{"id":15605,"date":"2018-06-28T13:12:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T17:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/edhd\/?p=15605"},"modified":"2018-06-28T13:12:31","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T17:12:31","slug":"umaine-grad-students-create-website-tips-tricks-first-year-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/edhd\/2018\/06\/28\/umaine-grad-students-create-website-tips-tricks-first-year-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"91르적 grad students create website with \u2018tips and tricks\u2019 for first-year teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Teaching-resource-website-news-feature\"
\nThe first few years of a teacher\u2019s career are arguably the most important. As with any profession, they lay the foundation for the habits and routines that lead to success down the road.<\/p>\n

In Maine, school districts are required to provide mentorship to first-year teachers to help them transition to the job. But what that mentorship looks like varies from district to district.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeacher induction programs are probably the most important programs we have when it comes to retaining teachers, and currently schools are all over the map in terms of what they do for induction,\u201d says Bobby Deetjen, assistant director at Mid-coast School of Technology in Rockland and a master\u2019s student in educational leadership at the University of Maine.<\/p>\n

Deetjen says some schools may offer a special orientation program or additional professional development to new teachers, but it\u2019s not required.<\/p>\n

To help fill in some of the gaps in what individual schools and districts offer, Deetjen and his classmates in the educational leadership program\u2019s Midcoast cohort created a website<\/a> on the online publishing platform Weebly offering advice to first-year teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to your first year!\u201d says the headline on the site\u2019s homepage. \u201cOn this website you will find helpful tips, tricks, and resources that may not have been covered in your staff handbook or during your staff orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The website is the end result of a month-long May term class, \u201cLeading Effective Task Groups in Schools,\u201d taught in three locations around the state. The Midcoast cohort met in Belfast, another group met in Ellsworth, and a third in Bangor. Each cohort was given the assignment to create a product that would be useful to educators in Maine. The groups in Ellsworth and Bangor created YouTube videos addressing issues of trauma and poverty in schools. The Midcoast group went a different route.<\/p>\n

\u201cFairly early on we came up with the idea of wanting to do something to support first-year teachers,\u201d says Iris Eichenlaub, librarian and technology integrator at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport and another member of the Midcoast educational leadership cohort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to get to tips and tricks, things you wouldn\u2019t have known, that you wouldn\u2019t even necessarily know to ask a question about,\u201d says Eichenlaub, the 2017 Knox County Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n

The site features five sections:<\/p>\n