Help for New Teachers

Last Tuesday, at Community Academy, the first grade students that I have been working with were out of the classroom with an art teacher, so I helped prepare an activity with their teacher, Ms. C, for Womens HERstory Month. While we were working I took the opprotunity to pick her brain about the school and students. She told me that this year the students were doing so much better than her class last year, but then quickly told me that last year was tough because they didn't have any books. She said that she managed beause she had been teaching for 10 years so she knew where to find materials, but the new teachers had a very hard time. She then talked to me about the importance for young teachers to have mentors to help them adjust to having a class. In a school system where materials can not always be provided teachers have to work harder and compensate for the benefit of their students, which is not fair to the teachers or the students. In my paper I am discussing the problems with curriculum and instruction in the DCPS, and I intend to include my conversation with Ms. C about extra assistance or a mentoring program for new teachers. It is so important to give our teachers the resources they need to build a successful learning community for our students.