By Alan Van Ormer
Weekly editor

As a first year teacher in the Garretson School District, Emily Tomkins didn’t know what to expect. In fact, it was a whole new world for her. However, a veteran school teacher, Julie Hersom, became her mentor and helped her adjust to her new career.
“Julie’s been a perfect mentor,” said Tomkins. Both teach first grade classes at the Garretson Elementary School. “She isn’t pushy. She offers me advice and helps with teaching and everything that goes into teaching.”
Garretson has eight new teachers this year and each have a mentor under the school’s new mentor program that started during the summer before the first day of classes.
The Garretson School Board was updated on how the mentor program has been working after a month of school during its monthly school board meeting on Monday.
Garretson Elementary Principal Karn Barth said the mentor program offers a continuity of good teaching strategies and helps first year teachers with initial hurdles in the teaching profession.
“A mentor is someone to bounce ideas off of,” she said. “For the children, teachers set the atmosphere of the classroom. If teachers are relaxed, students feel more relaxed and they perform better.”
Under the mentor program, first-year teachers will receive support during the first three years of their professional career.
Mentors cover school district policies and procedures, classroom management, research-based effective classroom strategies and curriculum design. In addition, the first-year teacher and mentor work together to solve problems, the mentor questions the new teacher to help come up with their own options or solutions to problems, and give suggestions and strategies. The mentor also watches the teacher conduct a lesson and afterward discusses any improvements that could be made to make the lesson more effective.
Tomkins enjoys having Hersom as a mentor. “We are on opposite ends of our careers,” she said. “I’m just starting and she’s been a teacher for a while.”
Hersom said retired teacher, Lynn Benedict, was helpful to her when she first started teaching first grade 28 years ago. “It provides a good support system,” she said. “Emily is able to talk with someone who has experience and who has been there.”
The mentoring program is also a way for staff bonding and helping new teachers feel welcome, said Hersom. “It makes it comfortable in a teaching situation,” said Hersom. “It builds confidence.”
Tomkins said a mentor provides ideas. “There are never too many ideas,” she said.
With Hersom’s mentoring, it has also placed Tomkins at ease. “You question yourself a lot because it is such an important job,” she said. “She keeps telling me you’re doing just fine. You are going to be a strong teacher.”