Novice Teacher Mentor Training – Equipping Mentor Teachers for Success
Contact me for further information
Every year, principals tap their best teachers on the shoulder and say, “You’re a great teacher — I need you to work with our new hire.” And just like that, a mentor is born — with no training, no structure, and no clear expectations.
The result? Some mentors become buddies, reassuring novice teachers that everything looks fine when it doesn’t. Others take a heavy-handed approach, overwhelming new teachers instead of developing them. Without novice teacher mentor training, there’s no consistency, no real accountability, and no measurable improvement of instruction.
Meanwhile, the mentor receives little to no compensation, rarely gets dedicated time, and is expected to juggle their own classroom responsibilities on top of guiding someone new. It’s a setup that leaves everyone — mentors, novice teachers, and students — underserved.
The numbers tell the story. Up to 30% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years. When surveyed, one of the top reasons they give is feeling unsupported. Schools invest significant time and money recruiting and hiring teachers, only to lose them because the mentoring they receive is little more than a buddy system with no focus on the improvement of instruction.
When novice teacher mentor training is absent, new teachers develop survival strategies instead of strong instructional practices. They struggle with classroom management, lesson planning, and building relationships with students — challenges that trained mentor support could prevent. The cost of teacher turnover — in time, money, and lost momentum — is one districts simply cannot afford to ignore.
JFord Equips provides hands-on novice teacher mentor training that transforms well-meaning veteran teachers into skilled, confident mentors focused on the improvement of instruction. This isn’t about adding more to a mentor’s plate — it’s about equipping them with the right tools to make their time with novice teachers count.
Through this training, mentor teachers will learn to:
Effective novice teacher mentor training makes a measurable difference for everyone involved in the mentoring relationship. This training is designed for:
Districts that invest in structured novice teacher mentor training see measurable results across their schools. When mentors are properly trained and equipped, novice teachers receive the focused, consistent support they need to grow — not just survive. Districts can expect:
Your novice teachers deserve mentors who are trained, confident, and equipped to help them succeed. Effective novice teacher mentor training builds a mentoring program that retains great teachers and strengthens improvement of instruction across your entire school. Jeanne Ford brings over three decades of real school and district leadership experience to every training session.
Looking to strengthen feedback skills across your entire leadership team? Jeanne also offers Effective Feedback Training for School Leaders — a comprehensive training experience that equips principals, assistant principals, and mentor teachers with evidence-based strategies for delivering feedback that drives improvement of instruction.
Reduce your office referrals; increase your scores
The success of Time To Teach has been published in Leadership magazine. Read Order in the Classroom, a published article written by Kelly Graham, National Director at the Center for Teacher Effectiveness and Elsbeth Prigmore, high school principal. Time To Teach is a consistent classroom management system that saves instructional time and improves school climate.
____________________________________________________________________
“During my first two years as principal of Clark Street Elementary School, we experienced over 300 office referrals and over 150 out-of-school suspensions! This year we implemented Rick’s strategies and so far we have only had two office referrals in six weeks!”
John Hargrove, Principal, Clark Street Elementary, North Carolina
“Lawton Public Schools is a lower socioeconomic school district in Oklahoma that services 17,000 Pre-K through 12th grade students, over half of which are minority. Twenty-nine of our thirty-five schools were trained using the Time To Teach strategies, affecting more than 11,000 children. Following training, we experienced a 16% decrease in suspensions and office referrals and a dramatic decrease in pupil enrollment for Behavior Intervention and Behavior Disorder classes. We have also seen a 9% increase in test scores and none of our schools are on the school improvement list for No Child Left Behind.”
Billy Davis, Executive Director Elementary Education, Lawton Public Schools, Oklahoma
“We have used the Time To Teach strategies for eighteen years! These strategies allowed me to get into the classrooms and help teachers instead of having to deal with a line of students awaiting discipline intervention. Time To Teach truly delivers on its promise to gain back valuable teaching time that is so often lost to matters of discipline.”
Lynette Hedden, Retired Principal, Richland, Washington
“The number of student referrals in our middle school has dropped 30% on average, every year over the past three years. It is because of Time to Teach that I can say with pride, “Every day I teach!”
Keith Johnson, Teacher/Technology Director, Reading Community Schools, Michigan
“I have seen some of my students move up from Special Education and Title Programs to achieve at grade level performance. My referrals have been eliminated. Students that were never able to do so before are now meeting benchmark standards and making dramatic gains in reading and writing fluency. After 19 years as an educator, I finally have Time To Teach with care and compassion.”
Libba Sager, Elementary Teacher, Toledo Elementary, Oregon
“I have seen a 15 point gain in math and science scores on the state standardized test, which helped our school meet its AYP/API, and I have not sent a single student to the office all year. Time To Teach has helped me successfully teach second language learners, children with ADD, ADHD, Tourettes, learning disabilities, disenfranchised youth, and impoverished students.”
James Turner, Middle School Teacher, Lompoc, California
“At Lompoc Valley Middle School, the referral numbers for class disruption were reduced by 62% using Time to Teach strategies, and Lompoc High School’s referral numbers were lower than those of the rival high school for the first time ever.”
Carrie Chase, High School Counselor, Lahainaluna High School, Hawaii
“Pioneer Continuation High School has our district’s highest number of at-risk 11th and 12th grade students. Using the Time to Teach blueprint, we saw school suspensions drop from 39% to 18% over a three-year period, in-house suspensions cut in half, and significant increases in passing rates on the California High School Exit Exam and other student achievement measures. Overall, the school has experienced a positive, systemic cultural change.”
Elsbeth Prigmore, Principal, Pioneer Continuation High School, California