2.1 Assigned Supports

Of the numerous induction supports described by new teachers, many were assigned to them. In many cases, new teachers appreciated assigned supports such as mentor teachers, PLCs, new teacher cohorts, and curricula. For instance, Julie, as an 8th-grade English Language Arts teacher, reflected on how she was supported in different ways by three different mentor teachers during her first three years of teaching:

I had our eighth grade science teacher for part of my mentorship too, which was nice because she was teaching the same kids that I was. So it was more like we communicated about students there. And seventh grade English, I communicate more about English stuff there. And then with the sixth grade history teacher, we don’t really have much in common, but it was nice to just see a completely different successful way of teaching… I like having all those different mentors.

However, there were also supports assigned to new teachers that they found to be unhelpful or unnecessary. Anne’s school assigned curricula for different subjects, but continuously introducing new curricula was unhelpful:

It seems like every year we get some kind of new curriculum. I know my first year we switched to all new reading and writing, well it was reading, writing, and word study. Then the next year, it wasn’t completely new, but they revamped our math. This year, they dumped our science program, got a new science program. And it sounds like social studies is in the works for next year.

In addition, paraeducators assigned to support new teachers were not always helpful. Simone, a 1st Grade teacher, recounted a support meeting with a social worker, a literacy coach, and a several special education teachers. She was telling them about her unsuccessful attempts to engage one of her students, and this is how she recounted the meeting:

The one doing most of the talking just like, “With this kid, I don’t have a lot to say.” And I just felt like… [audibly sighs]. Yeah, so basically she said, for him, I have to turn everything into a game. He loves to play. So basically like being in a preschool. So while the other kids are sitting at their desk, writing on their papers, I have to turn this into a interactive thing for this child, which is a lot of work to do for one child. I was keeping lots of data on this student, where I could tally three behaviors to focus on, tally how often he shows these behaviors. And then l asked myself, “What am I doing this for?” I’ve talked to the parents, I’ve told them… So I would just say I’m doing this for no reason.

Simone found her interactions with paraeducators to be patronizing and unhelpful, creating busywork for her that she did not believe would benefit her students.