one of the oldies

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Home : 2003 : September : 30

one of the oldies
By Connie

Hi,

I'm glad to say that we have pretty good relationships with the new staff, but I will chime in as one of the "oldies".

I love to help out new teachers and offer for them to call me, email me, etc. when they are
first hired. I tell them we will have lunch here and I'll fill them in on as many details as possible. Only one out of about 11 has ever taken up that offer.
Mentoring a new teacher is a lot of work and I don't get any reimbursement for it. They have a silly program in our district where teachers have to be certified mentors, so the new ones get mismatched mentors. I try to be

available and stop almost every day to see how things are going, give them a resource, see if they have questions, but that is about all I have time for. I am sorry to tell you that after 15 years of teaching, I'm still working long hours!

Only one of our new teachers was offensive. She was going to teach us "older" teachers all the new ways to teach and she was very liberal in the midst of predominantly conservative women. Her scores were consistently much lower than anyone else's, yet she never looked at her own methods of teaching. She is gone now and we have welcomed three lovely young women into our team since her departure. So, just a caution. I don't relate to tatoos, piercing, and if you live with your boyfriend in our conservative little community, DON'T TELL THE PARENTS!!!! I guess you need to remember that there is an age difference and what seems natural and normal to a 22 year old may not seem so to me. I know this many offend, but it is just honest advice.

Connie