Setting New Teachers up for Success: Enhancing the New Teacher Experience

Erin Grubbs:

All right, we’re going to get started. So hello, and welcome to our webinar today. We’re thrilled that you’re able to join us and hope that you enjoy the discussion and walk away prepared to help new teachers start the school year with confidence. I’m Erin Grubbs, head of marketing here at GoReact, and I’ll be moderating today’s session. For those of you not familiar with GoReact and why this topic is so important to us, we’re a video feedback solution that’s taken our 10 years of experience in helping higher ed institutions with student skill development to now helping school districts support teacher growth with that same technology. Before we begin, I’m going to run through a few points of housekeeping. Today’s event will last about an hour, and that includes 45 minutes of the panel discussion, and 10 to 15 minutes for Q&A. We are recording today’s presentation. So if you need to hop off before we finish or you want to share the recording with a colleague, we’ll be emailing the recording after the webinar.

We do want today’s presentation to be as interactive as possible. So throughout the webinar, please share your questions. To submit those questions. For the panel, please use the Q&A function that you should see. And be sure to include the panelist’s name if your question is directed at anyone specifically. We’ll try to answer as many questions as we can throughout the session. You’ll also see a chat function. Please use this to introduce yourself if you haven’t already. Tell us what school you’re with and if you have any links or relevant resources throughout the discussion to share with other attendees. Make sure you set that visibility to everyone. And if you experience any technical difficulties, please use the chat function to reach out to us. Today, I’m pleased to be joined by Ann Stark, Lauren Peña, and Wendy Anderson. And so without further ado, I’m going to hand it over to them to introduce themselves. Lauren, why don’t you get us started?

Lauren Peña:

Sure. Hi everyone. My name is Lauren Peña. I am the director of instructional Technology at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School in Oklahoma City. We’re a nine through 12 school with about 750 students.

Erin Grubbs:

Nice. Wendy, why don’t you go next.

Wendy Anderson:

Hello everyone. I’m Wendy Anderson. I am a director of curriculum instruction and assessment for two small districts in central Iowa, Colfax-Mingo Community School District, and Baxter Community School District.

Erin Grubbs:

Awesome. And Ann, go ahead.

Ann Stark:

Good morning everyone. My name is Ann Stark. I am a classroom teacher starting my 23rd year at a middle school in LA County, California. I am also a lead program mentor through our local induction program, and I’ve been mentoring new teachers for the past 14 years.

Erin Grubbs:

Thank you guys so much. So we’re going to get started into the panel discussion, again, feel free to use the Q&A or chat function to speak with us. We’re getting close to the start of the school year, which is why we thought this topic was relevant. Some school districts obviously already started. Lauren, what are some of the challenges that new teachers are facing this year as they enter the classroom?

Lauren Peña:

Sure. I think from my perspective as a technology director, I’m finding that we make assumptions about younger and newer teachers, assuming that they know technology, that they’ve been working with it for years and know what’s going on. And while they do know about technology from a personal use standpoint, using it for teaching is a whole other thing. We know that the universities, they’re doing their best in their teacher preparation programs, but that’s another piece of what we’re really looking at with our teacher induction, is how do we use technology in our classes? Another thing that we’re seeing coming out of COVID is just that our students, especially at the high school level, and probably middle school as well, are just really struggling with that social anxiety, anxiety, depression. So our teachers are having to act as therapists and as frontline mental health workers. And so just training them and teaching them where to send students and how to support students during this time has also been a new challenge for new teachers.

Erin Grubbs:

Yeah, absolutely. Wendy, Ann, do you guys have anything that you’re seeing in your district that might be a little bit different or to add?

Ann Stark:

I think just to piggyback on what Lauren said, technology has become so much larger of a part of education. Most districts have one-on-one devices. And as teachers, we’re just trying to stay a step above our students and make sure that we can provide technology that’s a support to them without overwhelming them with one more thing to have to try to figure out.

Wendy Anderson:

And I think that for new teachers, thinking about, well, I’ve had this great plan maybe to use the devices today, and all of a sudden the internet goes out, and now what do I do? So encouraging new teachers to have a plan B and a plan C. How can we do this without technology, keep the class going smoothly? Because it’s kind of frightening sometimes how much we’ve come to rely on it. I remember a couple weeks ago in our district, the internet went out, and we were all like, what do we do? Can’t function.

Lauren Peña:

Absolutely. And I think that that’s so important for new teachers in general, whether it comes to technology or not, when something in the classroom isn’t working, being able to find that plan B when they don’t have the tool belts that a lot of the more experienced teachers do, and equipping them with that without overwhelming them with, “Here are a thousand strategies and resources you can use.” But offering that just in time support I think is so important.

Erin Grubbs:

Thank you. Wendy, Lauren mentioned that the pandemic obviously put districts in a unique place and teachers needed quite a bit of support, but I think there’s still recovery happening there. Can you talk a little bit about what are some of the challenges that the districts are still facing as they try to support this group of teachers?

Wendy Anderson:

Sure. I think Lauren used the word overwhelming. And one of the challenges I think that districts face is creating an onboarding experience that is balanced. So we want to make sure that people coming into our district are on the same page. They have a strong understanding of the district, our goals, our expectations, their placed in the district, what the expectations are. We want to make sure it’s relevant for them and customized, but then we don’t want to have it be so much that it’s just like the dump truck backing up and just dumping all this information on them. They get overwhelmed. They forget because it does not replicate that just in time learning that we know is so important. So that’s a challenge, is just creating that onboarding experience that you feel like achieves that balance. You’re prepared, but you’re not overwhelmed. I think another challenge is that we see some new teachers that are coming in with a disconnection between the training or the preparation they’ve received in their undergraduate experiences and the realities of the job.

So one of the things that we’re seeing is I think this sort of idealistic concept that the students coming in are going to be excited, engaged, and ready to learn and on grade level, and when in reality, many of our students are not on grade level. They’ve experienced trauma, they are anxious about being there, and they don’t have the support at home that they need. So many times, all the wonderful lessons and the things that new teachers think that they have, they’re ready to go, and all of a sudden, you have to put that aside and I have to go back and teach prerequisite skills, and it sets them off balance at first. And so I think definitely a challenge that we face is developing partnerships with our universities and colleges in terms of, how can we achieve more of a balance between what’s happening academically at the university level and what’s more those realistic experiences that we have on the job?

And for us, I think a third challenge that’s relatively new this year… The other two have been pretty traditional challenges, but something new for us this year, I think specifically in our state, Iowa, but probably in other states too, is that we have pretty sweeping legislative changes that are coming to play in this fall. And so that has produced, without getting too deep in the weeds there, produced some anxiety for even our veteran teachers, for our leadership teams. And so that extra anxiety, I think, that’s coming for our new teachers is adding something to their plate as well.

Erin Grubbs:

It’s definitely been a new one this year. Ann or Lauren, anything that you’re seeing in your district that you want to touch on?

Ann Stark:

I think Wendy did an excellent job covering all the aspects that I would’ve spoke on too.

Erin Grubbs:

Yeah, I think she set up the next question pretty nicely for us actually, since you both have pretty extensive experience in the onboarding process. So could you talk a little bit, Ann, about what the onboarding and induction process looks like in your district for new teachers?

Ann Stark:

Yeah. So in California… I’m not sure how it is in other states, but in California when a teacher’s hired, they have 30 days to join an induction program. Some districts are partnered with induction programs, and other districts are not. So it’s sort of up to the teacher to find a program that works for them. And once enrolled in that induction program, they’re paired with a mentor that is hopefully similar subject matter and grade level, and they’ll begin weekly meetings an hour per week. And it is authentic job embedded, not just in time support, but it’s designed to help the new teacher establish good habits as they learn to navigate the realities of being a classroom teacher. Like Wendy mentioned, the reality is much different than what they prepare you for. So back 23 years ago, when I began teaching, I was given my classroom key and good luck. And we saw so many teachers leave the profession.

So fortunately, they have gotten a little bit wiser, and know that in order for teachers to be good at this job and really be effective teachers, they need some support. And not just the partner next door, but really a partner that you establish a close trusting relationship. It’s a non-evaluatory role. And that partnership, you work together and collaborate, and we develop an individual learning plan for that teacher that takes them through the standards for the teaching profession. And one of the key things about the induction program is reflection. Not just teach, teach, teach, but use the data to drive your instruction, reflect on why the students are doing well, and have those collaborative conversations so that the new teacher, under the guidance of their mentor, is able to figure out where their strengths are and their areas for growth. And then together, they can come up with a plan to work through those hopefully to see growth in not just themselves, but also in their students.

So that’s the goal of induction, and it is a two year process in California. And at the end of that two year process, the teachers are then recommended for a clear credential.

Erin Grubbs:

Nice. And I think we wanted to get Lauren’s perspective there too, because Ann, you are in California and you mentioned you’ve got some different pieces to the puzzle there. So Lauren, do you want to give us an overview of your process?

Lauren Peña:

Sure. So I did a little bit of research this past school year on different teacher induction programs around the United States. I started with the one that I participated in roughly 20 years ago in Springfield, Missouri. It was new there. They called the program Step Up. And the idea was they were losing so many new teachers every year in those first three years of teaching, which we know statistically is when we’re most likely to lose our teachers. So they implemented this program that involved some classroom sessions where the teachers would come in the evenings and learn some strategies, some lesson plan techniques, cooperative learning, things like that, and then also be paired with a mentor. And that mentor was not another teacher in their building, but a district level coach whose job it was to meet with them, and then also, like Ann said, kind of teach them to reflect and be a reflective practitioners on their own so when this two year cycle is over, they’re able to do it for themselves.

So that’s one model. I also looked at a model here in Oklahoma. We have a school that’s very close to a military establishment, an army post, and so we end up getting a lot of new teachers who retire from the armed forces, which create some amazing educators in our classrooms. So that particular school gets a lot of those new teachers. They have an orientation program that’s very similar that matches teachers with a mentor. And then the other one that I looked at was in New Zealand. And with their program, they have that mentor teacher, but every first year teacher meets with that person once a week for an entire school day. They get a full one out of five days off to observe another classroom, to meet with their mentor teacher, to meet with teachers in other buildings, and to really build their skills.

The second year, they go to half a day each week, but still really focusing on that. So in brainstorming, how can we make that work in American schools? I heard some really good ideas on things like when you have specials or at the high school level, we have assemblies and pep rallies. Maybe we can arrange for different supervision of students so that our new teachers can meet with their mentors.

Erin Grubbs:

I like that. That’s a great idea. Cool. Well, Lauren, I’m going to put you back on the spot for one more. Just knowing that you have had some non-traditional teachers, probably similar to the military that you just mentioned that are coming in that haven’t gone through those traditional teacher prep paths. How does that look, knowing that it’s a little bit different from some of those traditional teachers coming in?

Lauren Peña:

I think that a major advantage is that we have people with work experience outside of education. They’re also super motivated to learn and really excited to learn this new field. And so you can apply a lot of those adult education models where it is exactly what they need to know at the time, and so they’re willing to put in the time. Whereas teachers who come straight out of a teacher preparation program, if they’re anything like I was at 22, know everything and you cannot teach them anything because I clearly was the best teacher who had ever existed at 22. So not that 22 year old teachers are bad. They have a lot to bring and a lot to offer. But teachers who come from non-traditional backgrounds also have a lot to offer and are, in my experience, much more willing and ready to learn.

Erin Grubbs:

Nice. Thank you. And you mentioned California, you really don’t see that just because of the regulations, but Wendy, do you have any non-traditional teachers coming in that you’re approaching with your onboarding process?

Wendy Anderson:

In my two schools, we really don’t. When I worked in other districts in a different part of the state, we did. We had teachers from different professions coming in, and there’s a program called wrap, and it’s a very basically a year or so, and it’s kind of a quick introduction into the teaching profession. It’s very based on real situations. We’ve had some excellent, excellent candidates, as Lauren mentioned, coming out of the [inaudible 00:16:39] program as well. So I think having those options has really been a good for our state in terms of addressing some of those teacher shortages.

Erin Grubbs:

That’s great. Wendy, some of your research, obviously you already mentioned has been around onboarding and then also self-efficacy. What role do the administrators play in supporting new teachers, especially as it does relate to self-efficacy?

Wendy Anderson:

Administrators play a significant role, if not the most significant role in our new teachers, making them feel self efficacious. And I think there’s kind of a thought that, well, maybe the new teachers have mentors, they have induction coaches, they have instructional coaches, they have their departmental colleagues, so maybe the administrator doesn’t need to be as involved, but that’s actually not true. The administrator involvement is key to building self-efficacy for several reasons. If they start first with just simply being visible and present to those new teachers, just checking in with them every day on a regular basis, “How are you doing today? What do you need? What are your students going to learn today?” Or even, “After school, I saw a student a in the hallway and they told me all about blank that you were learning in your class today. That builds self-efficacy because teachers feel seen and heard and valued, and they know that they’re there for a reason.

So just that check-in from the administrator, because many times that teacher’s evaluator as well as they’re the lead learner of the building. So we know self-efficacy theory says a lot about the importance of a model. And so that’s what that administrator serves as very important in developing those foundational self-efficacy skills. Secondly, administrators need to make sure that they share their expectations with new teachers, and I’m not talking eight to 10 expectations, but maybe two to three very basic expectations that they would have. So one might be we expect you to have a work-life balance because many times, new teachers don’t understand what that should look like. So most of the time putting in way too many hours and becoming burned out and then wondering why did that happen? So we need to be very clear about those expectations for them. For our new teachers, this morning, we talked about our expectation for them is to speak up.

So in our collaborative teams, we are expecting a balance between step up, step back, because they have a voice and there’s a reason that they’re here. It’s not to sit back and just listen to the other teachers talk, it’s to share their voice. And so we expect them to do that. And we call that today our theme was being impact players. And so we were teaching them all about what that means in their collaborative teams. So when you set those expectations with them, then you can give them feedback throughout the year. “So we’re going to be visiting their collaborative team meetings, and then we can give them feedback… You know what, what I heard you say X, Y, and Z about this topic, great job that really helped push our practice forward. Or conversely, did you hear when your colleagues said this? That would’ve been a perfect opportunity for you to share about blank. So when you give that feedback to them throughout the year on those expectations, they get a sense of where they are on their own professional learning journey.

And then finally, I think it’s very important for administrators to support innovation and risk taking.

I’m thinking in particular of a teacher that we interviewed, she’s a world language teacher. In her first year that she came in, she was basically handed a curriculum from the prior teacher who went on to teach a different grade level, and said, Here’s what we did. We have always done it this way. You need to continue doing it this way.” And so the new teacher figured out very quickly that was not working at all. And so she went to her administrator and said, “I would like to try something different. I think that I could help the students learn better if we did small groups, if we did self-paced learning at some learning stations.” And he said, “Why don’t we pair you with the instructional coach? You can do some co-teaching, and until you feel comfortable handling that on your own? Well, the result was…

At the end of the year, all of her students were proficient on a Spanish exam, and she had a lot fewer discipline referrals to the office because students were engaged. And so rather than at the end of her first year saying, “This was terrible. I did not like this,” at the end of her second year, her exact words were, “I can do this.” So that’s kind of the embodiment of self-efficacy right there. So I don’t pretend that any of those things are, well, I just blew your mind by some things that I shared, but I do think those things need to be done on a consistent basis because they build that over time, that self-efficacy that’s very powerful.

Erin Grubbs:

Absolutely. And I think those stories just really help bring it to life, and that’s important in everybody kind of understanding it. And one of the ones that I actually wanted to touch on, I think is a great segue into the next question. You mentioned about providing feedback and how that really ties into the expectations that you’re setting with these new teachers. And Ann, obviously your role as a mentor for these new teachers, you’re having lots of conversations and giving feedback and helping them. What role does feedback play in supporting the new teachers? And what are some of the best practices that you’re using to create that culture of feedback?

Ann Stark:

Thanks, Erin. I think feedback is essential to new teacher growth. And when I say feedback, it’s not, here’s what you should do. It’s helping the teacher to figure that out for themselves by asking them guiding questions, by steering them in the direction to where they have sort of like that aha moment. One of the best compliments I got from one of my induction candidates at the end of the school year was, “When I first met you, I knew I was going to be a teacher, but now I know what kind of a teacher I’m going to be. I’ve developed my teaching style.” And for him, that was huge because it’s so overwhelming. In the beginning, they don’t even know what they don’t know. They don’t know what questions to ask. And so by having that dialogue together… And it grows and develops as your relationship grows and they gain trust that you’re a safe place, and that they can tell you about their worst day and know that there’ll be no judgment, and that you’ll guide them to finding a solution so that they can have a do-over, they get to try it again.

And so having collaborative conversations in a safe space, I think, is one of the magical things about the mentor new teacher relationship that really, really helps them find their teaching style, figure out who they are and how they’re going to impact their students. And it just creates a confidence in them that is motivating and drives them to continue pushing themselves and looking at the data, and really trying to differentiate their instruction to reach that one kid. And instead of teaching to the class, they’re teaching to every individual student because they’ve learned all their needs, and they’ve really spent time talking about each kid with their mentor. And it all becomes so very personal to them. So there’s a lot of ways to provide feedback, but I think that the worst way is, “Here’s what you should do.” So as mentors, we always avoid that.

Lauren Peña:

Yeah, I really appreciate what Whitney had to say about administrators and what Ann was saying about the mentor-mentee relationship. Something that we do at our school is that we have that mentor relationship for academics, but we also pair everyone with kind of a social mentor so that they have a teacher in the building who’s inviting them into the culture of the school as well, like, “Come to a football game with me. My club is meeting on this day. You should come and see what that’s all about.” Or we’re a Catholic school, so there’s optional mass opportunities. So, “You can come to mass with me,” or anything to get plugged into the culture and to have a friend at school because we know that that’s something that really plugs teachers into a school, is being involved in that. And then at the end of the semester, we have a social event with the principal. And again, we’re a Catholic school, so we go down the street and have a beer and hang out and have appetizers with the principal.

So that also gives them the chance to have that one-on-one time with the boss and really feel like they get that opportunity to talk about, “Okay, my first semester, I made it. Let’s see what second semester holds.”

Ann Stark:

Erin, can I add on to that a little bit on my end? When I was talking about feedback, another huge way that we do feedback through the induction program is through observations. As mentors, we’ll go into our teacher’s classrooms a few times a year, and we’ll be able to observe and then provide feedback that way. But we also use the GoReact platform. And we’ll have the teacher set up their iPad or their laptop, or even their cell phone, and they’ll videotape a lesson and they’ll upload it onto GoReact. And then first thing we do is we have the new teacher go through, watch themselves teaching, which is hugely powerful. And they’ll make a few comments at the point in the video where they see something where we require them to comment on two things they felt they did really well, and then one area where they might like to have a discussion about ways to improve.

And then after they provide that feedback, then as the mentor, we go through and watch the video, and we sort of do the same thing and provide different comments, but it’s so much more powerful than an in-person observation. Because an in-person, I can’t stop her. “Stop. Do you realize…” And then it’s almost lost. So our most powerful growth comes through the video observation where we can actually say, “See right there how you were able to connect or whatever, that’s amazing.” Or sometimes it’s more hard conversations like, “See how you’re talking and explaining, but so are 32 other kids and no one’s really listening to you?” So you can kind of see things that make it… The evidence is right there.

Lauren Peña:

Sorry, go ahead.

Ann Stark:

Really powerful.

Lauren Peña:

I love that you’re able to do that with this platform because I remember having to videotape myself teaching in my induction program. And it was on a VHS tape, and I had to wait for the person to watch it and then give back to me. So I love this quick feedback that they’re able to get and give.

Erin Grubbs:

Yeah. And I think what it also gives, not to go on a GoReact tangent, but I think it couples… Ann’s mentioned reflection a couple times, and it really ties in that ability to reflect and give feedback so you’re not having to spend so much time on some of the little things that really opens the dialogue up to have those meaningful conversations that you want to be having. But I think that’s a really great segue, Lauren, for you to talk a little bit about outside of and using GoReact, is there any technology that you think helps new teachers as they’re entering the classroom, whether it’s to make their jobs a little bit easier or you coaching them just to give them that feedback a little bit easier?

Lauren Peña:

Sure. So like we talked about, not wanting to overwhelm. I try to give only three simple tools, things that they’re going to use every day, like our student information system where they’ll take attendance, the learning management system where we ask them to put content for their students, and then something… I know some schools use GoGuardian, some use Apple classrooms, something to help with supervising student devices. And we keep it simple. Then as the year goes on and they come to me saying, “I want to try this thing.” I love it when they ask, “Okay, here’s my objective. What’s a good tool to use with that,” as opposed to, “Here’s a cool tech tool. How can we shoehorn this into the content?” I always try to encourage teachers to remember that it should make learning either more equitable, more efficient, more effective, or more engaging. Those are the four E’s that I use for technology use, equitable, efficient, effective, engaging, so that they’re not feeling like they have to use the hot new whatever, trendy new technology item.

I will say that I… Speaking of trendy new technology items, I found a website called eduaid.ai, and it’s an AI algorithm that will create a syllabus or a skeleton for a unit plan that I thought is going to be life-changing for our brand new baby teachers who just need a place to start. Obviously, you fill in with your content, but man. I was a Spanish teacher before, so I said, give me 10 lessons on the imperfect versus the preterite, and it gave me, here are 10 lessons in sequence. And that was an amazing starting place for me when I was starting to teach a new level of Spanish a couple of years ago. And the AI platform is eduaid.ai.

Erin Grubbs:

That’s great. Yeah, I think if there’s one thing going from higher ed to K-12 is there’s just so many tech tools out there, and I love that you have the four s to kind of help them refine that a little bit.

Cool. If you guys don’t have anything else to add there, I think we have one more question before we go to the Q&A. And I’m going to leave this to the group. I don’t think we assigned anybody, but… We’ve talked a lot about how to help new teachers and supporting them as they’re entering the classroom, but the obviously experienced and veteran teachers need just as much support. It’s just kind of a different lens. Are there any quick tips that you can give, whether it’s for administrators or new teachers, as they’re kind of approaching this school year to help them with that support that they need?

Ann Stark:

I can start us out. I think that no matter how many years you’ve been teaching, so tomorrow I start my 23rd year, and I still get those butterflies, that little nervousness at the beginning of the school year, and so excited for when my new students come in because I do know that those first few days set the tone for the school year, and that the most important thing that I can do is to establish that trusting relationship with my students and let them know that my room’s a safe place and there’s this balance between them feeling comfortable, but also making sure that I have clear procedures, expectations and rules that every student needs to follow. Because in order for it to feel like a safe place, I need to make sure that I’m in charge. And I think for many of our new teachers, especially the ones coming straight out of their teacher induction, I mean their university programs, is they want to be friends with the kids, they want to be liked, and it’s always the downfall of new teachers.

And so classroom management is key, but classroom management is not being friends with your students. It’s being friendly to your students, but making sure that you’re creating that safe place where you are in charge. So every year, you’re looking out for who’s going to give you a run for your money. Like, okay, I got to get with that kid. I got to make sure that they know I care about them. Because even your worst behaved student really wants to please the teacher, and they just need to know that you care about them and that you’re not going to embarrass them. So relationships are key. So that’s my best piece of new teacher advice. Those first few days are so, so important.

Wendy Anderson:

Thank you. If I could piggyback on a couple of things that both Ann and Lauren mentioned, and then add one of my own, I think. So Lauren mentioned that the social mentor, and I think that’s a great idea. When talking with other educators in the state of Iowa, and in one school district, they would send out a survey several times a year. They were trying to figure out what is the balance between teacher retention and then those that would leave the field. And from their survey questions, one of the things that they could always predict that it would be someone leaving the field was, I have a friend at work. And those that rated it very low that they didn’t have one were the ones that most often left the field. And I thought that was interesting because that was not something that had surfaced for me before when I had looked at reasons for teachers leaving the field.

So I would reiterate that point as well, those social mentors that maybe we don’t think about that as much, but very important. And I think Ann talked about being reflective. That’s a theme of ours this year, is reflective practices. And I liked how she said… She talked about feedback is not just saying, do this differently, but did you see how you did that? So she’s naming the practice which develops that common vocabulary. So if you don’t know why you’re doing something, maybe it’s just instinctive. And now, that builds self-efficacy as well. It’s like, oh, that’s what that’s called. That’s why it’s doing that. That’s a good practice. I’m going to continue with that. And then I guess just as far as …I know, Erin asked about, how can this benefit veteran teachers as well? When we have things like telling our new teachers that we expect them to speak up in our collaborative team meetings and be leaders right away, that benefits our veteran teachers as well, because sometimes the veteran teachers feel this burden.

Well, I’ve been in it for 30 years, so I should be the expert. I should be the one that takes responsibility for everything. And then it’s kind of like this catch 22. They take more responsibility and more ownership, so the younger teachers back off and become more passive. And then so the older teachers take more responsibility and it just continues down this path that doesn’t benefit either one. So I think it’s beneficial for our new teachers to lend their voices, but also our veteran teachers to make sure that they encourage new voices and are open to those new ideas and welcoming to our newest members of the team.

Lauren Peña:

I love that. And I heard somebody say that there are two roles in education. There are teachers and the people who are here to support teachers. And I try to remind myself of that often when I get into the weeds with some technology issue or whatever. And I try to remind the teachers that this is my job, is to help them. When they come to me and say, “I’m so sorry. Can you help me with my projector?” Don’t apologize. It’s literally my job to come fix your projector. It’s okay. You shouldn’t know how to do that. That’s why I’m here. So just encouraging them to use the resources that they have. We have two amazing wellness counselors at our school who are also grade level counselors, but also reminding them, you don’t have to be a therapist. You can always accompany a kiddo down there. We have an amazing campus minister. We have a chaplain. You are not responsible for every single thing. And we as teachers tend to take that on ourselves, I think, and just reminding them of the resources that are available.

And that goes for veteran teachers too. I was here for three years before I knew there was a spreadsheet with all of the wifi passwords on it. So reminding people you can always learn something new.

Erin Grubbs:

Nice. That’s great. Well, we’ve reached the time where we can do open Q&A. It’s a little bit slow. So just a reminder, guys, if you have any questions that you’d like to add, feel free to use the Q&A panel. I did see a couple requests for research and some of the resources that you all have mentioned. We will follow up with everyone that’s requested that, and we’ll try to get it in the follow-up email as well if we have enough time. So we’ve seen those. I think I had one question prepped, and I think it kind of ties into a few of the things that you all have talked about. I know you’ve mentioned a few times about student mental health. And Wendy, you mentioned about stepping back and the work-life balance, but how do you guys address mental health for the teachers, knowing that there’s some pretty big things happening still in the world? Wendy, do you mind taking the lead on that one?

Wendy Anderson:

Sure. We depend a lot, quite a bit on our area education associations. And I know that not every state has those AEIA services, but we are fortunate enough in Iowa to do that. And our regional, our area education agency provides those types of things where we have support. So we have crisis teams that come in. We use them quite a bit last year. We have support employee assistance programs for our employees that they can get some short-term counseling or therapy if they need that free of charge, completely confidential. And then we have some things, partnerships with our community as well. So we have a whole in our… We happen to be in Jasper County in Iowa, and we have a support group that comes together. It’s called Jasper County Cares. And all kinds of community organizations and schools will come together and talk about what kinds of resources that we have available, not only for our teachers, but for our students and families as well.

So last year in January, we were able to put on a community resource night where we showcased all of our resources that we have available. And that was a nice way to tie all those things together. So we have those outside agencies, but we also support that within our school, again, by making sure our principals are very clear with, what are we expecting from you as staff members? So I think that’s very important. We often try to gauge the temperature, I guess, of our school and our teachers and what’s going on. So sometimes we have a sense that it’s been a rough week. You know what? We were going to do some professional learning on Wednesday afternoon, but we think we’re just going to tell the teachers it’s your time today. We will table these topics that we have until next week. Go do what you need to do if you need to leave, if you need to do some extra work, this is your time today. And they really appreciate those breaks as well.

Lauren Peña:

That is something that… That was an observation made to me by the person who heads up the teacher induction program at that district in Missouri, was that when we started a while ago, that there was less of an expectation of that work-life balance. And so there were evening sessions, and it was enough for the district to say, “Hey, new college graduates, come on in this evening. We’ll feed you dinner, and we’ll do this learning time.” More and more, they’re hearing people say, “I’m not doing that. My contract is from this hour to this hour. I will not be coming in the evening.” Which I love that they’re willing to take that stance and say, “No, this is my time. I have family and I’m going to spend it there.” So that’s creating a new opportunity for them to think of, how can we include this in the school day more? And I love all of the mental health services that your area offers. I think that’s amazing.

Wendy Anderson:

Yes, very nice. We’re very fortunate.

Erin Grubbs:

Well, we got one more question. It’s a little bit more GoReact specific. But Ann, just for the group, they’re wondering where you are in California and an intro of how you’re using GoReact for induction candidate observations. I don’t think we have to go into a ton of detail on GoReact, but you can do a quick overview.

Ann Stark:

Sure. Yeah. I’m in Los Angeles County. We’re in a suburb district about, I don’t know, 25 miles east of Los Angeles. And our induction program, we use GoReact a couple of different ways. One I had already mentioned, as a way for the teacher and the mentor to observe teacher practice in the classroom, but we also use it among our mentors to help our mentors grow in their mentoring practice. So we partner mentors up. Each mentor has a peer partner. And one time during the year, the mentor will record their weekly meeting with their participating teacher and share it with their peer partner, and then they can provide feedback on their mentoring language. And it’s usually really positive, like, “Oh, I love how you segued into that difficult conversation. Oh, that’s a great way to run your meeting, using the individual learning plan to drive your conversation,” or whatever else. So we use it a couple of different ways. And every time I use the GoReact platform, it’s always powerful and positive.

Erin Grubbs:

Thanks, Ann. All right. Well, if we don’t have any other questions, feel free to reach out to the panelists, they did give their email addresses, if there’s anything specific that comes up. But I want to say thank you to Ann, Lauren, and Wendy for this excellent discussion. And thank you to all of our attendees for joining and making it an interactive discussion. Watch for an email with a link to the recording so that you can revisit and share the great information and insights from today’s discussion. And we hope to see you again on a future GoReact webinar. Thank you.

Lauren Peña:

Thanks, Erin.

Ann Stark:

Bye everyone.