Teachers are an important part of every student’s life, without them, students can’t find the right path for themselves, they don’t just teach students, they are the guides, the mentors of students. Teachers become competent to do their tasks through training and years of experience; however, they also need guidance and mentoring at the very beginning of their teaching career. And in today’s ever-changing world it becomes more important for the teachers to upgrade their knowledge and upskill themselves; so that they can teach students as per the current norms and can also grow their careers. Veteran teachers who have been teaching for years know the situations that a teacher has to face every day in the classroom, and they can help new teachers to learn and adjust to the new environment of the school. This help and guidance are provided to every new teacher under the program called “teacher mentorship program”
In this article, we will discuss what a Teacher Mentorship Program is? And why is it beneficial?
What Is A Teacher Mentorship Program?
Simply put, teacher mentorship programs are the training programs for the teacher; in which new or less experienced teachers are the mentees and veteran or experienced teachers are appointed over them as their mentors. At the time of onboarding of new teachers, the school administration mandates it for new teachers to do this mentorship program so that they can be trained to teach better and perform their duties as teachers well. Usually, one or two mentor teachers are assigned the duty of mentors of this program; who train teachers and measure their progress from time to time. Mentors and mentees in this program are required to work together so that mentors can teach new skills to the mentee teachers and also measure their development from time to time.
Benefits Of Teacher Mentorship Programs
Auxiliary Training: During their college education, new teachers are trained and taught about their roles and responsibilities as teachers. This mentorship program tests their acquired knowledge and also provides them with supplementary training they might need to excel as teachers. Mentor teachers give them additional knowledge regarding their pedagogy subjects, instruct them to formulate new ways to improve their lesson plans and use new strategies and tools to teach students. For example, mentor teachers can ask the new teachers to modify their traditional teaching strategies to incline with online ways, so that they could easily teach students on the app to teach online.
High Teacher Retention Rate: Better teachers mean a better future for children, and in today’s time there is a high need for good teachers in schools and educational institutes. However, when it comes to teacher support and training there are very few policies and programs that understand and support teachers’ needs and grievances. And because of this lack of support, many potential future teachers abandon the field of teaching. With teacher mentorship programs, new teachers can find support at the initial stage of their career and get trained to use their skills and knowledge to the maximum potential. This helps the retention of more teachers in the schools and education system.
Better Student Results: The main motive of the mentorship programs is to create better teachers, who can deliver better education to the students. And when teachers teach in the right way using the right strategies, they can bring out the best in the students. This results in a far better result in the education of students than they would normally perform.
Great Collaborations: When two teachers work together for one goal they can do wonders. Mentorship is not only a good way to train new teachers but it also provides a great opportunity to mentor and mentee teachers to collaborate. The teachers can work together, to formulate new reforms, write research papers or find ways to implement new tools and strategies seamlessly. For example, an experienced teacher who knows well about teaching and a new teacher who has a knack for tech can organise a seminar in which they can invite all teachers of schools and teach and train them about the ways of how to teach online to the students effectively using technology.