Training program helps new hires get into roles
By: Lacey Korevec
As she walked into Monroe High School for her first day of teacher training, Jennifer Rebelo, who will teach sixth grade at Woodland School, was nervous.
"I was feeling anxiety," she said. "I was intimidated. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what to do. I had so many questions that were unanswered, and after this orientation, everything was just put in place."
On Monday, 74 new teachers were welcomed to the school district and began their first day of New Teacher Orientation, a program intended to acquaint new staff members with district policies and help them start the year off with confidence.
The three-day program, which ran through Wednesday afternoon, focuses on classroom management, technology training, district rules and procedures, team building, teaching curriculum and learning about the community, Stephanie Goldberg, a district staff developer said.
These aspects of teaching are important for the teachers, especially because many of them have just been certified and have not taught in other districts before.
"It’s critical for them because research shows that with a proper induction program, success rates increase drastically and we’re trying to offer as much support as possible," she said.
Part of the program includes an overview of legal issues from the district lawyer and a bus tour of the township, Lew Stonaker, staff developer, said.
"We want to keep people we have, so we want to make them successful," he said.
Each of the new teachers is partnered with a veteran teacher who then becomes his or her mentor. The most important part of the training is having them get to know their mentors, supervisors and principals, as well as the other new staff members.
"It’s developing relationships and developing a support system," he said. "The more support we can give new teachers, the better."
Andrew Laffey will be teaching industrial arts at the high school. He said that he didn’t know anyone working in the district before the orientation program, but has since become familiar with a lot of people he’ll be working with, as well as new teachers who will work in some of the other schools.
The training helped him fine-tune some of what he learned while student teaching to meet specific district policies, he said.
"I think it reinforces prior experience because every district is different and you have to follow your respective district guidelines," he said.
For new teachers, training will continue throughout the year, Ms. Goldberg said.
"Even though it’s these three days that we’re with them, we do ongoing in-service all year long," she said. "We do round table discussions with them. We offer miniworkshops for them. So it’s constant support."
Ms. Rebelo said she found the presentations on technology and using her school e-mail account to be especially useful.
"They had a very big talk about how we can work with online grade books so that we can have the one online as well as our own written documents so parents can see what their children are doing in school," she said.
For now, Ms. Rebelo said, she feels comfortable and confident going into her new position, but still looks forward to learning more throughout the year.
"They offer you so much and it helps you to understand that this isn’t where you stop learning," she said. "You’re also learning with the students in your classroom and it’s really nice because you’re going through it together and you feel confident. You know you’re going to be affective and you know you’re going to be successful. And that’s a really nice feeling to have."

