Education Administration Artifact Reflection

Artifact Title: Mentoring Teachers

Date: Fall 2014
Artifact Description
During the fall 2014 semester at UW-Platteville I was able to take a class titled Education
Leadership and Mentoring. As a final project for this class I was able to create a handbook
for mentoring of new teachers. The focus of the class was on mentoring of teachers new to
the profession or new to the district. It was an extensive training not only on how to be a
better mentor, but also how to plan and carry out mentoring programs within a school
district. All of this was the focus of the handbook, which set some guidelines for me to use
as a future mentor to new teachers.

Wisconsin Administrator Standard Alignment

The completion of the class Educational Leadership and Mentoring and the completion of a
mentoring handbook best aligns with Administrative Standard 1-9: Reflection which states:
The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her
choices and actions on others and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow
professionally.
This artifact best aligns with Standard 1.9 because it shows that I recognize my professional
responsibilities for engaging in and supporting appropriate professional practices for myself
and colleagues. During the class I was able to reflect on some of my past practices as a
teacher, mostly as a leader in the school district. Throughout the class I was able to look back
at my actions as a teacher and the effects on my classroom and the school community as a
whole.
The focus of the handbook is to assist in the mentoring of new teachers. As a teacher with
several years of experience our actions can have a great impact on those, especially new
teachers, working around us.

What I learned about teaching from this experience:

While creating the mentoring handbook I was able to reflect back on different
experiences as a teacher. One that came to mind was my first time working with a
student teacher. I feel that this was a very successful relationship and interaction. The
young man I worked with became a teacher and has had some success as both a
teacher and a coach. I feel a lot of the success was because of the clear expectations
set by the university department of education. They made their expectations of the
student teacher and me as a mentor very clear. There were great lines of
communication between me, the student teacher, and the supervising professor at the
university. I was able to see the importance of communication and building
relationships in a professional setting and how they can lead to great success for both
parties as my teaching practices were strengthened through the process.

What I learned about myself as a prospective administrator as a result of this experience/artifact:

As a future administrator I reflect back to another teaching experience in which the school I was
working hired a first year math teacher. Being the only other math teacher in the building I feel I
should have stepped up and given better guidance for the new teacher. However there was no
formal mentoring program or established guidelines for mentoring of new teachers. I personally
felt like I was overstepping my bounds as a teacher by going into the other teachers classroom
and making suggestions on classroom management and teaching techniques.
As an administrator I dont want teacher in my school to feel this way. I hope to set up a formal
mentoring program as well as build open lines of communication between teachers, not only new
teachers with veteran teachers, but also between teachers. I hope that they can feel comfortable
observing and being observed by their peers. By observing and discussing another teachers
classroom procedures and environment was naturally reflect on our own and in turn both parties
involved become better teachers.