Mentoring teachers

Teaching is daunting. Whether it's 6-year-olds or 16-year-olds, the first couple of years of teaching can be a nightmare. Educators say those years are by far the most difficult of a teacher's career and often end up chasing them away for good.

But Davis School District is taking unprecedented measures to turbo-charge a state requirement calling for new-teacher mentors who act as a teacher's cheering section, aid and support.

"We have a bucket full of holes that we are pouring teachers in and they are falling out as fast as we put them in," said Joan Patterson, state coordinator of educator licensing.

This year Davis has hired and trained 14 mentors in a new program to focus solely on making sure new teachers have a successful first year and keep coming back.

"You throw the new teacher to the wolves, you give them the worst classroom — the one that has no windows, when you come in all the other teachers have taken the good desks out and put the junk in your room," said Patterson. "You are left to your own devices to try to figure out what to teach, how to handle everything and if you survive for a couple of years you will probably stay."

But some don't make it.

A 2001 Utah State University study on educator supply and demand found 40 percent of graduates from colleges of education never looked for teaching jobs, and 40 percent of new teachers quit within five years.

Why? Brian Pead, mentor program coordinator, said reasons are myriad.

Teachers starting out often feel they are thrown into the classroom and are left alone. Because they're new they get assignments that aren't the greatest, and they get overwhelmed, said Pead. They get discouraged, they get frustrated and they quit.

Though the mentoring program is just barely getting off the ground, Pead expects to see far-reaching effects.

"This is just one more brick, if you will, in the wall of educational practice," Pead said. "The teachers will be so much more powerful. The students will learn so much more. And it won't take them so long to get there."

The main target is teachers in their first year.

The first year is exhausting, and teachers often hit a period of disillusionment after a couple of months, said Suzanne Cottrell, former teacher and program coordinator.

"You start with all these great ideas and you get moving and then about November, December you are so tired and reality sets in," said Cottrell.

In the Davis program, 14 of the top teachers in the district were hired as mentors. Seven full-time mentors are each assigned to 15 new teachers, while seven part-time mentors each work with 15-30 second- and third-year teachers.