Mentor Mentee

Peer mentoring and observations can change the way that see ourselves as educators. When we observe our peers, and are observed by peers, we get to be the mentor and the mentee at the same time. IslandWood has provided an amazing amount of opportunities to practice learning from others and teaching my peers. Even before this Advanced Instructional Strategies course, I had experience teaching and collaborating with peers. Some weeks were completely co-teaching, which meant I had a partner teacher to collaborate with all week long. We had to navigate lesson planning together, daily logistics, and shared air time in front of the kids. I have already learned a lot working with other graduate students and I am excited to collaborate further this quarter.

Being a part of a professional learning community gives us the opportunity to learn from one another and grow through peer coaching. A lot of teaching is mimicry and the more that we can see other educators teach, the more tools we will have in our back pockets to expand our skill sets as professional educators.

Not only do we learn new teaching skills by observing other educators, but collaborating on curriculum can improve content and diversify lesson plans. Teaching without collaborating with other educators can lead to getting stuck in a rut of doing the same lessons and the same content. Professional learning communities allow us share new ideas and expand how and why we teach.