| Understanding and supporting first year teachers is crucial to the retention of highly qualified instructors. Knowledge of the problems faced by apprentice teachers past and present may provide important information for attracting and retaining high quality instructors in the future.;Interestingly, new teachers identified the greatest support as coming from grade level and subject teams. This finding is important as teacher induction and retention programs often focus on the efforts of a single mentor. Hence, little research has been conducted in the area of grade/subject team support and its effects on new teacher development and retention.;The purpose of this study was to explore and reveal themes regarding apprentice teachers' needs and concerns during a six month period beginning in early November. This paper describes the evolving needs and concerns of six first year teachers teaching in a suburban school district in Maricopa County. Additionally, first year teachers' perceptions of useful supports to improve the quality of mentoring and induction programs have been identified and discussed. Initial results indicated that student motivation, individual student needs, classroom management, materials, supplies, and additional resources, and curriculum concerns were most problematic to beginning teachers. Final survey results indicated that concerns about classroom management had increased significantly, becoming beginning educators' number one issue. Likewise new teachers identified time management as a significant problem that did not improve with experience over the course of the school year. Most of these new teachers felt these subjects received scant mention in their teacher preparation programs. |
