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From: "Anne Schaeffer" <schaeffera@stillwater.k12.mn.us>
In Stillwater Minnesota I simply asked three questions:
1. What part of the mentoring program worked for you?
2. What part of the mentoring program did not work for you?
3. What suggestions would you make for next year?
I sent out these questions to mentees, mentors, and principals.
I also held three open meetings to gather oral feedback:
First year mentees came to one
Second year mentees came to one
Mentors came to one.
These meetings were not required but helped to validate the written evaluations.
Anne Schaeffer
From: Arnold Barbknecht <arnie@theramp.net>
The open ended question is infinitely better than any checklist you might find or create. Checklists always require interpretation and raise more questions than they answer.
Arnold Barbknecht
From: leslie_clemensen@ceo.cudenver.edu (Leslie Clemensen)
I use the Coaching Skill Inventory found in the book "The Power to Lead". In fact, I'm using it today with my beginning teachers.
Good luck!
Leslie Clemensen
From: RAKinsey@aol.com
Our district, Kings Park, used a general evaluation form we developed to get open-ended responses from new teachers this year.
We also developed a similar form for the coaches. If you are interested, I can either snail-mail or fax you a copy. It was developed by one of those "Apple" people, who uses Apple at home even though the District is 100% IBM. Hey, it doesn't make him a bad person and we all respect him the next morning.
Roger Kinsey
From: <wbarkley@state.de.us> (William Barkley)
Responding to the question posed by Jackie Epstein about end-of-year survey instruments, part of our annual evaluation of the Delaware New Teacher Mentoring Program includes surveys of all participants - new teachers, mentors, lead mentors, principals, and school district program coordinators.
William Barkley
From: Mary Clement <mcclement@pop.mindspring.com>
I developed an evaluation questionnaire for new teachers. I have written about it in my book, "Building the Best Faculty: Strategies for
Hiring and Supporting New Teachers". The book is available from Scarecrow Press at 1-800-462-6420 or on amazon.com. The ISBN # is 1-56676-735-0. To look it up on amazon, use my whole name, Mary C. Clement.\
Hope this is helpful.
Mary Clement
From: BLapetina@aol.com
I can recommend three books. Both have evaluation materials that might be helpful.
Mentoring and Supervision for Teacher Development by Alan J. Reiman and Lois Thies-Srinthall (1998). Publ. Addison Wesley Longman. There are various questionnaires and evaluations throughout the book.
Mentoring New Teachers by Hal Portner (1998). Publ. Corwin Press, Inc. More of a "how to" book" but it does have some evaluative suggestions.
Teacher Induction and Mentoring: School Based Collaborative Programs Gary DeBolt, Ed. (1992). Publ. State University of New York Press. This one has some good suggestions and resources for evaluating mentees.
Hope some of these may be helpful and provide the info you are looking for.
From: DEBBIETEACH@webtv.net
My name is Debbie and I am one of the two lead mentors for the Youngstown City Schools in Youngstown, Ohio. We are just finishing the
first year of our mentoring program and like you, were looking for some type of exit survey. We finally ended up writing a very simple one of our own. It consisted of only 8 questions:
1. Was the amount of contact time with your mentor adequate? Why or why not?
2. Was the quality of contact time with your mentor adequate? Why or why not?
3. What information did you need in Sept. that you did not get or gotlate?
4. What did your administrator do to make teaching in his/her building smooth and successful?
5. What could your administrator have done to be of more assistance?
6. What do you consider the strength of the mentoring program?
7. What do you consider the weakness of the mentoring program?
8. Additional Comments?
I hope that this info is of some help to you.
Please forward to me any other exit interviews that you feel could be helpful. My email address is Debbieteach@webtv.net
Thanks and good luck.
"Don't ever be afraid to take a risk. Just remember that an amateur built the ark and that experts built the Titanic."
From: AmeliaMH@aol.com (Ami Hicks)
Hello, I am Ami Hicks of the MLRN board.
I am currently writing a dissertation on this very topic. Since my investigation is quite new, I am learning also. I have facilitated mentor programs and training and this situation always bothered me as to how to assess what we are doing and know where should we go from here.
Assessment is tricky since it requires proper planning. Thus far, I am stating that mentor programs need to have goals and expectations and the assessment must be tied to the goals. The philosophy is also extremely important since it is this premise that places people on the same page in terms of thinking. Administration, teachers, and mentor facilitators or coordinators, and in particular the teacher unions or representatives of collective bargaining need to agree to the philosophy.
When this is in place, then the assessment tool may be designed to reflect the philosophy of the participants and stake holders and the goals of the program. I found that the program changed yearly in terms of what we did in training because I thought the people were different therefore the program will change. However, I have learned over time that this is only one variable for the situation. Otherwise all we really get is:
(a) how are we doing?
(b) what did we do well and not very well?
(c) how can we improve?
This type of assessment is good because it does provide information, but I learned that it does not provide valuable insights to the needs of the mentors and proteges.
As I conduct my research and continue to learn I will be posting questions and information on our MLRN webpage for members to provide input. If anyone reading this e-mail would like to be a participant in this research please e-mail me your address and/or e-mail address.
Thanks, I hope this is helpful.
Ami Hicks
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