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A Message from the Guest Editor

A Message from the Guest Editor
Janice Kelly

According to Rowley (1999), there are certain qualities associated with good mentors. “The good mentor must be committed to the role of mentoring, must be skilled at providing professional support, is effective in different interpersonal contexts, is a model of a continuous learner, and communicates hope and optimism.” The good mentor must convey the message that the learner is capable of making the transition, the change, basically becoming the mentee’s cheerleader. Mentor teachers have typically been used to guide beginning teachers through the early years of their careers. Recently though, mentor teachers are being used to create collaborations between teachers who may need some guidance with change or updating teaching strategies. The teachers participating in the Research Center for Educational Technology’s grant program are examples of how teacher mentors are successfully aiding their peers in gaining new technology experiences and updating their teaching skills to incorporate technology into the classroom. The school culture is shifting from a traditional isolated and solitary environment to a more collaborative atmosphere, team teaching becoming more prevalent in the current school culture. Teachers are finding strength in numbers as they strive to meet the educational needs of all of their students. The mentors who participated in this research project certainly brought the characteristics described by Rowley to the arena as they set out to make a difference at the classroom and professional level. Their experiences give account of the successes, tribulations and processes encountered throughout the project. As you will read in the vignettes that follow, these teachers explored innovative and creative ways of integrating technology into their curriculum. At Crestwood Intermediate School, mentor teacher Marcia Wallenfeldt capitalized on the team-teaching setting and ‘hooked’ the teachers with a familiar unit of study. She successfully incorporated technology into the fourth grade curriculum, substituting PowerPoint presentations for the pen and pencil projects previously done by the team. The vignettes also highlight ways in which technology can be used ubiquitously as one of many classroom materials to facilitate student learning and exploration. Such use is captured well in the vignette describing the project conducted at Kent State University’s Child Development Center with mentor Nancy Condit as she investigated the use of technology in an early childhood setting. At several of the project sites, mentors were exploring technologies with their colleagues that they had not used before. For example, at Holden Elementary, mentor Christi Bates and her colleague explored the various ways SMARTBoards could be used to support teaching and learning in the primary curriculum. At Fishcreek Elementary, third grade teacher Debra Miller mentored a team of first grade teachers in using a document camera as a tool to facilitate peer editing in the writing process. Mentor Rich Booth and his colleague at Hillcrest Elementary investigated the use of digital recorders as a tool for improving reading fluency. Finally, a number of the projects explored podcasting and its potential for teaching and learning. At Crestwood Primary, mentor Kate Viers and her teaching team developed podcasts as a tool for implementing social stories with their primary special needs students. Two of our other mentors, Karen McClain (Highland Elementary) and Theresa Boyle (Crestwood Intermediate) collaborated on a project to explore podcasting as a strategy for frontloading curriculum with students who have learning difficulties. As a mentor in the project, I also was interested in learning more about the potential of podcasting in the classroom. Through the years, I have learned much from my students and for this reason my project utilized students as mentors to me and other students in the classroom. They will continue to serve as mentors to other teachers as I continue to learn under their tutelage. Their experiences with technology are often more extensive than mine. Each vignette provides a glimpse of what is possible. When we, as teachers, are able to recognize the possibilities of collaboration - with students and teachers - we truly become part of the learning process. We model life-long learning for others. For me, the mentorship experience has opened positive dialogue regarding technology use in our building that may not have occurred had it not been for this project. The shared experiences of the cohort members has helped me recognize the potential of teacher collaboration and innovation. The possibilities are endless.

Jan Kelly, Ed.D.
Fifth grade teacher
Somers Elementary School, Mogadore Local Schools

References

Rowley, J.B. (1999). The Good Mentor. Educational Leadership, 56, (8), 20-22.


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