Please access/download documentation below as needed. Other materials may also be provided to you after you have been assigned a Protégée.
Schedules & General Information
Formal Mentors are required to participate in six basic Mentor Training sessions. This training is not valid outside of District #205 (or KWSED school assignment).
According to our Plan, Mentors can be reimbursed at Committee Stipend Rate for time spent in regularly-scheduled meeting with each assigned Protégée, up to 35 hours for a Year 1 teacher or up to 15 hours for a Year 2 teacher. A record of these meetings (including Date, Duration, and General Topics Discussed) must be maintained by the Mentor and submitted to Human Resources in a timely manner to receive this reimbursement.
Observations
According to our plan, Mentors shall observe their Protégée's classroom practice three times each year, with a Planning and a Reflecting Conference surrounding each Observation. These meetings and the Observation itself can be counted as "Mentoring Hours" and documented in the Mentor's log (above). A good time to schedule these Observations is between the Principal's first and last classroom observations, so you can focus on improving on any areas that may have been noted. The goal is helping the Protegee improve on his/her classroom practice.
Additionally, your Protégée can be afforded the opportunity to visit your classroom or the classroom of another teacher in the school or District assigned. Please work with your principal to arrange this visit, which may sometimes result in trading planning periods, etc., to provide appropriate supervisory coverage.
PLEASE REMEMBER: A MENTOR'S LOGS & OBSERVATIONS SHOULD NOT BE PART OF ANY EMPLOYEE'S FORMAL EVALUATION!
Any records regarding your observations or meeting logs, and the contents thereof, are to be considered the "property" of the protégée. Always keep them confidential. The decision to renew or terminate an employee's employment should lie solely on the building administrator's observations and access to data regarding the Protégée. The only exceptions would be the result of experiencing something first-hand that in your professional opinion might be harmful to a child. Such instances must be reported immediately to your Principal and/or the employee's immediate supervisor.
Paperwork Requirements
The only required paperwork is documentation of your regularly-schedule meetings with your Protégée, including observations & associated conferences. You may use the Weekly Log Pages above, or simply record <Date> <Topic Discussed, in 2-3 words> <Duration of Meeting, in full- or half-hours>. You may turn in a paper or digital copy of this log twice a year for reimbursement to Angela James at Lincoln Education Center. The log you turn in will be used to calculate your reimbursement only, and it should NOT include notes, reactions, opinions, or details about what was discussed or observed. Please do not send Stipend Forms.
Assigning Mentors to Protégées
Mentor/Protegee assignments are made by building principals, special education coordinators, or other supervisors of personnel, who often work together to make the best pairing possible. It can be a very difficult task. In a perfect world, a new teacher and his/her Mentor would:
- Teach in the same building
- Teach a similar age/grade of students
- Teach the same subject(s)
- Share a common plan time or lunch period
- Be very accessible to one another as the needs of both allow, and
- The mentor would be fully trained and "Certified" (see list above)
Unfortunately, this is a rare scenario in the real world. However, when pairing Protegees with Mentors, that perfect-world scenario offers a nice guideline for which to strive, understanding that meeting each one of those criteria seldom occurs during the assignment process.