About the Book
The support you need for mindful mentoring and sustainable teacher success!
Novice teachers bring vitality and optimism to schools. Our role as mentors is to empower novice teachers to grow in their practice and emerge as the leaders of the future. Newly revised and updated, the 2nd edition of Mentoring in Action emphasizes a unique approach: mindful mentoring that aligns your conversations to teaching standards to prepare novice teachers for their teacher evaluation.
In this book you’ll learn the importance of teacher leadership and how mentoring can influence teacher effectiveness. This flexible twelve-month curriculum helps you:
Plan mentoring conversations and observations
Differentiate support to meet the varied needs of novice teachers
Set goals to prevent teacher burnout by sharing social and emotional learning skills
Gather regular student feedback from student work samples and surveys
Integrate the updated INTASC Standards into mentoring conversations
This updated edition includes QR codes and a robust companion website featuring videos, downloadable forms, and a Mentor Planning Guide and Journal for reflection. Transform your mentoring experience by confidently mentoring your novice teachers with this comprehensive guide!
"Filled with decades of her own teaching, research, and mentoring wisdom, Radford offers a guide to building the mentoring relationship, examples of mentoring in action, and instructions and modeling of purposeful mentoring conversations."
Dr. Kirsten Olsen, Author of Wounded By School and The Mindful School Leader
"The best mentorship programs include support for the mentors, not just for new teachers. This book provides a roadmap for individual teacher-mentors or those in charge of mentoring programs. Everyone in a position of leadership should read and use this book."
Barbara Levin, Professor and Author of Every Teacher a Leader
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Introduction: Welcome to Mentoring in Action!
Part I Inducting a Novice Teacher into the Teaching Profession
Induction Programs Must Prepare and Support Mentors
Mentors Are Teacher Leaders
Sustainable Mentoring
What Is Mentoring in Action?
Principles for Effective Mentoring
Qualities and Skills of Effective Mentors
Purposeful Mentoring Conversations
Part II Month-by-Month Mentoring: Supporting Novice Teachers
Why Do We Need a Mentoring Curriculum?
A Month-by-Month Cycle for Mentoring
The Transformation of a Teacher
Orientation to the School and Community: Resources and Values
Beginning the School Year Successfully: Creating a Community of Learners in the Classroom
Teaching for Understanding: Planning and Delivering Effective Instruction
Assessing Diverse Leaders: How do Teachers Know Students Have Learned?
Maintaining Balance: Teaching and Keeping the Students Interested
Beginning a New Calendar Year: Looking Back and Moving Forward
Engaging Students in the Curriculum: Focus on Content through Active Inquiry
Collaborating with Novice Teachers: Observing and Building a Trusting Relationship
Standards: Creating Meaningful Standards-Based Learning Experiences for Students
Assessing Students′ Progress: High-Stakes Tests and Teacher Assessment
Completing the Year: Paperwork, Relationships, and Closing a Room
Final Reflection and Planning For Next Year: Retreat, Reflect, Renew
About the Author :
Carol Pelletier Radford is the founder of Mentoring in Action, an organization dedicated to the success of novice teachers and their mentors. She received her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she focused her studies on mentoring and teacher leadership. Carol is an experienced classroom teacher, university education administrator, and certified yoga instructor. She is the author of bestselling Corwin books Mentoring in Action: Guiding, Sharing, and Reflecting With Novice Teachers; The First Years Matter: Becoming an Effective Teacher; Teaching With Light: Ten Lessons for Finding Wisdom, Balance, and Inspiration; and "When I Started Teaching, I Wish I Had Known..." Weekly Wisdom for Beginning Teachers.
Visit https://mentoringinaction.com/ to learn more about her books and access free podcasts, videos, and courses. You can find her near the beach in Falmouth, Massachusetts and Venice, Florida.
Review :
"What amazes me about the Mentoring in Action and First Years Matter books is that every aspect of the teaching field is addressed."
"I love the idea of having mentors and mentees work alongside each other with Mentoring in Action and The First Years Matter, sharing their thoughts about challenges and successes each month and opening up a reflective dialogue."
"The two texts, Mentoring in Action and The First Years Matter, are companion texts that give both participants a guide for discussions, suggestions for activities, and a place to track reflections. They also allow for targeted differentiation."
"Integrating teacher evaluation standards fits naturally into the reflection prompts and activities in The First Years Matter and Mentoring in Action texts."
"I will most definitely use the Mentoring in Action text paired with The First Years Matter text as a month-by-month curriculum to focus mentoring conversations."
"With the Mentoring in Action and The First Years Matter books, training of mentors is consistent and comprehensive. The First Years Matter is structured enough to provide a clear path toward helping a new hire to achieve independence."
"Mentoring in Action and The First Years Matter are so important to guide discussions between mentor and mentee and are also helpful when differentiating for a new teacher’s needs."
"Our district will use the Mentoring in Action and The First Years Matter texts to directly align with teacher evaluation standards and create a common language among our mentors and novice teachers."
"This year we were trained to use the Mentoring in Action book. This has provided a common language and framework for mentors, which has been most helpful to maintain a consistent program."
"The Mentoring in Action and The First Years Matter books are critical resources that each mentor will need to provide support for becoming a qualified mentor."
"The Mentoring in Action curriculum will guide the mentors as they work with their mentees, providing some commonality while at the same time allowing for differentiation."
"The Mentoring in Action and The First Years Matter books have given me so much knowledge and understanding of the mentoring process that I feel more than confident in my ability to direct a mentoring program."
"This is a terrific resource for mentors and coaches at all levels. It strategically helps mentors reflect on what novice teachers might be thinking and needing, and what they as mentors could be doing to support them. Step by step, Radford guides us through the year. The book is chock full of ideas and questions to use with novice teachers. It′s a really useful tool to have on hand."
"The 2nd edition of Mentoring in Action: Guiding, Sharing, and Reflecting with Novice Teachers by Carol Pelletier Radford offers a very well-organized and practical roadmap that includes reflections, activities, tips, and forms to support mentors who work with beginning teachers. In addition, the companion website for this book offers extensive resources for mentors including many videos. This book offers support for those who lead by mentoring others whether they are new to mentoring or want to increase their knowledge and skill as a mentor. The best mentorship programs include support for the mentors, not just for new teachers. This book provides a roadmap for that support, whether it is followed by individual teacher-mentors or by those in charge of mentoring programs. In fact, everyone in a position of leadership should read and use the contents of this book."
"Carol Radford is the consummate professional educator. From the outset of my association with her, she has been a conscientious and dedicated administrator, a mentor, and a generous and supportive colleague. Readily able to foster constructive connections between course material and her own exemplary classroom experience, she has consistently provided innovative direction and support to classroom teachers by way of the books she has authored. Generations of educators have and will continue to use them.
Dr. Radford’s commitment to teaching in urban populations has distinguished her contribution to the education profession. I continue to be impressed by her command of relevant research and effective instructional techniques. Her skill is facilitating communication. She effectively addresses the interface between practice and education with the primary objective of identifying the relevant issues in support of human well-being. Dr. Radford is truly a reflective practitioner, and I always appreciate opportunities to learn from her as she continues to clarify the relevant issues in educational practice by way of her latest publications."
"In a profession that loses 50% of its entering teachers by Year Five, Carol Radford’s Mentoring in Action is a beautiful, wise, month-by-month guide to powerful, mindful mentoring of the novice instructor. Filled with decades of her own teaching, research and mentoring wisdom, Radford offers a move-by-move guide to building the mentoring relationship, examples of mentoring in action, and instructions and modeling of purposeful mentoring conversations. This book is a must-buy for any teacher leader, instructional coach, curriculum director…or even the brand-new teacher. We are lucky to have Mentoring in Action back fully revised and more complete than ever, to access Carol Radford’s wisdom and guidance."
