Building Skills to Foster Teacher Success
The Texas Mentorship Training (TMT) is grounded in core competencies designed to equip mentoring educators, campus and district-level leaders with the knowledge and skills to support teacher candidates and early-career teachers effectively. Below are the competencies for each pathway, along with detailed descriptions of their focus areas.
Pathway 1: Mentoring Educators
The Texas Mentoring Educator Competencies are designed to support the development of mentoring educators and promote alignment between districts and organizations regarding training, experiences, and expectations. These competencies aspire to bolster the effectiveness and retention of skilled educators dedicated to supporting those new to the profession.
Establish Effective Mentoring Partnerships
Effective mentoring is a dynamic process, and both parties should be committed to:
- Success of the relationship
- Regular, open communication
- Confidentiality
- Mutual growth that contributes to a successful mentoring partnership
It is important that mentoring educators know how to support their mentee utilizing adult learning theory.
Guide Mentees in Developing a Welcoming and Organized Learning Environment
The primary aim of a thriving learning environment is to foster an atmosphere where students can achieve academic, emotional, and social success. Mentoring educators plays a vital role in:
- Guiding beginning teachers to arrange the physical classroom
- Establishing its culture, routines, and interactions
This environment encompasses the connections among students, educators, families, and the wider school community.
Implement Co-Teaching Strategies
The co-teaching model provides mentees with a scaffolded teaching experience that prepares them to effectively lead their own classroom.
- The co-teaching model is designed to ensure the mentor and mentee understand their roles and responsibilities in the planning, implementation, and assessment of student learning.
- While co-teaching is an expectation in the Cooperating Teacher and Clinical Teacher Candidate and Host Teacher and Teacher Resident relationship, it is strongly recommended that district and campus leaders think creatively about scheduling to provide space and time for Mentors and Intern Candidates and Mentor Teachers and Beginning Teachers to also benefit from co-planning and co-teaching in the classroom.
Lead Mentees in Instructional Preparation and Delivery
Effective teachers excel in selecting, evaluating, and implementing high-quality instructional materials that align with the TEKS. Mentoring educators play a critical role in:
- Supporting mentees in lesson internalization and lesson rehearsal
- Developing high-quality instruction
Guide Mentees in Analyzing Student Work and Instructional Shifts
Effective teachers also model how to use both quantitative and qualitative data to understand student performance, teaching strategies, and overall classroom effectiveness.
Collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data gathered from student assessments, observations, and other sources help educators make informed decisions about instructional strategies.
Pathway 2: Campus and District Leaders
The Texas District and Campus Leader Competencies help district and campus leaders train and develop mentoring educators who support beginning teachers, clinical teachers, interns, and resident teachers. They also guide leaders in designing and implementing effective mentoring programs. District and campus leaders include principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, and any district employees who work with or supervise beginning teachers, including those overseeing mentoring programs.
Plan for Program Sustainability
- Invest key stakeholders in the mentoring program.
- Collect and analyze data to assess the program’s impact.
- Codify the mentoring program and its resources.
Develop a Master Schedule that Provides Release Time for Mentoring Activities
- Design a master schedule that allows for release time or reduced teaching load for mentors and their mentees.
- Designate specific times during the school day for mentoring to occur.
- Utilize data to measure mentoring activities.
Develop a Vision for the Mentorship Program
- Set a vision and develop a mentorship program focused on student learning, educator effectiveness, and educator retention.
- Use the vision to set specific program goals.
- Tie the vision to district-specific priorities.
- Monitor progress and respond to data.
Develop Effective Mentoring Recruitment, Selection, and Assignment Practices
- Develop clear roles and responsibilities for various mentorship roles.
- Establish effective processes to recruit and select mentoring educators.
- Appropriately select and assign mentoring educators.
- Provide an onboarding experience for mentoring educators.
Plan for Program Scaling
- Develop and implement plans for scaling across campuses.
- Develop and implement plans for continued delivery of mentor training.
Develop a Plan for Ongoing Training and Support
- Support mentoring educators in engaging in research-based mentorship training.
- Review and internalize mentorship training and support mentoring educator skill development.
- Observe mentoring activities and coach mentoring educators.
