Provisional teaching is a time for you to put your theoretical knowledge into practice.
The path to certification is filled with learning opportunities, growth and sometimes a little bit of uncertainty.
This is where external mentorship can play a crucial role in your progress.
It provides a steady hand and a constant source of support.
This is what Xun Deng experienced when working under my external mentorship in 2023. Discover what empowered Xun during the provisional teaching and how it helped her succeed.
External Mentorship and Provisional Teaching
During your certification period, you get to put all your theoretical knowledge into practice. Throughout this time, you work on developing effective teaching strategies, understanding child development, and building relationships with your Centre colleagues, the children and their whanau.
This is a critical phase for laying the foundations of your teaching career.
But as you navigate new environments, responsibilities and expectations can feel overwhelming and full of pressure. This is where mentorship can help as it offers a lifeline of support, guidance and encouragement during your provisional teaching journey.
The great thing is that you have several valuable mentorship options available to you during your provisional teaching period. The first is your Centre assigned mentor, who will play a pivotal role in your development. Additionally, you can supercharge your support by having the objective perspective of an external mentor.
When you have these two powerful resources on your side, you can work in a triangular relationship where everyone gains. Not only will you have the Centre specific guidance of your Centre mentor, but you’ll also have the endless wrap-around support of your external mentor which is both practical and proactive. Xun found this particularly valuable during her provisional teaching.
Why Mentorship Matters
Personalised Guidance
As a provisional teacher, you will have your own strengths and areas for improvement. They will likely be different from your fellow provisional teachers. Your mentor will be able to recognise your personal teaching style and offer personalised guidance catered to your individual needs. With regular observations and feedback sessions, an external mentor can help you refine your practices, address challenges and celebrate successes.
Here is what Xun had to say, “I wholeheartedly recommend Leanne to anyone seeking assistance and guidance in their certification journey. Leanne is exceptionally skilled at following your lead, guiding you to delve deeper into the subject matter. Before you know it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to realize just how much you’ve accomplished with her support.”
Emotional Support and Encouragement
The emotional landscape of teaching can be complex. There will be moments of total joy, but they can also be interspersed with periods of nervousness and self-doubt. When you have an external mentor, you have a space to express your feelings, share your experiences and seek reassurance. This regular emotional support can be absolutely vital for maintaining motivation and resilience.
Xun says, “The scheduled mentoring meetings are never missed, even on hectic days or when unexpected events occur. I appreciate the predictability, allowing me to prepare and set expectations for what needs to be accomplished ahead of time.”
Professional Development and Growth
Mentorship is not just about immediate teaching actions in your Centre. It is about fostering the ability for long term professional growth. By exploring the different aspects of learning and development, an external mentor can help set you up for career success by arming you with the knowledge to grow and evolve as an educator.
Xun says, “Since working with Leanne, I have a good understanding of choosing areas for inquiry focus that are suitable to enable me to further my teaching. I can see how my inquiries are aligned with one another as I continue to build on my quality teaching practice.
I also have a deeper understanding of Our Code Our Standards and the importance that we as teachers have on what really matters for the tamariki in our care.”
Building Confidence and Competence
Confidence in teaching comes with time and experience. However, you can speed up that process with the right support. Through external mentorship, you can gain confidence by seeing your skills and knowledge validated and enhanced. Together, you can recognise your progress and understand the impact you are having on children’s learning.
As Xun mentioned earlier, “Before you know it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to realize just how much you’ve accomplished with Leanne’s support.”
Navigating Challenges and Solving Problems
Throughout your provisional teaching phase, you will inevitably encounter problems or challenges to overcome. They could be related to teaching, your Centre, inquiries or even interpersonal dynamics. By having an external mentor on your side, they can become your problem-solving partner, offering reliable support, practical strategies, alternative perspectives, and collaborative brainstorming to overcome any hurdles.
Xun says, “Before the external mentoring, my mentoring meetings were cancelled quite frequently because of various reasons, like things getting busy at the centre, and me and my mentor being not able to get non-contact on the same day.”
Having that reliable support meant that Xun could discuss what was happening in her Centre that week and discuss strategies for tackling any challenges she was experiencing.
Could You Benefit From External Mentorship?
External mentorship is more than just a support system. It can become a triangular relationship with yourself, your Centre mentor and the external mentor that nurtures your personal and professional growth and development.
As an external Mentor, I have the privilege of shaping the future of early childhood education by empowering new educators to reach their full potential. My Kete Ako program is an effective starting point to get you on track with direction and support.
Through the Kete Ako program that Xun and her fellow provisional teachers completed, I was able to offer personalised guidance, direction, emotional support and professional development. It began as a 6-month program, but then due to the value Xun and her fellow provisional teachers were getting, the external mentorship program was extended by her education provider.
This meant Xun and her colleagues really got the opportunity to gain an intense understanding of the Inquiry process. It also meant that during the time we worked together, I got to witness Xun’s transformation into a confident educator, ready to make a lasting impact on the lives of the children she worked with.
If you would like to see some of the same successes as Xun, maybe external mentorship via the Kete Ako program is for you. Find out more about it here and partner with me for success!
I also have resources that can be added to your toolkit. Click here to read more about the Roadmap or click here to purchase the Roadmap to Certification e-book for Provisional Certified Teachers. Alternatively, if you are wanting to learn more about my packages, reach out today.
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