Colleen Ghelfi spent 10 weeks as a student teacher in Orland Park District 230, but when the first-year teacher walked into Andrew High School last year, a host of questions swirled in her mind–from where to find a dean’s referral slip to how best to teach from a specific textbook.
“When I first walked in, I was like, `Yeah, of course I can do this,’ ” said the 26-year-old English teacher. “But then a lot of things come up that you don’t expect. . . . It can be a little nerve-wracking.”
Hundreds of new teachers across the country face the same uncertainties, which can continue beyond the first year.
In fact, studies conducted by national education groups and teacher unions estimate that about 30 percent of all new teachers leave the field within the first five years, complaining about low pay, little support from parents and administrators, bad working conditions and too much stress.
But under a program being considered in District 230, teachers such as Ghelfi would receive a helping hand. In the Teacher Mentor program, novice teachers would be paired with classroom veterans who would offer guidance and support.
“We wanted to develop a program that . . . helps (new teachers) get through that first tough year,” said Florence Dittle, facilitator of instruction for the Orland Park-based district. “It can be overwhelming at first, and we want to make the initial years as comfortable as possible.”
In the last five years, districts across the nation and in the six-county Chicago region have launched similar mentoring programs to help ease inexperienced teachers into the classroom and keep them happy and productive. Programs have been implemented in the cities of McHenry, Evanston, New Lenox and Downers Grove.
Lincoln-Way School District 210, based in New Lenox, started its mentor program about five years ago. Though the district had a new-teacher induction program for many years, the mentor program “makes that teacher-to-teacher connection stronger,” said Sharon Michalak, who oversees the program at Lincoln-Way’s Central Campus.
Michalak said the program has helped keep up the morale of novice teachers. Veteran teachers help freshmen counterparts prepare for their first parent-teacher conferences, fill out student evaluations, organize curriculum and even find their way around the campus.
“We survey our new teachers at the end of the first year and almost all of them tell us they are happy they’ve had someone to help them, someone who takes a special interest in helping them succeed,” Michalak said. “We don’t have any figures to prove that it keeps teachers from leaving the field, but we strongly suspect it might.”
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District 230’s Dittle said officials in her district looked into a mentoring program after realizing that a large percentage of district teachers will retire in the next few years. Dittle said district officials wanted to mine the veterans’ minds before they left.
“There’s a lot of knowledge out there among our teachers and we didn’t want to let it get away,” Dittle said.
The program, if approved by the school board, would be implemented in September and would be mandatory for first-year teachers. Initially, the novice teacher and the assigned veteran would meet every week. Those meetings would taper off as the new teacher becomes more acclimated.
The mentors, who would receive a small stipend, would be chosen based on several characteristics, including the confidence of their peers, effective communication skills, and leadership and problem-solving abilities.
But Dittle said the new program will not be a one-way street.
“There is lot of information and excitement we can gain from the new teachers,” she said.