The first hot, hot days of early July brought 60 educators and 30 school districts together for the second Mentorship Institute at UBC. The Institute was sponsored by the New Teacher Mentoring Project, the provincial initiative of the BCTF, UBC and the BCSSA and funded through the Ministry of Education.
Arriving mostly in teams of two, educators made the journey from all regions of the province to learn about educative mentorship, investigate different program models, and explore the ways and means mentorship programs contribute to a professional learning culture in our schools.
Despite the soaring summer temperatures outside and inside the new UBC Student Union Building and random fire alarms, the group of educators were dynamic, engaged, and left the 3 day event with fresh ideas and challenges in meeting the professional learning of our teachers, particularly those new to the profession.
Particularly encouraging was the dialogue stimulated across the roles of teachers, school principals, curriculum coordinators, superintendents, administrative directors, and university faculty, focusing together on how to envision and implement new teacher mentorship responsive to diverse district contexts and cultures. The participants reflected the partnership of educational stakeholders moving ahead to co-jointly plan more cohesive and sustainable mentorship and induction in BC.
Guest presenter Colleen Douglas from Massey University in New Zealand shared interesting perspectives on new teacher mentorship from her country, where newly appointed teachers working full time are entitled to one day a week of mentorship and observation within their school for a full year. Colleen also shared a useful “needs assessment” for mentors, mentees and district staff to individualize the learning and growth for educators, whatever mentorship role they are taking up.
Charlie Naylor, researcher with the BCTF, gave a fascinating and informative presentation on the changing teacher and student demographics within BC and their implications for the BC education system. The data Charlie presented projects estimated job openings for 20,000 secondary and elementary school teachers to 2022. How can mentorship programs plan for the new influx of teachers needed in BC?
On the final day of the Institute, UBC Professor Tony Clarke took on the connection of inquiry and mentorship, both clarifying and deepening our understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning through inquiry. Tony constructed an elegant question to ponder about the purpose of mentorship, and proposed mentorship as a means to model the way of making our practices explicit for each other, a way to interrogate our teaching work, and share outcomes.
The 2015 Summer Institute was an affirming and provocative experience for mentorship leaders emerging in our province. Facilitated by Nancy Hinds and Alison Davies and the newly formed Provincial Mentorship Resource Team, a strong network of educators committed to mentorship growth is being formed across the entire province. Devon Stokes Bennett, NTMP technology co-ordinator and Tashi Kirincic, mentorship coordinator from Delta, challenged the participants to think beyond our usual boundaries and engage technology to continue stretching our network and connections.
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