Crawl before you can walk

 It appears to me that there seems to be a prevailing thought from our Beginning Teachers that they are stepping into the profession on an equal footing with their experienced counterparts.

I can't help but wonder if this also coincides with their counterparts letting them find their feet and not setting a scene where the expectation is that they should be seeking and receiving support.

Why are we letting them fall, before helping them up? We have learned that this practice does not work for our ākonga, yet we still place our colleagues in this position.

What damage will this create?

There are two categories:

1. The sponge... They are eager to learn. To soak up everything and everything that they can, in order to be the very best that they can be and learn from as many as possible.

2. The stone. They try to convey experience and capability, without showing any sign of vulnerability. They forge ahead with the knowledge they know, without contemplating the changes and adaptations their counterparts may have made, from learned experience.

What I've observed in the past few years is that there is a backwards slide due to several factors. Beginning teachers don't seem to be equipped with collaborative teaching pedagogy. They default to what is happening or modelled in the kura. Sometimes this may not be the best practice.

There is a lack of peer support systems. Back in the semi-dark ages, when I was a Beginning Teacher, I attended Provisional Teacher Development Days. A room full of teachers from across the province, all teaching similar year levels, with a specific focus for each day that they could openly learn and share ideas. Teachers were able to share questions, barriers etc in a safe space, with feedback or ideas given from the group with the support of an experienced facilitator, should there be a need to put specific steps or strategies in place.

How can we support our newcomers to the Profession of Teaching to embrace the short period where they can utilise their "training wheels" and extra Classroom Release Time to build on their limited practice?

To be seeking or accepting support is not a weakness, but a strength.