Improve Teaching Practice with This Simple Quality System
When you first hear about our In-Person Mentors, you might think, “Wow, that sounds a bit squishy. Isn’t that person just a buddy for a New Teacher?”
No - not all.
The relationship between an In-Person Mentor (IPM) and New Teacher (NT) is intentional and purposeful. It’s not solely focused on logistics (“How do I submit grades?”) or emotional support on those hard days.
It also includes a simple quality system that guides learning and reflection so NTs can improve their practice, performance and student learning.
The quality system is not new, and we didn’t create it. It’s called the PDSA cycle:
Plan
Do
Study
Act/Adapt/Abandon
Why we implemented this system
It is a basic, simple, accessible system that:
Doesn't require a lot of training
Is easy to put into practice
Provides tangible evidence of improvement
Adds a lot of value
Allows to teachers to own their self-improvement
School districts are very compliance-driven, and the unintentional consequence is how teachers spend their time outside of classroom instruction. Instead of reflecting on their practice or building a relationship with someone in their school, they must focus on standardized testing and meeting compliance demands.
The PDSA cycle gives NTs time and permission to reflect in a safe space without fearing that their struggles will be documented in their personnel file.
How the PDSA cycle works in real life
Let’s say you are an IPM and your NT comes to you with a challenge they are facing: Building a relationship with the parents of one child who is at risk of falling behind in reading.
As the IPM, you will:
P: Make a plan with the NT on providing extra reading support in the school and at home, plus a communication plan between the NT and the parents
D: Implement the plan
S: Reflect on what worked and what didn’t
A: Decide if the NT will continue with this plan, make changes, or abandon it and create a new plan
The beauty of the PDSA cycle is it supports continuous improvement.
We even adopted it for our end-of-the-school-year workshop with our IPMs. We call it the 5x5 - each mentor presents five points in five minutes specific to a learning with their NT from this school year.
The five points are:
A brief introduction of themselves and the NT they are going to profile
One plan they developed together
What the NT did
What worked and what didn’t
Whether they acted, adapted, or abandoned the plan
We encourage IPMs to share what didn’t work, because you can learn so much more. Peers ask questions and provide feedback, thus creating a learning community around this system.
In-Person Mentors love this system
IPMs told us they have benefited as much, or even more than, their NT. They start applying PDSA to their own teaching practice so they can improve, too.
And importantly, the PDSA cycle enables them to have conversations with NTs that are structured and focused and don’t waste time. With a framework in place, they don’t have to worry about how to help their NT.
Join us!
If you are interested in helping us support New Teachers so they become more confident and competent faster, we invite you to reach out for a conversation. You can email us at info at educatorsleadingtheprofession dot com. We want to hear your perspectives and ideas and build relationships with those who share our values. Together, we can create sustainable change.