In our fifth blog of the “Inside the Teaching Fellowship” series, we examine what Fellows have learned from working alongside veteran teachers in their school contexts.

Outside of mentor teachers, early-career teachers do not often consider veteran teachers as collaborative partners. However, the Knowles Teaching Fellowship focuses on cultivating collaborative relationships with colleagues in order to strengthen student learning outcomes. Fellows consider all the possible collaborative partners in their educational communities and what the impacts of each of these relationships could be. As a result, Fellows frequently come to see veteran teachers as effective and important collaboration partners.

Knowles Fellows have learned specific strategies for creating and implementing high expectations for students and developing relationships with students from veteran teachers. For example, Fellow A reflected:

I learned a lot about how we frame student expectations from a veteran teacher at my last school. We spent a lot of time discussing how some students are held to higher standards than others and the racist undertones to that, and we discussed a lot about lifting all students up to high expectations in our classrooms.

Fellow B shared,

I’ve learned a lot of small, relationship-building/SEL [social emotional learning] things from one of the veteran teachers at my school who I’m very close friends with. I’ve taken some of the things she does in her classroom like adding an SEL question at the end of every quiz (example: “how are things going for you this week?”), doing a crossword puzzle together for the last 5 minutes of class, or sending nice emails every Friday to students (and their parents) about positive things they’ve done that week. These things have allowed me to build stronger relationships with students.

Fellow A’s and B’s experiences show the ways veteran teachers support early-career teachers in attending to the social structure in a classroom. In Fellow A’s situation, the veteran teacher helped her understand how different communities are impacted by the education system. In Fellow B’s case, the veteran teacher encouraged her to expand her relationship building to include not just teacher-student relationships but also student-student and teacher-family relationships.

Knowles Fellows have also learned specific content-based pedagogical practices from veteran teachers, including one who shared that she “started recording my conversations with a veteran teacher (retiring this year after 35 years teaching physics). He has so much to share about demos, labs, curriculum, and more!!!”

Fellow D shared:

The most valuable learning I’ve had from a veteran teacher was actually during my student teaching, during my master’s program. This teacher introduced me to storylining and inquiry-based learning for students. She taught me to view my role as a teacher as that of a facilitator of learning, not a deliverer of knowledge. She told me that students will do what you expect of them, and that I should raise my expectations in order to raise my students’ performance. This allowed me to start my career with higher expectations about my students and believing that learning should be a collaboration between everyone in the room–even between student and teacher. It completely changed my thinking of what my future career would be like and made me much more enthusiastic.

These Fellows’ experiences show how, by sharing their knowledge, veteran teachers support early-career teachers’ pedagogical practices. In Fellow D’s case, the veteran teacher shared specific curriculum resources. In Fellow E’s situation, the veteran teacher shaped her philosophy about teaching and the role of the teacher.

As teachers continue to leave the profession in record numbers, teacher sustainability has become a crucial conversation in education. Three Fellows shared how veteran teachers have helped them create sustainable practices for themselves.

Fellow E reflected:
When I was in my first year of teaching, I had a mentor teacher who, I believe, created the strong foundation of my teaching persona I keep to this day. Where everyone else was being very stringent on rules amidst a global pandemic, she rooted her teaching in joy and care for all her students, which I have kept with me to this day.

Fellow F shared:

My mentor teacher in my induction program has a few sayings that I constantly remember:
1. “You can’t judge yourself if you’re doing it for the first time”
2. “Never pair new structure with new content.”
3. “If you don’t teach them, who will?”
These quotes have defined me as a teacher and continue to sustain me in my profession.

Fellow G shared:

My guiding teacher, who helped mentor me through my credentialing program, has been a guiding light towards what kind of person and teacher I would like to be. Whenever she was teaching a new lesson, she referenced the textbook. She always asked me questions and other teachers whatever their seniority and she was always so humble when it came to learning new practices. She has taught me how to find my authentic voice as a teacher and to not take things too seriously so that teaching can be more sustainable.

Whether sharing how to root teaching in “joy and care,” allowing space for personal growth, or “remaining humble when it comes to learning new practices,” veteran teachers support early-career teachers by sharing knowledge on how to remain sustainable in the profession.

These Fellows’ experiences show that veteran teachers are mentoring early-career teachers with humility and a collaborative spirit, offering guidance on creating relationships, pedagogy, and sustaining oneself as an educator. Even knowing that veteran teachers hold this wealth of experience and wisdom, early-career teachers often find approaching them difficult. Some ways to start conversations with your veteran colleagues include:

• Asking for advice about something you are genuinely grappling with
• Showing curiosity about their practice, maybe something a student shared with you
• Asking to plan together
• Exploring what they think about a piece of content, student work, or an upcoming school event
• Sharing your enthusiasm about their ideas and follow up if you try one of their suggestions
• Offering to share something that has gone well for you

As you can see, the experiences of these early-career teachers show that many veteran teachers are lifelong learners who are nurturing the next generation of educators. For additional ideas on how to engage colleagues, veteran or otherwise, we invite you to explore the Collaboration Planner.

Coming up next in the series:

Throughout the “Inside the Fellowship“ series we have explored how early-career teachers create learning communities, interrupt status inequities in their classrooms, generate knowledge, and learn alongside veteran teachers. The final blog of the series, “Knowledge Worth Sharing: Inquiry as a Pathway to Leadership”, describes how we support Fellows to use inquiry as a tool for more deeply understanding themselves as teacher leaders and the opportunities to exercise teacher leadership in their local contexts.