Being Mentored: A Guide for Proteges

"This is the best book on how to ask for help and search out opportunities if you want to be an effective teacher." Harry K. Wong, Author The First Days of School: How to Be An Effective Teacher  Take responsibility for your own learning by learning from others. As a new teacher, you need help! The inspiration and encouragement which mentorship provides is crucial during the first (and toughest) months of teaching. This book gives you all you need to fully recognize and utilize the valuable rewards uncovered throughout the mentoring process. Thought-provoking and action-generating discussions reveal how to become a proactive protégé, making this book a wonderful resource in the preparation of prospective teachers. A step-by-step approach illustrates the unique perspective of receiving mentorship, and how to make the most of it. Topics discussed include: Building trust and clarifying communication Identifying who does what Learning from watching Deciding where to focus your efforts Planning your professional growth Before you can profit from experience, you must acquire it. This book reveals the unique skills necessary to interpret and put to use the guidance, wisdom, instruction, and assistance of a mentor and become a self-empowered, proactive protégé.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction 1. Participate Take the Initiative Developing the Relationship Takes Time Earn and Keep Your Mentor′s Trust Clarify Communication 2. Take Responsibility Don′t Wait, Instigate Feedback and How to Receive It When to Give Feedback Mismatched Mentoring Relationships Responsibility to Yourself Responsibility to Others Get to Know Your Principal Clarify Ground Rules Early 3. Observe Be an Objective Observer What to Observe Expand Your View Don′t Imitate, Create 4. Ask Whom to Ask Where to Ask How to Ask What to Ask For Why Ask? 5. Chart Your Course Find Out What You Don′t Know Set Priorities Identify Resources The Power of Planning 6. Network Support From Collegial Groups Guidelines for Support and Discussion Groups Networking on the Internet Working With College and University Professors and Cohorts 7. Take Informed Risks Look Before You Leap Should You or Shouldn′t You? Help the Risk Succeed Risk With Conviction 8. Reflect Keep a Professional Learning Journal Guided Reflection Focused Reflection 9. Give Back Leave a Legacy Be a Change Agent Experienced Newcomers The Gift of Renewal Resource A: Internet Sites and Publications for New Teachers Resource B: Professional Education Organizations and Their Web Pages Resource C: Chatboard Exchange on the Internet References

About the Author :
Hal Portner is a former K-12 teacher and administrator. He was assistant director of the Summer Math Program for High School Women and Their Teachers at Mount Holyoke College, and for 24 years he was a teacher and then administrator in two Connecticut public school districts. From 1985 to 1995, he was a member of the Connecticut State Department of Education’s Bureau of Certification and Professional Development, where, among other responsibilities, he served as coordinator of the Connecticut Institute for Teaching and Learning and worked closely with school districts to develop and carry out professional development and teacher evaluation plans and programs. Hal developed and teaches for Western New England University a 3 credit MEd in Curriculum and Instruction online core course in Mentoring, Coaching, and professional development. Portner writes, develops materials, trains mentors, facilitates the development of new teacher and peer-mentoring programs, and consults for school districts and other educational organizations and institutions. In addition to Mentoring New Teachers, he is the author of Training Mentors Is Not Enough: Everything Else Schools and Districts Need to Do (2001), Being Mentored: A Guide for Protégés (2002), Workshops that Really Work: The ABCs of Designing and Delivering Sensational Presentations (2005), and editor of Teacher Mentoring and Induction: The State of the Art and Beyond (2005) – all published by Corwin Press. He holds an MEd from the University of Michigan and a 6th-year Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) in education admin­istration from the University of Connecticut. For three years, he was with the University of Massachusetts EdD Educational Leadership Program.

Review :
"This is the best book on how to ask for help and search out opportunities if you want to be an effective teacher." "Being Mentored: A Guide for Protégés, is especially unique. Most books related to mentoring address the mentors or the mentoring program instead of the mentee."