Purpose/Mission

The Oklahoma Mentor Network has developed and piloted a high quality, three-year mentoring program that is consistent, replicable, and sustainable throughout the state of Oklahoma. Elements of the mentoring program include:

• creating high-functioning learning communities,
• developing beginning teachers into high-quality professionals who improve student learning, and
• delivering professional development all teachers.

Innovations of this model include a partnership of universities, a state agency, and a teacher organization along with formative assessments based on the Oklahoma Professional Teacher Competencies.

Tools for Coaching

The Oklahoma Mentor Network (OMN) training prepares mentors to diagnose the needs of beginning teachers and to select the appropriate method of response based on the beginning teachers needs. The three primary modes of response are consultative, collaborative, and coaching. Mentors work in a consultative mode when beginning teachers need advice and in a collaborative role when approaching a task or problem as partners. However, the ultimate goal of mentor-beginning teacher interactions is for mentors to assume a coaching role in which they are helping beginning teachers build reflective skills that enhance their teaching practice.
 

Whatever role the mentor assumes, he/she uses the tools of coaching, such as building trust and rapport, making non-judgmental responses, paraphrasing, making positive presuppositions, using productive listening, asking clarifying and mediative questions, and capitalizing on teachable moments. Though OMN mentors learn to use these skills in formal pre- and post-data conversations, they are also encouraged to use them in informal conversations with their beginning teachers.

About the Oklahoma Mentor Network

The Oklahoma Mentor Network (OMN) is a project of theOklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation, Oklahoma Education Association, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Oklahoma. The OMN seeks to assist beginning teachers, mentors, and school leaders to provide critical training and support designed to help all teachers be successful in the classroom.

Oklahoma’s mentoring program is focused on improving student achievement through innovative methods, such as ongoing assessments that link a teacher's overall development to student behaviors and learning. Components of the Oklahoma mentoring program include:

• Beginning Teacher Performance Standards, a rubric of the development of teaching which can be used by all staff members for personal reflection and growth
• A three-year mentoring program
• A five-day training for mentors in their first year of mentoring, two days of which mentors are joined by their mentee teacher
• Annual training for principals
• Three days of training for school-based leadership teams in year two
• Follow-up visits to schools in the fall and spring of year three
• Research conducted by the Oklahoma Technical Assistance Center

School districts involved in the three year Oklahoma Mentoring Network Mentoring include Geary, Newcastle, North Rock Creek, Purcell, Putnam City, Shawnee, South Rock Creek, Westville, Whitebead, Ardmore, Byng, Lawton, Mid-Del, Sulphur, Perkins/Tryon, Watts, Duncan, Norman, Muskogee, and Edmond. Universities involved include East Central University, University of Central Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State University.

Investments in new teachers have a great impact on the quality of students' learning. Mentoring programs that enhance the capacity of new teachers increase student achievement. For more information about how the OMN is impacting the quality of schools and student learning in Oklahoma, contact:

Oklahoma Commission on Teacher Preparation
3545 NW 58th Street, Suite 200
Oklahoma City, OK 73112-4725
405-525-2612