Responding to concerning reports regarding common world language classroom practices failing to meet a communicative standard (Burke, 2011; 2014), acknowledging the critical shortage of teachers in the United States, and reacting to the call by Madel (2020) to leverage teacher leadership to promote pedagogical development within the field, this…

In the fall of 2016, leadership in the Oklahoma Music Educators Association (OkMEA) recognized the need for a formal, music mentorship program for beginning educators. I provide a detailed description of how the mentorship co-chairs, president, immediate past president, and president-elect of OkMEA designed and implemented a statewide music…

Educational developers understand the importance of a strong new faculty program (NFP). When designing an NFP, what do new faculty need and when do they need it? What learning goals facilitate transition and help faculty cultivate important knowledge and skills? In a multi-stage, institution-wide collaborative planning process, we adapted Fink's…

This paper describes several strategies for organizing, collaborating on, persisting in, and funding professional writing activities that can benefit new tenure track faculty members. Establishing and maintaining a regular program of academic writing is essential to a successful career in higher education, but initiating and maintaining a program…

When beginning music teachers enter a new classroom for the first time, they start a journey toward understanding a new context and community. Place consciousness develops as they become embedded in their community and begin to recognize how its culture and environment interact with their teaching practices. By mapping the objects, people, and…

This case describes one university's journey to embed social, emotional, and cultural learning (SEC) deeply into a three-semester combined multiple-subject credential and MA program centered on social justice. The authors describe stages of program development and point to key anchor competencies they believe essential for beginning teachers and…

Culturally responsive science teaching has been associated with several positive academic outcomes for students of color, including improved science achievement, attitudes, and identities. Given the chronic science performance gap between students of color and white peers, culturally responsive teaching seems ideal for mitigating this disparity.…

Effective mentoring programs help to recruit new teachers and improve teacher retention rates (e.g. Ingersoll & Strong, 2011, Rideout & Windle, 2010). Many school districts require mentoring programs for new teachers; however, they do not always have the resources to prepare their teachers to mentor beginning teachers. Clinical faculty…

Beginning teachers face significant challenges as they assume the complex work of teaching while they are still learning to teach. In addition to the activities involved with learning to effectively teach, they must also learn to work with others; collaborate with colleagues, administrators, paraprofessionals, and parents; and manage varied…

Teacher education in universities is under pressure. In many new education policies there is a renewed focus on teacher quality, and therefore quality initial teacher education. In some countries this renewed focus has led to a resurgence of "alternative approaches" to teacher education such as Teach for America / Australia. One of the…

You are starting a new job. You have survived the interview process and landed the job of your dreams (or what will suffice for the time being). You have moved into your new room and have taken initial stock of the program, the facilities, and all the material you have. You know your budget, and have the administrators, the support staff, and a…

In this article, the authors describe a case in which school district officials used state regulations for new teacher mentoring programs as justification to cut funding and incrementally dismantle a model program. (Contains 1 table.)

This article provides specific recommendations to help faculty members organize, plan, and conduct a short-term overseas study tour. Specifically, strategies are presented to help with managing student anxiety in the pretrip sessions, acclimating the students to their new environment in the early part of the trip, balancing academic content with…

Mentor systems benefit beginning teachers, the school district, the students, and experienced teachers. Research and the Utah Teacher Evaluation Project suggest a number of essential characteristics of a mentoring system, which are discussed. (MT)

The Oklahoma Entry Year Assistance Program was enacted to ensure that Oklahoma children would be educated by teachers of demonstrated ability. Discussed are the overall effectiveness of the program, the perceptions of administrators and educators providing support to new teachers, and implications of problems and concerns raised. (MT)