Thursday, September 6, 2001

tech.life@school | Joyce Kasman Valenza

Support and advice for new teachers

Web sites and e-mail lists give educators in their first year resources, community and practical ideas.

Several years back, when I first entered the classroom, well-meaning veteran colleagues offered the classic advice "Don't smile till December."

I had no support system. I had no bag of tricks. It was sink or swim.

Thousands of new teachers will experience similar culture shock this month when their untested ideals hit the reality of the classroom. Compounding this shock, school districts tend to confront the most inexperienced teachers with the most challenging situations.

Though state-mandated induction programs are a step in the right direction, new teachers often face isolation and overload.

Happily, Web advice and mentorship go far beyond a suggestion about when to begin smiling.

"Teaching is really a solitary occupation," said Beth Lewis, who is the guide for elementary educators at About.com. "We're lucky to have the Internet. I am dependent on it for professional development, and I can't imagine teaching without it."

Lewis' site sifts through all the junk to guide teachers to the practical stuff they can use in their classrooms. I asked her to list her favorite new-teacher resources. She pointed to her annual back-to-school column, at http://k-6educators.about.com/library/weeklyaa080501a.htm, and the area she maintains for new teachers, at http://k-6educators.about.com/cs/newteachers/index.htm.

Lewis recommends that beginning teachers seek community, and suggests they consider joining the FirstYears e-mail list, at www.ametro.net/~teachers/home.html, where they can find a sounding board and the support of others going through the experience. Her own site's message board, at http://about.delphi.com/ab-k_6educators/start/, is another way for teachers, old and new, to "network, vent frustrations, and look for solutions."

"People going into education need all the resources they can get their hands on," said Bob Kizlik, associate professor of education at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and creator of the Adprima Web site, at http://adprima.com/mainmenu.htm, for new teachers. Kizlik is concerned about the rate of teacher turnover: "The statistics are bad. The attrition rate for new teachers is about 50 percent within the first nine years. People go into teaching for very good reasons, but are not prepared for what awaits them."

Through Adprima, a Latin phrase that he translates as "to the best," Kizlik functions as a kind of surrogate, a link to the seasoned advice of that favorite professor whose counsel you wish you still had. "What new teachers need most is a support system," Kizlik said. "What I put on the Internet is the stuff I know about, much of which I have written myself, the basic, practical information that communicates clearly what you can do - material about lesson planning, behavioral objectives, classroom management, assessment, dealing with parents."

"A new teacher's greatest resource is the knowledge of colleagues, and that is what we try to maximize," said Melanie Marker Schmalz, project manager for the National Council of Teachers of English's award-winning Teach2000 Project, at www.ncte.org/teach2000/. "First-year English teachers need this sense of community, being able to talk to other first-year teachers, as well as experienced teachers."

The site offers several communities and listservs where teachers share best practices. One of the most popular is the NewTeach e-mail list. Schmalz described the Cybermentor program, through which new teachers can ask questions of an experienced educator with a particular area of expertise. Traci's Lists of Ten features lists of writing assignments and writing activities. Schmalz edits CyberBriefs, a monthly members-only e-mail newsletter, compiling practical ideas from leaders in the field.

Education World lives up to its motto, "the educator's best friend," with its rich archive of articles, subject resource links, lessons, masters, and timely back-to-school icebreakers. Among my favorite recent features was the First 180 Days, at www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr262.shtml, which shares the weekly diaries of two teachers as they experienced their first year teaching.

The U.S. Department of Education hosts a couple of impressively practical resources. Survival Guide for New Teachers, at www.ed.gov/pubs/survivalguide/, deals with "the highs and lows of first-year teaching." The government also offers What to Expect Your First Year of Teaching, at www.ed.gov/pubs/FirstYear/, in which award-winning first-year teachers describe their own challenges and offer advice for those entering the field.

Recently, I created a site for new teachers as part of the Pennsylvania Network of Milken Educators' Mentoring Initiative, at http://pd.l2l.org/milken/mentor.html. The site features a number of practical resources and several of specific use to Pennsylvania teachers.

For a full list of resources for new teachers, as well as leads to materials for the administrators who are guiding them, visit http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/inqlinks.html.

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Joyce Kasman Valenza is the librarian at Springfield High School in Erdenheim, Pa. Her column appears each week in tech.life.

Her e-mail address is joyce.valenza@phillynews.com.

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