1. Growth Mindset and Continuous Learning:  Teaching is a journey of continuous learning and refinement.  This mentoring program will foster a growth mindset, encouraging both mentors and mentees to embrace challenges as opportunities for development.  Mistakes are not failures, but valuable data points for improvement.
2. Personalized and Differentiated Support:  Recognizing that each new teacher brings unique strengths, experiences, and needs, this program will provide tailored support.  Mentoring relationships will be designed to be responsive to individual learning styles, content areas, and classroom contexts, moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach.
3. Collaborative and Relational Foundation: Effective mentoring is built on trust, respect, and open communication.  This program will foster collaborative partnerships between mentors and mentees, emphasizing mutual learning and shared problem-solving.  The relationship will be collegial and confidential, encouraging vulnerability and authentic reflection.
4. Inquiry-Based and Reflective Practice: This program will promote a culture of inquiry, where new teachers are guided to critically examine their practices, reflect on student learning, and articulate their pedagogical decisions.  Mentors will facilitate this process by asking probing questions, providing constructive feedback, and modeling reflective habits.
5. Focus on the Teacher as a Person:  This program will acknowledge that effective teaching requires more than just pedagogical skills; it demands resilience, self-care, and a sense of belonging.  This program will support the well-being of early career educators, addressing not only instructional strategies but also time management, work-life balance, and navigating school culture.
6. Connecting Theory to Practice:  As a university-based program, we bridge theoretical knowledge from teacher preparation with the practical realities of the classroom.  Mentors will help new teachers translate research-based strategies and educational philosophies into actionable classroom practices, fostering a deeper understanding of why certain approaches are effective.

Mentors and mentees within the program will gain access to a CANVAS course that contains a myriad of resources collected over the years with the intention of supporting new teachers.  These resources include articles on pedagogy, lesson plan and tracking templates, and instructional resources such as simulation websites. The online environment is also used for discussion question and reflection assignments throughout the program.

Multiple times each semester, mentors and mentees come together as a group to discuss big topics relevant to new classroom teachers.  At particular times throughout the year, invited guests provide specific trainings designed to meet the needs of new teachers as they ride the first year teacher curve.

It has been shown that new teachers benefit from a one-on-one support and mentorship from a veteran teacher within their content area.  The aggieTEACH-Arts & Sciences program staff offer general pedagogical and content specific support for new aggie teachers through individualized mentoring relationships.

Throughout the academic year, mentors and mentees participate in a book study on effective teaching practices.  The book study promotes broad discussions about effective pedagogical and management practices and how the new teacher can use them to grow in their craft.  At the conclusion of the book study, the focus will shift to actionable improvements new teachers can make in their classrooms.

Part of growing as a teacher is learning how to be reflective in your practice use collected data to improve in class teaching.  Mentees within the program will be led through a full reflection cycle using the framework detailed in The Impact Cycle by Jim Knight.  New teachers will take stock of their classroom realities, set goals for improvement, learn new teaching strategies, and intentionally plan for the future.  This process will be guided and modeled through individualized mentor sessions.

Since the first year in the classroom can sometimes be a “culture shock” to new teachers, having an impartial and non-evaluative mentor perform classroom observations can be helpful.  Getting a clear picture of what is happening in the classroom is the first step in the Reflective Practice that mentees will participate in with their mentors.