Mentoring for new teachers of composition

There are numerous benefits for all participants in a mentoring program—- mentors, proteges, and students. I would have to say the university teaching environment also benefits.

Mentors benefit because they have a second person to assist them in class discussions, class presentations, and, hopefully, grading student work. They also benefit from having to justify and focus their teaching. We all know that we learn best what we have to teach others. This is why it is better to let older children teach younger children how to tie a shoelace. By training new teachers, we revisit some of the reasons we ourselves became teachers. We take another look at our goals and methods, and possibly rethink old material that may have out-lived its usefulness.

Proteges benefit by becoming involved with practicing teachers. They obviously learn all aspects of the profession, from planning lessons and managing a classroom to working one-on-one with students. This is particularly important for new teachers with little experience in responding to students work. Here again, the established teacher can revisit tried methods and possibly re-evaluate their true effectiveness.

One of the most exciting benefits for the protégé is the feeling of belonging as he participates in faculty meetings and workshops. Inclusion within the faculty community provides the protégé with access to the pedagogical discussions that frequently occur among faculty. Also, as the protégé identifies more with the teachers and moves away from his self-identity as a student, he builds his own professional persona.

Students benefit from the dual input and perspectives of both mentor and protégé. Sometimes students find they are more comfortable conferencing with someone who they regard as more of a student. However, most will ultimately look to the mentor as the final authority in all evaluations and assignments. When the relationship between a mentor and a protégé is good, they can back one another up and fill in the "gaps" during discussions and presentations.

I believe that any faculty that has a mentoring program benefits from the shared experiences and interactions of the participants. They soon learn that good teachers are generous co-workers who willingly share ideas and lessons with other teachers. The proteges feel a part of this learning community immediately, and thus feel comfortable with not only asking for help but suggesting ideas that they themselves believe are good. Also, new teachers who are hired to teach within this program may bring a higher degree of self-confidence and professionalism than might normally be expected for first-time teachers.

Through participation in the process of creating a mentoring program, I personally have grown in all the ways that I would expect a protégé to grow. I integrate various elements in the daily lesson plans and keep each step relevant to the course goals. This is something that a new teacher may know in theory, but not be able to easily plan in the classroom. By breaking down my own process of designing lessons and course objectives, I am able to show the proteges how they can also dove-tail each learning unit to lead the student toward attaining a course goal. This instruction reinforces the focus that I need to bring to my work.

Beginning a mentoring program is also a difficult task. Both trust and credibility must be established among the participating teachers and between the mentors and proteges. Establishing set criteria for the expectations of both mentor and protégé provides the needed guidance which all can use to steer their way around possible pitfalls such as often happens with more traditional professor/teaching assistant relationships.

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