The first year of the JEA mentoring program:

• 5 states participated – Colorado, Kansas, Ohio, Oregon, Wisconsin
• 10 mentors were trained and began working with new teachers
• 25 new teachers were involved

At the JEA/NSPA convention in Anaheim last month, the mentor participated in the second phase of their training. They swapped success stories, shared advice, and talked about ways to make the mentoring program even more effective.

The mentors and those of us on the Mentoring Committee left Anaheim excited about the progress of the program, which began as an idea in the Scholastic Press Association roundtable discussion at the JEA convention in Denver, April 2007.

One of the major goals of the mentoring program is to help keep new teachers in the profession. Statistics show that from a third to a half of all new teacher leave teaching before they’ve taught for five years.

Of the 25 new teachers who were mentors, all say they plan to teach again next year. That’s great!