THE GOOD TEACHER MENTOR Setting the Standard for Support and Success

Abstract

An urgent dispatch surges through cyberspace to an educator-and writer listserv, an on-line virtual community. James, a first-year teacher from California, e-mails: “I need some help. This is my first job as a profes sional teacher. Right now I feel so tired emotionally. Most days are good, but the environment where I work has so many challenges that I feel over whelmed and [believe] that I am not doing a very good job in service of my students but merely ‘the best I can.’ How do you keep from allowing all the negative things from beating you? How do you feel that you are making a difference? How do you resist the urge to just have them fill out worksheets or pop in a video out of sheer frustration? How do you get them to simply turn in homework on time and work that is done with some measure of pride? I know this sounds somewhat bleak, but I am feeling burned out at the moment and could use some advice.” These are some of the looming, weighty questions that pour from a first year teacher’s soul. These are the wonderings that emerge so fitfully during a teacher’s first year and remain an entire career, still demanding answers. James doesn’t know that yet. Right now he needs to vent his feelings, to cry on someone’s shoulder, to be reassured, and to be validated. James needs to know someone, somewhere, is really listening. Members of his virtual community did what they could to try to rescue James, to repair his teaching self, to salve his wounded self-esteem with messages of acknowledgment, understanding, and advice. A veteran teacher from Texas wrote back. Her response featured the same sharp-eyed assessment and counsel as Dear Abby might have if she had specialized in educational matters. She wrote: “You are suffering from a common feeling among teachers, especially young ones. Here’s what you need to do: First, find a colleague you can commiserate with on a regular basis, one in your school who teaches some of the same struggling kids that you do. Stay away from teachers who see the students as lost causes; find a teacher who has the same desire to make a difference as you do.” Her message is a strong one. Find a buddy. Or better, connect with a kindred spirit. Get a mentor.