20062007 The Kansas Early Career Professional Mentor Academy

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2006-2007The Kansas Early Career Professional
/Mentor Academy
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Mentoring in Kansas
Presently in Kansas 37 of all Kansas teachers
leave the field within 5 years 42 of all Kansas
teachers leave the field within 7 years 51 of
all Kansas teachers are over 45 years of age 36
of all Kansas teachers are over 50 years of age
Keeping and recruiting qualified teachers will
remain a challenge for Kansas
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Mentoring in Kansas
Presently in Kansas, there are programs run
by Individual Schools School Districts Educationa
l Service Centers Universities Collaborative
Alliances
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor
Academy2006-2007
PSUs Academy is oldest running and largest
teacher induction program in Kansas. The program
has evolved over the past ten years.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• A collaborative effort with
• Pittsburg State University
• USD 250 and USD 447, 248, 404, 499, 493
• Southeast Kansas Special Education Interlocal 637

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
The Structure

• Both Early Career Professionals and Mentors
  participated in
• Six Monthly Seminars
• Weekly School Interactions
• Concluding Wichita Conference
• Graduation Banquet

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Trainers and Planning Board

• The program trainers include
• Dr. Kent Runyan, Mentor Trainer
• Dr. Rozanne Sparks, Early Career Professional
  Trainer -KPA Specialist
• Dr. Maryln Dishman-Horst, Early Career
  Professional Trainer

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Participants
• Early Career Teachers (First through third year)
• Early Career Teachers (Post tenure requesting
  peer assistance)
• Early Career Special Education Professionals
  (First through third year)
• Early Career Special Education Professionals
  (Requesting peer assistance)
• Classroom Mentors (Selected for positive
  attitude, proximity, discipline/grade similarity,
  and instructional proficiency)

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Training Goals

• The program is open to all 1st, 2nd and 3rd year
  professionals and focused on
• Increasing Student Achievement
• Improving Instruction and Management
• Socializing Professionals to the School Culture
• Reducing Isolation for New Professionals
• Retaining Professionals with Long Term Potential
• Developing Collegiality Among Professionals

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Materials for Early Career

• Early Career Professional Material included such
  items as
• The First Days of School by Harry Wong
• Early Career Training Manual
• Course Syllabus - Orientation Checklist
• Activity Time Line - Teaching Styles
• Parent Conferencing -Management Strategies

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Materials for The Mentor
• The Mentorship
• Why Become a Mentor
• Characteristics of Beginning Professionals
• Mentor Communication Activities
• Mentor Characteristics
• The Mentorship Manual
• Orientation Checklist
• Activity Time Line
• Conferencing and Coaching Guidelines
• Teaching and Learning Styles Instruments
• Classroom Data Collection Instruments
• Video-taping Guidelines
• National Board Certification Portfolio Material

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Topics

• Throughout the year, various instructional
  leaders covered important educational topics tied
  to local school initiatives and common beginning
  teacher concerns.

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Topics for the Classroom Teachers
• School and Community Orientation
• Effective Parent Professional Conferences
• Student Learning Styles
• Classroom Management Strategies
• Positive Discipline
• High Expectations for Every Child
• IDEA and the Classroom Teacher
• The Internet for Effective Lesson Planning
• National Board Certification
• Ending the Year Right

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Topics for the Early Career Professionals
• Time Management and Organization Skills
• What It Is Like To Be Handicapped
• National Board Certification
• QPA and Accreditation
• Positive Behavioral Support
• Attachment Disorders
• Adapting Curriculum
• IDEA and Legislation
• Autism Update

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Topics for the Early Career Professionals
• SEKSEC Structure and Personnel
• Compliance Issues
• IEPs and Behavior Plans
• Accommodations and Modifications
• Parent Professional Conferences
• Special Education Internet Sites

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Training Topics for the Mentors
• Characteristics and Stages of Beginning
  Professionals
• Characteristics of Growth - Oriented Mentors
• Assessing Professional Needs
• Assessing Teaching Styles
• Using the Internet for Ideas
• Brain Research
• Coaching Another Professional
• Rogerian Counseling
• Classroom Observation Instruments
• Using Video-taping to Help a Beginning
  Professional
• National Board Certification

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Mentor Training Goals
• Mentors were trained and expected to
• Conceptualize the general characteristics, needs,
  concerns, and expectations of the beginning
  Professional.
• Interact and communicate in a non-threatening ,
  supportive manner.
• Assess specific classroom needs using checklists,
  assessment instruments, and personal conferences.
• Analyze, focus, and support specific classroom
  needs using peer coaching techniques.
• Use data collection instruments in observing
  class activities.
• Incorporate the personal, professional, and
  personality needs of the beginning Professional
  into activities and interactions.
• Implement developmental activities that will
  offer additional knowledge, skills, and attitudes
  for successful teaching performance.
• Serve effectively as a developmental mentor who
  can provide an orderly, personalized transition
  from preservice preparation to the first years of
  teaching.

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Program Evaluation Theoretical Framework of
Development

• Establishing Structures
• (Survival)
• Acquiring supplies and establishing room layout
• Knowing school policies, norms and culture
• Building collegial staff relationships
• Establishing classroom procedures and routines
• Setting rules and reinforcing them to gain
  respect of students
• Expanding subject matter knowledge
• Lesson planning for high time on task
• Coping with evaluation, others opinion, and fear
  of failure
• Knowing parents and opening lines of communication

• Developing the Science of Teaching
• (Mastery)
• Using various models of teaching correctly
• Acquisition of innovative techniques, activities,
  and ideas
• Asking classroom questions effectively and
  providing review and pra
• Providing timely assignment feedback and
  furnishing justification for grades
• Clear direction giving, illustration, and
  transitions so classroom activities move smoothly
• Identifying learning styles, characteristics, and
  needs of class
• Providing sponge activities to keep students busy
• Managing time pressures

• Developing the Art of Teaching
• (Impact)
• Being novel, vivid, and varied in teaching
  strategies
• Achieving equity in monitoring, questioning and
  feedback
• Showing high expectations for every student and
  motivating all students to succeed
• Striving to meet the individual academic,
  emotional and social needs of students
• Developing consistency in enthusiasm, fairness
  and humorous disposition
• Being a role model who shows empathy, warmth, and
  respect to each student

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Other Program Components
College Credit Classroom Assistance Food,
Food, Food Internet Communication Confidentiali
ty Agreement No Fault, Easy Out Policy Teacher
Work Sample Collaborative PD Plans State
Conference Attendance Graduation Banquet
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Stipends and College Graduate Credit

• Three hours of graduate college credit is made
  available to all participants during the Spring
  semester.
• Some school districts will be paying individual
  stipends to the mentors.

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Food, Food, Food

• Dinner is served at every session!

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Food, Food, Food

• For the 2001 Christmas session, Dr. Runyan and
• Mrs. Killingsworth dressed for the occasion.
  Door prizes were even given.

A good time was had by all!
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• For the 2002 Christmas banquet, Mark Disetti was
  the guest speaker and in 2003, Christy Levings.
  Door prizes were given and the banquets received
  front page coverage in the Morning Sun.

Banquets
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• This year Dr. Runyan will be selecting the menu
  items, so watch out!

Monthly Meetings
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Funding comes from participant fees School
district cost is 700.00 per Mentor/Early Career
Teacher and covers materials, seminar dinners ,
trainer speaker stipends, hotel rooms, and
banquets Individual school districts will be
responsible for KSDEs Wichita conference
registration fee, substitute costs, and travel.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Confidentiality Agreement
• With each early career professional and mentor,
  an Confidentiality Agreement is signed to
  clearly understand that no activity will be used
  for formal performance assessment in contract
  renewal or dismissal.

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
No Fault, Easy Out Policy Form

• A No Fault, Easy Out Policy Form is also signed,
  if needed, to allow for a process to change the
  early career/mentor assignment.

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Collaborative Professional Development Plans
• With each early career professional and mentor, a
  Collaborative Professional Development Plan is
  used to focus classroom activities each semester.
  Each plan outlines objectives, planned
  activities, intended timeline, and verification
  documentation.
• Types of IPDP Objectives
• Knowledge What you want to know that you did
  not know before?
• Application What you want to do that you did
  not do before?
• Impact How do you want to change student
  performance or classroom?

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Electronic Mentoring and Communication
• All Academy participants are linked through the
  Internet by email. Here, all early career
  professionals and mentors will have access to
  each other on a daily basis through emails. At
  times questions will foster diverse discussion
  and updated information will be made available.

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Kansas Performance Assessment (KPA)
• Every first year teacher will construct a
  KPA with help from Dr. Sparks to achieve a Kansas
  Teaching License. It will contain
• Contextual Factors
• Learning Objectives
• Assessment Plan
• Design For Instruction
• Instructional Decision Making
• Lesson Reflection
• Assessment Data
• Analysis of Assessment Data
• Reflection and Self-Evaluation

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Year-End Conference
• To conclude the year, both the mentor and early
  career professional are invited to attend the
  KSDE Conference in Wichita.

Over two days, past participants listened to such
keynote speakers as Thomas Guskey and Terry
Dozier and attended seven breakout sessions of
their choosing.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• For a number of years, the mentor and early
  career professional stayed together in the
  Radisson Broadview.

Evening discussions centered on the points made
by the keynote speakers.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
The evenings were spent attending symposiums
York Educational Symposium
The first night, Dr. York held the Annual
Educational Symposium.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Sparks Educational Symposium
The second evening, Dr. Sparks conducted her
Annual Sparks Symposium.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
During the conference, participants choose the
sessions they wanted to attend.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Concluding Graduation Banquet
• Most years a concluding graduation banquet was
  held at the conference. Guest speaker was always
  Dr. Andy Tompkins, Kansas Commissioner of
  Education.

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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
2003 Graduation Banquet
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Graduation Certificate
Graduates are given a Certificate of Completion
by Dr. Steve Scott, Dean of PSUs College of
Education.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy

• Attending 2002 Mentors and Early Career
  Professionals

Early Career Professionals
Mentors
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Mentors
2003 Mentors and Early Career Teachers
Early Career Teachers
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Over past several years, the Academy has stayed
at various hotels.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Also, over past several years, the Academy has
hosted the graduation banquet locally.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
The Academy meets all KSDE Standards and contains
all indicators suggested for quality Mentoring,
Induction, and Peer Assistance programs.
The program has received local publicity with
newspaper and television coverage.
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
The program has also received state and national
publicity in being presented at various
conferences sponsored by International
Mentoring Association Association of American
Colleges of Teacher Education Kansas United
School Administrators Kansas State Department of
Education
We have been disappointed. Attendance at our
sessions could have been better!
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Kansas Early Career Professional / Mentor Academy
Welcome to a new year!