Trusted Counselor

Today there was an observer from New tech foundation Linda Ullah who observed the school and gave suggestions. She found time to meet me and welcome me to U.S. She is curious to know about the differences in the education systems of U.S - India. Her husband is from Bangladesh and she visited many places in India.

Today we had a meeting with our school mentor too.

I would like to tell you about the mentor system here in America.

To my understanding for every 20 new teachers (the first three years of one's teaching career is considered new) there is a mentor. The mentor may work in two or three different schools depending upon the school size.

The job of the mentor is to serve as a trusted counselor with their vast experience in the teaching field. Unlike principals, the mentors do not inspect your classes but they help in management and organizing the class. So you can approach the mentor for all the issues in the classroom and in the teaching profession freely and without hesitation. The interesting thing is this a permanent post that means every school has a official mentor round the year. They work directly under Human Resources authority of the County.

In New Tech we have a vibrant and dynamic lady Mrs. Eleanor Johnson (The lady with blue top)as mentor with 30 successful years of service in the teaching field. She works for Jordan High school too. She has specific schedule to meet with all the six new teachers at least once in a week. The meetings are informal and to the point and very useful. Her wise suggestions and comments made my transition very easy. The greatest advice I ever had during the exchange programme is 'not to compare 'Mr. Krishna' with 'Vamsi sir' back home' is of Mrs Johnson. This advice has released a lot of pressure and helped me in enjoying the exchange.

By the by did u see the stuff on the table? She brings a lot of food stuff ( snacks and drinks) to each meeting. ( Next Friday she promised us lunch during the meeting , hha, staff meeting ho to aisi!)