March 8, 2005

Building Teacher Support
The Pantagraph article in this week's News section discusses the challenges that new teachers face during the school year. Returning teachers also face many demands in the classroom. This collection of resources suggests ways that teachers can build a supporting community among their colleagues to help ensure a successful (and less stressful) school year.

The Pantagraph article points to the new NCTE book Supporting Beginning English Teachers: Research and Implications for Teacher Induction (M-S-C), which presents a research study that outlines the main challenges that new teachers face and suggests ways that teacher induction programs can help these teachers succeed in the classroom. An excerpt from book -- Chapters 1-3 (M-S-C) -- is available online.

In addition to the suggestions in this book, teachers can take advantage of ideas in the following articles to provide support and build community among teachers at their school:

• Teacher Study & Writing Groups
  The Language Arts article "Finding a Space for Professional Development: Creating Thirdspace through After-School Writing Groups" (E) describes a teacher study group that allows teachers to engage in the dual work of imagining and making real opportunities for education that connect with learners’ emerging passions. "When Teachers Have Time to Talk: The Value of Curricular Conversations" (E) from Language Arts chronicles the evolution of a collaborative teacher study group program and provides an analysis of the curricular conversations that took place.
  
  Online teacher support groups can also be a great resource. "Building Bridges: Creating an Online Conversation Community for Preservice Teachers" (G) from English Education explores the role of an online forum in helping student teachers find peer and faculty mentors. Through the listserv, student teachers tell their own stories to make meanings of their experience and to define themselves as education professionals. Online resources can help teachers at all levels. To check out the online communities offered by NCTE, visit the NCTE Listserv Subscription Page.
  
  
• Literacy Coaching
  "What Is a Literacy Coach?" (E-M-S) and "What Makes an Effective Literacy Coach?" (E-M-S) from Voices from the Middle include details on how coaching provides teacher support and development while simultaneously increasing students' literacy skills. For even more resources, check out the Literacy Coaching Teacher Resource Collection, which includes numerous articles and links to additional materials.
  
  
• Tapping Existing Resources
  In addition to help from colleagues at your school, teachers can look to existing resources for help with their curriculum. The ReadWriteThink Web site provides K-12 lesson plans, teacher-reviewed Web sites, and interactive student activities that teachers can use in the classroom. Whether you choose resources from ReadWriteThink or from a colleague's filing cabinet, it's important to adapt borrowed ideas for your own classroom context. "New Voices: Becoming through Borrowing" (M-S) from English Journal follows the experiences of one teacher as she adapts borrowed ideas for the students that she teaches.
  
  
• Supporting Scholars and Scholarship
  At the college level, mentoring can make all the difference for new teachers. "Diving for Pearls: Mentoring as Cultural and Activist Practice among Academics of Color" (C) from College Composition and Communication explores how senior scholars of color and their protégés gain some understanding of the complexities and costs of building a multiethnic/multiracial professoriate in our discipline. "Support for Scholar-Teachers" (C) from Teaching English in the Two-Year College describes how a Maryland college supports scholarship through seminars and opportunities for scholarly activities that helps faculty maintain currency in their disciplines and explore effective pedagogy.
  
  

NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this Inbox is provided for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 02-15-2005.

Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary, M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, G=General).