We draw on Engeström's (2011a) formative intervention approach to bring together mentor teachers and university supervisors to construct a tool for structuring observations and mentoring student teachers. Data include videos and transcripts from seven meetings where participants discussed mentoring and viewed video records of teaching practice to…

The Santa Cruz/Silicon Valley New Teacher Project--under the aegis of the New Teacher Center--devised a program to train teacher mentors to help new teachers incorporate the Common Core standards into their teaching. The three-year program yielded five critical lessons: Mentors need ongoing support to develop their readiness and willingness to…

This practicum addressed the need to provide training in basic early childhood education subject areas to Head Start teachers and teacher assistants. A trainer of trainers approach was implemented because of the large number of teachers involved (approximately 1,300 in the Los Angeles County Schools Head Start grantee programs). Goals for…

This conference paper reports on research related to inquiry and how to infuse this approach into teacher training for pre-service elementary teachers. By using personal experiences of a three month visit to California elementary schools and a driving tour of England, these experiences are correlated to inquiry training with a model adapted from…

Teacher educators need to remain current regarding the challenges that prospective teachers are going to face in their classrooms. One way to maintain this currency is for teacher educators periodically to spend some time in the K-12 classroom testing the theories they teach. This paper will discuss the benefits both teacher educators and…

This paper describes a simulation activity, which was coupled with Confluent/Gestalt meta-processing, that was designed to address the affective component of a mathematics procedures class for preservice teachers. The activity consisted of an explanation and demonstration for teacher educators. It is argued that a reconstruction of disposition…

The California Mentor Teacher Program, brought into being by California Senate Bill 813, is designed to retain and recognize excellent teachers and to improve the profession by enabling expert teachers to assist others. Four major issues to consider in developing mentor teacher programs are discussed. First is the importance of collaboration with…

In response to a California State education reform bill that requires professors of methods courses to return to the classroom once every three years, a university profesor of 15 years taught 9th-grade English in Watts. This essay presents nine tips for others who anticipate their own return to teaching. (IW)