| A Mentor Teacher Professional Development Guide was created for LAUSD in order to assist those responsible for providing professional development for mentor teachers. This Guide was developed in five phases---gathering information on mentoring, mentor teacher programs, adult learning, professional development, and various needs assessment surveys; conducting a needs assessment of a sample of 100 out of 170 mentor teachers of Local District I of LAUSD; developing the Guide; field-testing it by conducting three focus groups of professional developers and LAUSD mentor teachers both in Local District I and in other local districts; and revising it according to the given responses. The final product, the LAUSD Mentor Teacher Professional Development Guide, is a result of all of the research conducted. There was no significant difference in the responses given by the different focus group populations. They all indicated that the idea was one that would help professional developers, mentor teachers, beginning teachers and ultimately students. The focus group participants gave feedback on all areas of the Guide and then the mentor teacher group shared general suggestions and concerns regarding LAUSD's Mentor Teacher Program.; The LAUSD Mentor Teacher Professional Development Guide was designed to be user-friendly for people responsible for providing professional development to mentor teachers. The actual Guide is in the Appendices and provides an explicit agenda which can be used to plan a Mentor Teacher Orientation. It also provides suggestions for ongoing professional development of the mentor teachers as well. The goal of its creation is to have a practical, easy-to-use, informative, research-based Mentor Teacher Professional Development Guide. |
