Mastering C: Foundations of Coaching & Mentoring

The benefits mentors derive from mentoring may be of equal or even greater importance than those experienced by novice teachers. - Teacher Mentoring as Professional Development, Eric Digest, 2001

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Key Content

• ​Role of Coach & Mentor
• Coaching Conversations
• ​Mentoring New Teachers

Benefits of Mentoring

MTDS Key Concept
As teacher's acquire new knowledge and skills, they experience career advancement.   

The benefits new teachers receive from mentoring are well known with established relationships existing between mentoring supports and new teacher retention.  Given this, many teacher retention efforts focus on providing mentors for new teachers. Many times mentors are asked to support new teachers, but are not always provided the training and supports they need to be effective coaches and mentors for early career teachers.  There is no doubt mentoring is good for new teachers, but mentors benefit from the experience as well, and the investment in the mentor teacher may actually provide greater rewards for a district given the mentor teacher's established role and influence.  Providing effective professional development opportunities for mentor teachers to develop skills in coaching and mentoring and providing recognition as a mentor teacher may contribute to teacher self-efficacy, which is known to support teacher retention.  

Roles of Teaching

MTDS Key Concept
Teachers engage with their work from multiple lenses and/or roles.  

The MTDS framework encourages teachers to engage in the work of teaching from multiple lenses, and the six MTDS domains represent key roles all teachers hold throughout their entire career: 

• Community Builder 
• Classroom Manager
• Instructional Designer
• Facilitator of Thinking & Learning
• Reflective Learner
• Professional

Each of these lenses frames different competencies or work of teaching. These domains are likely not new for a teacher ready to serve as a coach and/or mentor.  However, there is value in taking time to consider how these roles impact the work of all teachers. 

Acquiring a New Role:  Coach & Mentor

The MTDS Domains represent roles all teachers hold regardless of where they are in their career.  The Mastering Course C teacher, however, is in the process of acquiring a new role as a mentor and/or coach.  This role requires the ability to view the work of teaching from a new perspective outside of their own personal activation of various roles of teaching.  They gain a new position from which to see the impact of these roles on the implementation of the knowledge and skills of teaching.    

The Mastering C Teacher

• Adopts the role(s) of coach and/or mentor.