Running head: INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 1

Induction Plans for Beginning Teachers

Sara Wayne

Grand Canyon University: EAD-536

3/11/2020
INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 2

Providing an induction plan for beginning teachers is important to the success of the

beginning teachers. It is important to be always thinking about how a beginning teacher within a

school needs guidance on the ins and outs of a school. Induction plans help aide in the retention

of staff and student outcomes as they feel more supported. This begins with thinking about the

school-based induction plan and a mentoring induction plan. The more that administration can be

proactive the more successful beginning teachers will be.

School Based Induction Plan

The purpose of any induction program is to provide structure and support to beginning

teachers to maximize teacher learning to increase the possibility of retaining strong, well-trained

educators and aide in elevating student achievement. Between the principal, assistant principals,

instructional coach, and behavioral coach they will be the primary session leaders with the

assistance of any veteran teachers who may be able to present on a variety of sessions that are

deemed necessary.

When thinking about what induction activities that need to be addressed it is important to

begin with the basics of the school from explaining and understanding the vision and mission of

the school, the school handbook, the school wide behavior management program, and student

safety. Then we would focus on the teacher support that the instructional coach and behavior

coach will be providing to the teachers through support plans. Which will transition into the

different classroom observations from informal and formal lesson plans and end of the year

evaluations. Each of these items are explained for beginning teachers to help hold high

expectations for their selves as well as the administrative team holding those same high

expectations for the staff and students. When staff is held to high expectations, they will then

hold their students to the same expectations.

INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 3

Another important area to include in the induction plan is instructional methods, lesson

planning, and curriculum. Within these areas teachers will learn about the school’s pacing guides

for each grade level and curriculum, how to write measurable objectives, 7 steps of instruction,

the schoolwide homework and makeup work policies, and understanding the different grade

weights for each subject area.

After being provided more on the school’s intentional lesson planning and curriculum the

next step would be to focus on technology that the school offers and benchmark testing for

progress monitoring throughout the year. Helping teachers have a better understanding of the

different types of technology the school provides along with different sites that teachers will

need to have access to will provide a better understanding of their requirements. This part of the

induction plan will provide teachers an understanding of how to use the school’s document

cameras and projectors as well as the mobile computer carts. How to administer NWEA Map to

students and when to administer within the first few weeks of the school year to provide a

baseline for where the students are currently at academically. How to use the Student Data

Warehouse to document their weekly data, intervention students, and using this document for

PLCs. This will also be a time to go over the employee portal to better help the new teachers

understand how to access the portal and what different items they will be able to have access to

such as ADP and AESOP. With showing those two different sites it will be important to

demonstrate how to use them and why they are important. To help explain that ADP is where

they will request time off and once it is approved, they will need to put it into AESPO to help

find a sub. They will also be provided an understanding of how many paid time off days they

will receive for the school year and the procedures for calling out sick. All teachers will be
INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 4

required and explained of the expectations that teachers are required to have sub plans wrote

anytime they are out.

Lastly, other items would be reviewed with the entire staff such as the school’s dismissal

process, creating schedules and meeting instructional minutes, working with the special

education teams to look at IEPs and schedule minutes, understanding the process of the health

office, the school schedule with mandatory events for all teachers, going over mandatory

reporting and DCS events and procedures. These I feel are great to do as an entire staff no matter

how many years a teacher has been with the school because it is a great refresher for all staff, but

also something that needs to be completed each year to ensure that staff is well up-to-date on

different aspects of the school’s procedures and expectations.

Mentoring Induction Plan

When selecting mentor teachers, the principal will select a new mentor teacher for

each beginning teacher. It will begin with having veteran teachers submit a form to show their

interest in being a mentor. They will need to be available to assist new teachers with the

beginning of the school year duties and responsibilities. There will be a small stipend associated

with being a mentor teacher. They must be able to meet with their mentee regularly, model good

instructional practices, offer suggestions for improvements based on observations, provide

professional and personal support, maintain a confidential relationship, and serve as a liaison, if

needed. Some qualities a good mentor must possess are that they are willing to share their skills,

knowledge, and expertise with others, demonstrate a positive attitude, will take a personal

interest in their mentoring relationship, values ongoing learning and growth, and can provide

guidance and constructive feedback (Top 10 Qualities of a Good Mentor, n.d.). When looking
INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 5

for a mentor it is important to think about what qualities are important before selecting who

potentially could be a mentor and who to pair them up with.

In order to ensure that a mentoring plan is successful it would be advised that all mentors

are trained before beginning on the requirements that are expected of them. This would involve

going over a checklist that they will be using with their mentee to help ensure that different items

are being discussed or different tasks are being completed. The Central Columbia School District

provided a great example of what this could look like.

Inductee Program to Address the Following:

a) Dealing with problems of individual students..............................

b) Slow learner in the classroom.................................................

c) Classroom discipline...........................................................

d) Motivating students............................................................

e) Dealing with individual differences..........................................

f) Assessing students' work......................................................

To begin the school year in the right direction with the mentoring program we need to set

up both the mentee and mentor up for success. This will begin with providing a meeting with all

mentors and mentees to explain the different requirements throughout the school year. Each

month the mentee will be required to observe their mentor and provide documentation of what

they observed, when they observed, and what they took away from it. Then the mentor will

observe them and provide documentation of what was observed, feedback for their mentee, and

ways that they can continue to grow as an educator. The mentor will need to provide monthly

coaching sessions to help their mentee learn and grow within their craft and structure for

classroom management, student engagement, questioning strategies, lesson planning, or

intervention implementation. The mentor would be required to turn in a timeline of the planned
INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 6

observations for both their self and their mentee. This would need to be turned into

administration then signed each time the observations have occurred. Administration would be

checking in month to see how the pairing are working together and making sure their

observations are occurring at different times throughout the day and month.

The team would need to sit down and work together at the beginning of the year to plan

these observation dates and times to ensure that the mentee is able to observe all aspects of the

curriculum and classroom management strategies used throughout the day. Then they would

need to schedule times to go over these observations where the mentor is able to coach their

mentee in a variety of aspects and use their checklist to go through their required tasks.

In order to ensure that the mentor teachers are continuing on their professional

development to becoming the best mentor that they can be each will be required to complete

three modules focused on building trust, responding to diverse learners, and enhancing mentor

knowledge through Mentor Modules (Mentoring New Teachers, n.d.). These modules will help

provide more understanding for mentors to help teachers get beyond stereotypes and surface-

level observations while looking more into the children’s learning in data-driven ways. These

modules can be completed throughout the school year but would highly be suggested to finish

within the two months of the school year as they should take up to 15 hours or longer.

Lastly, we need to consider what type of budget is available for adding a small stipend to

be a mentor teacher. This needs to be considered due to it potentially being a new program for

the school or determining what ways we can continually benefit new teachers. There needs to be

something put into place as they will need to be compensated for the extra time they provide and

their effort as they help mentor a new teacher. This potentially could range from $200-$800

depending on the budget availability and the number of new teachers needing mentors.
INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 7

Being able to provide a great induction plan for beginning teachers and incorporating a

mentoring induction program is important to ensuring that beginning teachers are successful and

confident in what they are doing. The more that veteran teachers with administration can support

these teachers the more they are going to be open to asking for help or suggestions on what they

are doing within their classrooms. This then translate into retaining teachers year after year as

they feel supported by everyone.

INDUCTION PLANS FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS 8

References

Mentoring New Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://mentormodules.com/course/mentoring-

teachers/

Teacher Induction Program Checklist. (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www.ccsd.cc/docs/district/depts/22/teacher%20induction%20program

%20checklist.pdf?id=6751

Top 10 Qualities of a Good Mentor. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://franchisegrowthpartners.com/top-10-qualities-of-a-good-mentor/