First Five: Early Career Action Pack

• 92 percent of teachers assigned a mentor their first year returned the next year, and 86 percent were on the job by the fifth year (U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics, 2015). 
• Teachers in their first three to five years of the profession who are satisfied with their preparation and who receive support as they transition into the profession are less likely to exit the profession early (DeAngelis, Wall, and Che, 2013).  
• New teachers who feel supported in their school environment may be more likely to stay in their school and in teaching than those without similar supports (Johnson and Birkeland, 2003).

The research is clear. We know that being a teacher in the first few years of practice is daunting and extra support can be extremely helpful. For teachers new to the profession, it’s a mix of excitement and fear about the impact they can have in supporting students to become their best. For you, supporting new teachers is key to:

• Helping new teachers get better at their craft  
• Feeling more confident with their instruction 
• Connecting to the school and community 
• Ultimately sticking with the profession

Teaching Channel has assembled the 1st Five: Early Career Action Pack to support educators in their first years of teaching and extend and make actionable the resources in our New Teacher Survival Guide. The pack can efficiently and effectively help coaches and mentors support new teachers as they acclimate to the profession, the school, students, and the community at large.  

The action pack consists of the following: 

• Early Career Support Implementation Guide 

  Provides you with a step-by-step process on how to design, build, monitor, and sustain a new teacher support system in your school or district that leverages Tch’s content and robust online platform

• Learning Plan Library

  Learning plans are short, easy-to-use, guided, job-embedded inquiry cycles. In learning plans, new teachers analyze video models related to their puzzle of practice and then try out similar techniques in their own classrooms as they seamlessly gather video and other artifacts of instruction to be analyzed with others. Tch has 30+ learning plans on topics invaluable to new teacher support, e.g., classroom management, engagement, classroom discussions, formative assessment, effective openers, etc.

• Coaching Playbook

  Taking the best of coaching practices, we’ve assembled a set of resources to train and aid instructional coaching. It is filled with models of coaching, strategies, and protocols.  

• Trainings

  In addition to the above materials, Tch has trained staff to help guide the development and implementation of this supportive coaching model using video, Tch Plus, job-embedded inquiry, and blended learning to extend and support teacher learning. Just ask!

First Five provides new teachers with on-demand learning experiences that directly align to their professional learning needs. It is efficient for the time strapped newbie and coach and cost effective for districts who want to meet the needs of their new teachers. 

In addition to leveraging our own content, we’ve curated these learning experiences to include videos, readings, and resources that a teacher can go through when they have time to focus and learn. Some topics include: 

• Amp up Attention
• Crafting Classroom Culture 
• Gesture Like You Mean It 
• Social Emotional Learning
• Universal Design 
• Project Based Learning 
• Formative Assessment 
• Differentiation 
• Foundational Instruction
• Excursions into Exits
• Vocabulary Venture
• Curious About Culturally Responsive Teaching
• Play Up Participation 
• AND MANY MORE 

These are just some of the topics that one can choose from for their own professional learning. We’ve even made alignments to standards to contextualize the learning within your existing frameworks. Your school or district can access all of these features for $1600. Set-up your new teachers for success with First Five. If you’re interested to learn more about how to access these learning experiences with First Five, email Cheri Dedmon at [email protected].