Working With Your Mentor

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Mentor Overview

If you are a newly hired teacher, your school will assign you a mentor to help support you through your first year of teaching. You will develop a special relationship with your school-based mentor who is there to support your continuous professional growth and learning. Mentor support may include, but is not limited to:

  • Resources for planning units and lessons
  • Classroom intervisitations and debriefs
  • Reflections on your teaching practice
  • Professional goal-setting

Please note, it is important that all mentoring interactions are documented by your mentor in the online Mentor Tracking System (MTS). Please contact your principal for more information.

Mentoring Basics

  • Mentoring Eligibility
    • Teachers with initial and transitional certificates, with fewer than two years of full-time prior teaching experience, will receive a mentor. Your mentor should be assigned to you by mid-September - if not, ask your principal.
  • Becoming a Mentor
    • Experienced teachers who are interested in serving as mentors should contact their principal or their school’s New Teacher Induction Committee.
  • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Mentoring is a crucial support for the early career teachers. It is a collaborative partnership driven by your needs as a new teacher. Your mentor should meet with you for a minimum of two periods a month over the course of your first ten months; these interactions should be considered "sacred" and must be logged in the Mentor Tracking System. View each person’s Roles and Responsibilities in the Mentor-Teacher relationship.
  • Tracking and Documenting Mentor Interactions
    • The Mentor Tracking System is used for making mentor matches and documenting the mentoring interactions between mentor and new teacher. For further instructions email NYCMentor@schools.nyc.gov to request a Mentor Guide to Logging Interactions and Accessing Reports. Mentors are required to document their support in the Mentor Tracking System (MTS). Timely and accurate tracking of your mentoring sessions is critical to the certification of the new teacher.
  • Mentoring Certification
    • After applying for your NY Professional Certificate (usually after your third year), contact mentorverification@schools.nyc.gov to have mentoring entered into your TEACH ACCOUNT. A full year of mentoring equates to ten months or 40-60 hours.
  • Email a Mentor
    • Did you know that you can access virtual mentoring support from an experienced DOE mentor via email? Reach out to NYCMentor@schools.nyc.gov anytime for instructional support, management tips, or other questions you may have. Please note: virtual mentoring cannot be entered into the Mentor Tracking System.

Mentoring Resources

  • Mentoring FAQs
  • New Teacher Mentoring Guide for Principals
  • 12-Hour School Based Mentor Certification Course
    • The DOE strongly recommends that all mentors attend a two-day 12-hour course that explores the most effective strategies to support their new teacher colleagues. Sessions are held throughout the year and facilitated by Teacher Development Specialists in partnership with the Office of Leadership. Topics include trust and relationship building, mentor language, mentoring protocols, mentoring tools, adult learning, collecting classroom observational data, non-judgmental feedback, effective questioning techniques, coaching strategies, and the phases of new teacher development. Register here to attend an upcoming session.
  • Teacher Development Specialists
    • A Teacher Development Specialist based at your Borough Field Support Center can support your school’s mentoring program and activities. This individual is knowledgeable about new teacher growth and development, and best mentoring practices.
  • Watch Mentoring in Action
    • A DOE teacher and her mentor were featured in this TeachingChannel.org video. Consider how the mentor supports the new teacher both in and out of the classroom.