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— Having Their Say:Students' Input Vital to School Improvement — Institutes on Reading — Teachers' Journal Conference News — ENF Conference features Thomas Armstrong — Conference Call Resource Reviews — Posters Feature the Best Methods for Improving Schools — Giving New Teachers A Hand What's New on the Web www.nwrel.org Order Document Order Form Flashback Pictures from past events Credits Credits |
May/August 2001 | NW REPORT Giving NewTeachers a Hand Keeping new teachers in the educational fold can feel like an exercise in futility. Promising new teachers leave the profession at a rate of nearly 30 percent, never to return. How can schools encourage teachers to keep their careers in the classroom?
 Supporting Beginning Teachers: How Administrators, Teachers, and Policymakers Can Help New Teachers Succeed is the latest booklet in NWREL's By Request series. Authors Cori Brewster and Jennifer Railsback note that some teachers leave the classroom because they discover they're not suited to the job. Others leave to find better pay elsewhere or to raise their own children. But a vast number of beginning teachers leave the profession because they're exhausted, disillusioned, and lack adequate support. Losing promising new teachers limits a school's ability to create learning communities where both teachers and students can excel.Supporting Beginning Teachers reviews two decades of research into methods for supporting and retaining teachers. The interest in improving teachers' first experiences has been spurred on by teacher shortages, growing student populations, and increasing ethnic and language diversity. Fostering new bilingual teachers and teachers of color is especially crucial. Special education teachers are also in short supply, and new teachers in this specialty area need to be supported, as well. Beginning teachers often need help in designing their first lesson plans and developing classroom management skills. Even help with the smaller things can get a new teacher off to a good start: setting up a classroom for the first time, learning school routines, and teaching with limited resources. Schools can provide new teacher orientations, individualized professional development plans, monthly seminars, and regular opportunities to observe and be observed by other teachers. No matter how well new teachers are prepared in college, they will require guidance, support, and opportunities to learn as they make the transition into their own classrooms. To request a free copy of the booklet, call (503) 275-9720; e-mail info@nwrel.org; or download the online version at www.nwrel.org/request/.
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