The Rainy River District School Board took time out from Tuesday night’s meeting to recognize the accomplishments of its staff when chairman Dan Belluz presented a Recognition of Excellence certificate to Kendall Olsen and his mentoring committee.
“Our mentors are one of our greatest assets in our ongoing professional development,” Olsen said in a presentation to the board.
The board began its mentoring program for first-year teachers three years ago. Mentoring has been recognized by the Ontario College of Teachers as an important part of welcoming teachers into new schools.
In Ontario, 18 percent of first-year teachers receive no orientation from their boards, and only one in four who do rate the program as satisfactory.
Also, the OCT estimates that within five years, 40 percent of all teachers in Ontario will have less than five years of teaching experience.
“Teacher retention is also a key issue in an economy of teacher shortage,” Olsen said. “We need to support the teachers we have if we want the best for the kids.”
As a result, mentoring is becoming an important part of teacher orientation.
For this reason, Olsen and the mentoring committee were invited to present their program at the first Symposium on the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession in Toronto last November.
Olsen, along with Catherine Bruyere (a mentor) and Laurie Holliday (a mentor trainer), attended the symposium.
“What we were doing was among the best in the province in terms of a mentorship program,” Olsen said, adding it’s important for a board to set goals.
“We want to enhance teaching practices and student learning, and to cultivate an ethic of continuous learning and professional growth,” he remarked.
New teachers generally are paired with a mentor at their own school. “Then mentoring happens naturally,” explained Olsen, who also is vice-principal at Rainy River High School.
This year, 24 teachers with the board are participating in the program, including long-term occasional teachers who often go on to become full-time ones.
Mentors are experienced teachers who volunteer their time to help new teachers with all aspects of teaching.
“One of the most intimidating things you can experience is being a first-year teacher,” said Rudolf Zeitlhofer, a teacher librarian at the Fort Frances High School and a mentor.
“Walking around in a sea of 1,000 people, you can feel lost,” he noted. “I think it’s extremely important. It sure makes life a little easier for new teachers.”
The mentoring program lasts for one year and at the end of that period, the new teachers are invited to make comments on the program and how it worked for them.
“We make adjustments to our program based on that feedback,” Olsen noted.
The board presented Olsen with a certificate, and expressed their thanks to him, the committee, and the mentors for making the program a success and a model for other boards to follow.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
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