A Mentoring Program for New AP Biology Educators
From the Editor: I received this message from David Knuffke, moderator of the AP Biology teacher community, and all-around Rock Star-level educator. As someone who was new to AP Biology in the not-so-distant past, I will vouch for the benefit of such a program. I, luckily, kept my head above water long enough to produce/modify the resources I needed reach the high expectations from the College Board, my administrators, and students. However, many do not, and are miserable. We absolutely do NOT need to be losing good teacher to stress. If you have any questions about this program, teaching AP Biology, or anything at all, please reach out to us here at askKABT@gmail.com. Happy Holidays, and have a great Finals Week! -Drew Ising
Hi friends,
One of the major issues that I hear about (from new AP teachers and veterans) is that some of the structure that the CB has in place (e.g. the Teacher Community) can be a bit overwhelming.
One initiative we are interested in working towards is the establishment of a mentor network for new AP Bio teachers. Robin Groch has volunteered to serve as the point person for this project. We envision a pretty casual mentoring relationship between a new teacher and a veteran mentor. At the same time, we aren’t clear if this is something that is tenable, and won’t know for sure until we see what kind of interest there is in serving as a mentor among our veterans. In that vein, we have created a form for anyone who is interested in serving as a mentor to fill out. Once we have a handle on the number of veteran teachers who are willing to do this, we hope that we will have a great pool of people to connect to new AP Bio teachers. This is very much an interest assessment form. By filling it out, you are NOT committing to actually becoming a mentor, should the project move forward.
As far as I’m concerned, outside of a certain weekly conversation that I have, my role as a district mentor is incredibly rewarding and helpful for my own practice. I hope many of the talented AP Bio teachers on this listserv might consider signing up to serve in a mentoring capacity. I think we have a pretty great opportunity to help new AP Bio teachers get more comfortable.
Here is a link to the mentoring interest form:http://goo.gl/forms/QRmVDVPiWi
David Knuffke
Deer Park, NY
http://www.mrknuffke.net
@DavidKnuffke
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