This induction and mentoring program matches first-year teachers and those new to the district with the veterans for an entire year. New teachers get release time to observe more experienced colleagues.
Mentors also get release time to observe their mentees.
But it's not a formal evaluation. A critical ingredient in the mentoring match-up is the proximity of the pair during the day. They can have lunch or stop by each other's classrooms. Sometimes new teachers get two mentors, one close by and one for content. Pennington and her colleagues created the program seven years ago to supplement the summer program they'd already devised for new teachers.