Volume 2: August 29th-September 12th, 2018 Visit Website

The start of school—a one-time opportunity

The beginning of the year is a unique opportunity for the TC to experience getting to know students for the first time—as a teacher—and learning how teachers set up a classroom as a community.

This newsletter focuses on tips for the start of school. Read on to learn more about the mentoring practice of making your thinking explicit, how mentors and TCs can work together to introduce the TC to students and families, and more. We also continue to share ideas for what mentors and TCs might focus on at this time of year in our "trajectory" column, on the righthand side of the newsletter.

We welcome your feedback —please e-mail us at NASCENT@uw.edu to share your comments, questions, and helpful advice for other mentor-TC partners getting this newsletter. Learn more by visiting our website at MentorTeachers.org.

QUICK POLL:
What do you get most excited about at the start of school? Click one of the options below to vote! (We'll share results in the next newsletter.)

- Meeting my new students

- Trying out new units, activities, systems

- Catching up with my colleagues

- The general sense of starting fresh

Mentors: Making your thinking explicit
TCs learn from observing what happens in the classroom and around the school, but they learn more if they also have access to your professional reasoning. The button below will take you to a set of resources about the mentoring practice of making your thinking explicit, including some sentence starters you may try.

See tips and examples

Mentors & TCs: Introducing the TC to students and families
How can you take advantage of this one-time opportunity? Here are some suggestions:
- Decide how you'll refer to each other in front of your students.
- Write a section introducing the TC in letters or emails sent home at the beginning of the year.
- TCs, plan and give a 5-minute introduction of yourself to your classes. Consider sharing subject-related interests, hobbies, pictures of family, etc.
- TCs, make plans to attend back-to-school nights.

Mentors & TCs: What TCs could contribute now...
- Locating relevant standards that match up with topics about to be taught.
- Looking for local phenomena or scenarios to engage students.
- Creating a "What is this subject?" PowerPoint to introduce students to the discipline they'll be studying.

Check out an example PPT

TCs: Getting to know your students as individuals

Learning about your students' interests, backgrounds, experiences, and more is key for understanding what all students have to offer and building connections with them. Click below for suggestions of what to try at the beginning of the year.

Get start-of-year suggestions

Trajectory column: What to focus on now

1. Getting to know students and the school ecosystem

- Mentors and TCs, you may want to have a "professional roommate" conversation about how to work together, if you have not done so.

- TCs, get to know your individual students—begin by learning and calling them by name.

2. Planning
- Mentors, consider checking out our resources on making your thinking explicit, and start doing so for your planning decisions.

3. Teaching

- TCs, observe for strategies about how to set up classroom communities.

4. Assessment
- TCs, prepare and administer an exit ticket asking students what they know about the subject you're teaching and what they look forward to learning more about.

Explore August-September trajectory

TEP Announcements

9/13 from 4:30-7:30: Methods classes for Science, Math, ELA, Social Studies.

9/18 from 4:30-7:30: Methods class for World Languages.

9/20 from 4:30-7:30: Methods classes for Science, Math, ELA, World Languages.

9/25 from 4:30-7:30: Assessment classes for ELA, SS, WL in 104. Math and Science in 212.

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