Project PRE
Project PRE: Partnering to Reform Education
Mentor Teacher Program
Beginning in the fall of 2003, Indiana required that all beginning teachers complete a two-year induction with the submission of a portfolio that included work samples illustrating teaching performance for their first two years as teachers. Each beginning teacher would be assigned a mentor knowledgeable of state requirements for the portfolios and competent in a broad array of supervisory skills, including coaching, active listen, and reflective practice. To meet the needs of having trained mentors in the schools, University faculty, in collaboration with school-based colleagues, implemented the Mentor Teacher Training Program to ensure a cadre of highly competent mentors in each district appropriate to its needs.
The Mentor Teacher Preparation Workshop has successfully certified 164 teachers in the trainings offered in 2004 and 2005. The trainings were held at Sarah Scott Middle School in Terre Haute and Northwest High School in Indianapolis with 73 and 91 completing training in the spring of 2004 and 2005, respectively.
Classroom teachers who had completed 3 years of teaching, held a valid license,
and were willing to mentor a beginning teacher, were eligible to
participate in the program.
Teachers who participated in the program attended scheduled classes and completed assignments outside of class becoming State certified mentors upon successful completion of the training. Those who successfully completed the training were compensated at $25 per hour for a maximum of 45 hours or $1,125.00. Participants also had the option of registering for 3 semester hours of graduate credit or receiving Credit Renewal Units (CRUs).
The Mentor Teacher Program was developed, coordinated, and taught by a team of ISU faculty and school based educators. They were Dr. Sharron Watkins, Director-Field Experiences, Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department; Dr. Karen Hamilton, Assistant Professor, Curriculum Instruction; Dr. Maurice Miller, Professor, Special Education, Communication Disorders and Special Education; and Dr. Margaret Whitaker, Associate Professor, Elementary and Early Childhood Education. In addition, during the second training offered in the spring of 2005, two teachers who had participated and were certified during the first training year, joined the Mentor Teacher team as instructors. Denise Sobieski, science teacher, Terre Haute North Vigo High School and Kathy Compton-Spelman, third grade teacher at DeVaney Elementary School, assisted with the second year development and taught during the training