Meet the Teachers
by Camille Hedrick, Potomac Falls High School
Original text © 2004 Camille Hedrick
Mentoring Matters
Mentoring had a significant effect on all the career-switchers I interviewed. The two probationary teachers spoke of their support system of informal and formal mentors with such gratitude that the metaphorical umbilical cords were still patently attached. The three experienced teachers were adamant that their informal and formal mentors had made the difference in their survival in their probationary years.
All five participants were nervous and in need of multiple support agents when they began teaching. Nell explained the level of intimidation she felt the first week of school her first year:
It’s very intimidating to new teachers. I’ll never forget the first time I came out of my classroom. It was the first day of school. It took every little bit of bravery that I had to walk down that hall. I came out and went, “Oh, dear mother of God.”
She went on to discuss how much the mentoring from different veterans had meant to her:
I said to myself, “Alright, I’ve got to decide what to do.” And actually it was Paula who told me about her first year in teaching, and she told me she got to midyear and it was absolutely horrible, and she said in her mind, she said, “I have a choice. I can quit this job or I can start to rock.”
