James Janes recalls the "small element of fear" when he began his first year of teaching. Now that he's a mentor for a first-year teacher, he wants to pass on the sense of confidence and support his own mentor gave him.
"I had a confidant, or a shoulder to cry on," Janes said. A social studies teacher at Simonsen 9th Grade Center, this is his third year teaching in the Jefferson City Public Schools district, where he began his career.
The first four years of a teacher's career are the hardest. And turnover is 40 percent more likely.
"It gets easier after that," California Schools Superintendent Dwight Sanders said. "It's critical we provide what new teachers need."
In Missouri, all first-year teachers must be provided a mentoring program by their district, per requirements by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), said Gretchen Guitard, JCPS director of curriculum and staff services, which oversees the JCPS mentoring program.
"There's a lot of autonomy at the district level" for what that program looks like throughout the state, she said.
There's also flexibility within the district's program - "we don't want a cookie-cutter program for every person," she said.
The California and Jefferson City districts have taken things a step past the DESE requirements. In these districts, not only do first-year teachers get support, but the support continues into their second year.
In 2011, Missouri declared its goal to be in the top 10 states for education by 2020. The first step toward that goal is placing effective educators in every classroom, DESE spokesperson Sarah Potter said.
The focus on first-year teachers "is part of a much larger effort to improve the teaching field as a state," Potter said.
"We have some rock star teachers who would blow the socks off anyone who would watch them," said California Elementary School Principal Gary Baker. "It's powerful to have a coworker coach you and give a different perspective."
Having an "advocate for you at all times" is what having a mentor meant to him, Janes said.
Research has shown that a bad first-year experience is likely to cause a teacher to leave within five years, and that's something districts want to avoid if they want professionals to become veteran teachers, Guitard said.
"We grated our teeth the first year," Janes said. "Without the help of those mentors, it would have been a struggle."
When he was deciding whether to stay at JCPS, knowing that his mentor, Emily Vallandingham, would be the same person in his second year was a selling point, he said.
JCPS has more than 100 new teachers this year - one-eighth of the total number of teachers.
"We take the mentoring program very seriously because that's a lot of new faces," she said.
Guitard noted a "continual increase" in teacher turnover in the district, which she attributed to a more transient society generally, as well as large numbers of teachers who have retired in recent years.
She's been with the district for 11 years, and she said mentoring has been a focus for at least that long.
Janes guessed at least half of the teachers at Simonsen have been part of the mentoring program. Out of the 11 teachers in his department, six have been or are in the mentoring program.
The JCPS mentoring program begins with a weeklong orientation directly before school starts. This includes all teachers who are new to the district, no matter their level of experience, Guitard said.
In the California district, veteran teachers new to the district also receive a formal mentor.
Nine of the 10 first-year teachers to the district this year are at California Elementary School. The school year began with a workshop just for the new teachers, Baker said.
It's not enough time for teachers to absorb everything, but it's enough time to help them identify priorities of what they will need to know, Gutiard said of JCPS orientation.
Some of these priorities include learning to abide by DESE policies regarding bullying prevention, K-12 suicide prevention, sexual harassment, confidentiality and social media use.
There are also routines, like how to log into various data systems, such as those to report students' grades.
Once the new teacher is paired with a mentor and school starts, the mentor stays for two years. A mentor is a veteran teacher, usually within the same building and content area if possible, Guitard explained.
During a mentee's first year, there are quarterly sit-downs with the mentor to see how the mentee is doing. These sessions occur semesterly during the mentee's second year.
"We are able to monitor that continued support, so they don't feel like an island unto themselves," Guitard said.
Janes said his main goal with his mentee, Abigail Harbor, is to get her "comfortable with the content" she's teaching. He's an "extra layer of support" in addition to other resources in the building.
Janes said he and Harbor eat lunch together every day, he checks in with her at the end of each day, and they meet once a week. They and other mentors and mentees meet as a team once a month.
In California, each month, all new teachers attend a New Educators Encouragement and Direction Support (NEEDS) meeting, where they earn the extra required professional development hours as well as discuss the struggles and successes they may be facing for the first time.
The new teachers also have grade-level teams as a resource, as well as daily principal observations for immediate feedback.
Among the top issues first-year teachers face are classroom management, time management and communicating with parents, Guitard said.
"Honestly, until you get into a classroom, you don't know what you're up against," she said.
Other issues first-year teachers struggle with include flexibility and balancing personal time.
Even veteran teachers, like California Elementary kindergarten teacher Jill Kirksey, still struggle, she said. That is an important lesson for new teachers to learn.
"We share successes and weaknesses," Kirksey said.
Janes cited classroom management as one of his biggest concerns in his first year.
"You can't really simulate the classroom in college," he said. "Forty-five kids expecting you to rule the room" is what he walked into, which is difficult to prepare for.
A major component of the mentoring program in California is the class-time observation, both mentor of mentee and mentee of veteran teachers across the district.
Janes noted that observation is also a component of the mentoring program in JCPS.
"This is a good transition because we're still learning," first-year California kindergarten teacher Bret Medlin said.
To that end, the California district invested in a full-time substitute, who makes scheduling these hours easier for everyone, Baker said. The substitute gets to know each teacher's style and provides better continuity for student learning, he said.
Through observations, the new teachers learn new styles for instruction, classroom management and time management.
"We have multiple instructional styles within our building, not one is greater than another," Baker said.
Mentors say they make a commitment to the new teachers to help them feel comfortable and be available for their questions.
Laura Williams is a fifth-grade teacher and mentee at Pioneer Trail Elementary. It's her first year at JCPS and her fifth year teaching.
Williams cited her biggest issues in adapting as "learning the new curriculum and adapting from teaching one subject all day, to all subjects every day."
"If the mentoring program wasn't in place, I'm sure I would have made it through, but I like being able to ask a veteran teacher in the district questions because I always have a lot of questions about everything," she said.
Her mentor is David Hendrickson, another fifth-grade teacher at Pioneer Trail. She said she "would be all for mentoring other teachers" herself in the future.
Janes said the JCPS program gives some autonomy for mentees to "figure out their own teaching groove," but resources are always available.
He said he encourages Harbor to think outside the box to try or suggest new approaches to sharing the same content.
"They may have new ideas or innovations we, who have not been in school for awhile, might not know about," Amy Howard said of the approaches new teachers fresh out of college can take. Howard is a veteran second-grade teacher at California Elementary.
"Investing time in helping another teacher is like investing in our kids," Howard said.
Overall, Janes said, "teaching's scary enough" and if the mentoring program "helps to prevent burnout and turnover, it's something we need to continue to invest in."