classroom from late September through April. She was also a wonderful mentor. She would sit and observe my lessons, and give me constructive feedback on a regular basis. She introduced me to the “2 plusses and a wish” style of feedback, and she used it with me. I felt like I was constantly improving. She even helped me develop my teaching portfolio and apply to teach summer school in the district.

I was also lucky in the mentor my school assigned for my first two years of teaching. It was a new school with not many experienced teachers. She was one of the few exceptions, with over ten years of teaching English. Many of the mentors that my fellow first year teachers had assigned were just willing to rubber stamp that they met with their mentees regularly; not mine. She came into my classroom and observed whenever I asked her to, and then met with me about how I was doing. She also welcomed me into her classroom to observe as often as I wanted to. We met almost weekly, and she helped me with teaching strategies and with classroom management. I don’t know what I would have done without her.

I got what I needed as a new teacher: a mentor who genuinely wanted to share her knowledge and experience to help me become a better teacher.

I changed schools after my second year, and I have now been teaching for four years. When I changed schools, I was no longer designated a “new” teacher. I have not had another teacher observe one of my lessons since changing schools. My only formal feedback comes from my administrator. Administrators at my building do two to three observations per year, and they do make very helpful, constructive observations and suggestions. I have also observed a couple of my fellow teachers in their classrooms. I set those observations up myself, and my colleagues were gracious enough to let me in. I also ask my students for feedback, and I reflect on my own practice.

I think this situation is fairly common, even with teachers who are newer than me. Certainly, it’s what my colleagues in my first two years who had different mentors got. Without regular feedback from another teacher, I feel like my growth has all but halted. I feel stuck in a lot of things that I do, and like I could really use another brain, even an equally or less experienced one, to help me find new ways of addressing the challenges that arise in my classroom. I also think there is something to be said to having another set of eyes in the classroom. Any time someone observes me, they see things about me, my classroom set up, my materials, and my students that I would never notice myself.

I do not feel like I am getting what I need now. I have a feeling that others might feel the same way. I need time to observe other teachers in their classes. I need them to have time to observe me. I need the time and opportunity to discuss these experiences, and to collaborate with my colleagues to improve my practice. Helping new teachers enter the profession gets a lot of attention, but I think it is important to keep a support network for all teachers so that they can continue to grow.