“The presentations were amazing . . . the conversation that happened around each activity was simply the best as it made me feel challenged and reflective.” (Participant Feedback)
The third Mentorship Institute was held at UBC in early July. This year’s Institute, titled Leading Together: Sustaining Mentorship, Strengthening Teaching, brought together 80 educators to continue building a provincial network of leaders in service of teachers new to the profession, role and community. Teams consisting of union/district partnerships from 34 districts across the province participated over the three days to explore different models of mentorship offered across BC and to develop an action plan responsive to their particular region. In particular the Delta District vision and integration of mentorship into professional learning was powerfully presented by Dianne Turner (Superintendent) and Tashi Kirincic (Coordinator of Teacher Mentorship. The Institute also shared research conducted through UBC on the ways BC mentorship is benefiting professional practice and influencing school culture. Break out and full group sessions addressed a variety of topics including using video to interrogate teaching practice, building mentor capacity, learning partnerships through the spiral of inquiry and collaborating to make practice public. The opportunity to network and learn from colleagues from around BC was especially appreciated by participants. In particular the conference was seen as a way to combat districts “becom[ing] isolated and struggl[ing] to develop a program which needs to be continuously changing to meet the needs of the mentees” (Participant Feedback). The Institute was facilitated by staff of the New Teacher Mentoring Project ( a partner project of the BCTF, UBC and the BCSSA) and members of the Provincial Mentorship Resource Team. -Alison Davies