Seventeenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

This study describes a semester long project (mid-August through early December 2020) involving twenty-two practicing teachers and eleven first-year teachers. The practicing teachers were enrolled in a graduate course at a large comprehensive public university. This course studied leadership as it relates to a Reading Specialist certification and they were tasked with mentoring a first-year teacher. The first-year teachers were recent graduates of the same university whose student teaching had been greatly impacted by school closures during the pandemic. As student teachers during spring 2020, they had a traditional experience from January through mid-March but were then thrust into the world of remote and hybrid learning from March until the conclusion of the semester in May. The graduate students coached and mentored the first-year teachers during their first semester of teaching. This coaching primarily focused on the areas of classroom management, meeting the needs of all learners, and integration of technology. Perspectives from both the mentors and mentees are shared. Possibilities for future mentoring models are also discussed.

Presenters

Tina Selvaggi
Associate Professor, Literacy Department and Field/Student Teacher Coordinator, Early Middle Grades Department, College of Education, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, United States

Rose Jagielo Manion
Assistant Professor, Early and Middle Grades Education Department, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, United States