Mentoring Program

I think that the problem with education primarily has to do with teacher preparation. Funding does play a significant role in that the money needs to be spent wisely to train teachers and give them resources so that they can be effective teachers. However, after reading the articles and watching the videos for this week I think the main problem with education is that new teachers feel isolated in the classroom when they begin teaching. New teachers are frustrated when they enter the classroom and about 1/3 of all new teachers will leave the field within 3 years from when they started teaching. I like the idea of learning teams. I the video Did You Know? (NCTAF) it stated that young teachers are eager to make a difference and about 55% of retired teachers want to give back to help new teachers and students succeed. I believe that it would make a huge difference in education if experienced teachers could work with new teachers to give them support and to help them become effective teachers. NCTAF found that 70% of teachers nearing retirement would be interested in staying if they were able to work in new education roles in "phased or flexible retirement" (Kirsten Olson). Students are the ones who get hurt in schools that have high turn over rates when teahers are leaving frequently. By having teachers form learning teams the state might actually be saving money because they would be paying experienced teachers less by phasing these teachers into retirement. The video Did You Know? (NCTAF) also stated that in Asia and Europe teachers rarely work alone, they use teamwork to improve teaching. Having a mentoring program as Governor Ted Strickland has suggested could be an effective tool for preparing and retaining new teachers.