Engage in authentic conversation and reflection with experienced educators

Prepare Mentors and Novices to Be Leaders

Guest(s): Jay Correia and Suzanne Molitor
Date: 04/09/2025
Run time: 45:34
Season 4, Episode 3

This episode focuses on preparing mentors and novice teachers to be leaders. Our guests Jay Correia & Suzanne Molitor bring their experience to provide insight on the power of informal, heart-centered mentorship, as well as the importance of formal, purposeful mentoring initiatives. Carol, Jay, and Suzanne share actionable ideas to help both mentors and novice teachers become more visible as leaders, ranging from making space for teachers to highlight their wins to fostering learning conversations between colleagues.

Interested in Podcast PD?
Check out Carol's blogpost Podcast PD: A Professional Learning Strategy to Earn District Credit!

Additional resources:
Video Effective Teachers From Students' Eyes: https://mentoringinaction.com/qualities-of-effective-teachers-through-student-eyes/

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Episode Audio

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Corwin's Teacher to Teacher Podcast with host Carol Pelletier Radford. Carol is an experienced

classroom teacher, university educator, founder of mentoringinaction.com, and author of four best-selling

professional books for teachers. She believes the best form of professional learning happens when teachers

engage in authentic conversations and share their wisdom.

In every episode, Carol and her guests share stories about pivotal moments in their careers, successful

classroom strategies, and personal actions they take to minimize stress and stay healthy. The Teacher to Teacher

Podcast is a place to engage in authentic conversation and reflection with experienced educators. We hope these

conversations will energize you, keep you inspired, and remind you why you chose to become a teacher.

LIZ GILDEA: Hello, and welcome to the Teacher to Teacher Podcast. I'm Liz Gildea, Senior Acquisitions Editor here at Corwin.

This season of the podcast focuses on mentoring in action. We have such a thoughtful episode for you today on

the topic of preparing mentors and novice teachers to be leaders. Our guests are Jay Correia and Suzanne

Molitor. Both Jay and Suzanne were longtime classroom teachers.

Jay is now the coordinator of mentoring and induction for his district in Massachusetts, and Suzanne coordinates

the new teacher induction program for a large district in Canada. They bring their experience leading these

programs to provide insight on the power of informal, heart-centered mentorship, as well as the importance of

formal, purposeful mentoring initiatives.

Carol, Jay, and Suzanne share actionable ideas to help both mentors and novice teachers become more visible as

leaders, ranging from making space for teachers to highlight their wins, to fostering learning conversations

between colleagues. Whether you're a mentor, a school leader, or a novice teacher, I think you'll find this to be

an empowering conversation about the potential of teacher leadership. I hope you'll learn as much as I did.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

Hello, everyone. I'm Carol Pelletier Radford, and I am the host of the Teacher to Teacher Podcast. We are in

season four. Mentoring in action is our theme this season. We're looking at all ways mentoring supports our work

in schools as educators. Episode 3. It's a topic really close to my heart. It's about preparing mentors and novice

teachers to be leaders.

I have two wonderful guests here today that are experienced in this realm, and I'm going to invite them to

introduce themselves before we dive into our topic. Suzanne and Jay are here. Suzanne, would you let our

listeners know who you are and where you're calling in from?

SUZANNE

MOLITOR:

Carol, thanks, and thank you for this opportunity. I'm very excited to be part of this conversation. I'm speaking to

you today from Toronto, Canada. Just in terms of a little background, I'm currently an educational researcher,

consultant, and writer. I have had a number of experiences in my work as an educator, in particular, for the last

six years of my role as coordinator of the New Teacher Induction Program in this very large school district.

The school district that I worked with is the second-largest in Canada, and it has 217 elementary schools and 47

secondary schools, so it's quite large. That meant that in my role as coordinator of the New Teacher Induction

Program, I was working with 1,500 approximately teachers and mentors every year. That was a terrific learning

opportunity as I facilitated and co-planned professional learning for those teachers and for those mentors.

CAROL: I actually know Suzanne, because I read her chapter in a book that we were both invited to participate in, which

is mentoring for the well-being of teachers, which ties into teacher leadership as well, and I know you're working

on some of that. So let's hold that thought and we're going to dive in more to that. And I loved your chapter in

the book, and that's why I invited you to be a guest on this podcast, so we'll say more.

The other gust for the casual conversation with Carol, I guess, is Jay Correia. Jay, please introduce yourself,

where are you calling in from, and your experience in induction.

JAY CORREIA: Thanks so much, Carol. Great to hear Suzanne as well. For me, it all started back in 1991 when I came into Fall

River Public School system as a substitute teacher, and I've been here-- This would be year 35 coming up, and

I'm blessed to be the coordinator of mentoring and induction here in Massachusetts at Fall River. Part of what I

do is much like Suzanne mentioned. We have 17 schools and many, many mentors and new teachers.

One of my goals every year is to just work directly with admin and teachers in making it as seamless as possible,

but as we know, and we'll talk about it I'm sure, every teacher has different needs. But my intro was, I spent

many years in the classroom. I was fortunate enough to be teacher of the year here on the South Coast back in

2011, and had a short career in journalism, 16 years as a sports writer, and that paired well with my teaching

career. I did both for a long time.

And in the latter part of my career, it's been solely this, along with coordinating summer school and other

programs for our district. When I saw the invite, I was like, this is a no brainer. This is what I do. And I thought I

could finally give back a little bit more to everything Carol has done for me.

CAROL: Oh, thank you, Jay. And my experience with Jay, when I met him, I was at the university preparing and supporting

mentors who were hosting novice teachers in the local area in Fall River, New Bedford schools, and my very first

video of Jay, if you remember, was in your classroom. Jay was teaching high school social studies at the time,

what I believe. And the video, we'll put it in the notes because it's called Qualities of Effective Teachers Through

Students' Eyes.

And I interviewed five high school students who were in Jay's class. He left the room, and I asked these students,

how can your teacher be more effective, how could beginning teachers be more engaging, and effective, and

help you learn better? And I have to say, it's one of my favorite videos that I ever produced, and I've produced 75

videos that are on my website, so thank you, Jay, for sharing your students. For both of you, for transitioning

from the classroom as educators, what did you teach Suzanne when you were in the classroom?

SUZANNE: I was in English. English and ESL were my areas of focus in secondary, so like Jay, I'm in that secondary school

context.

CAROL: This season is mentoring, so I want to start with a personal experience of what mentoring means to you in your

life and how it's influenced who you are? Suzanne, what occurs to you as a reflective moment looking back at

your life and choices?

SUZANNE: When I look back and reflect on, I guess, pivotal people and times in my teaching career, I can think of a

wonderful-- Like Jay, I think, Jay, you said earlier that you were not formally assigned a mentor when you started

teaching, and that was my case too, so I found myself gravitating to people that I thought I might like to work

with. And in one case, I worked with this superintendent colleague who was very inspirational.

She had such an inquiring mind, and such great presence, and, I guess, an ethical stance that I really admired.

And she really changed the trajectory of my educational career because she's the one who encouraged me to do

graduate studies. And so that wasn't part of my early narrative as a beginning teacher or as someone starting

out in the profession, but years later, she had an impact on that choice.

I think also some of the professors that I studied with in my degree program were very inspirational too, just in

terms of helping me to be really critical and to think critically about what happens in schools, and how change

happens, how teacher leadership could look, might look, does look.

And then I always have to come back to-- although it wasn't in a formal context, I have said often to new

teachers and to friends that my mom was my first and early mentor. She really had time to listen to me and

process with me my school experiences and my, I guess, early desire to become a teacher. And I think in my

conversations with her, she inspired a habit of reflection that resonates and continues to stay with me today.

So I think mentors are incredibly important and can be so influential in the way you become and see yourself as

a teacher. So I consider myself fortunate that I had those opportunities to connect with those [INAUDIBLE].

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

And you're already reminding me how mentors are teacher leaders in the conversations that they're having, the

influence. My mom helped me to become a teacher. And like you, I wanted to be a teacher at a young age.

Fourth grade, I think I already knew.

But then when I got to high school, the path was not as easy for me. And she was just like, don't give up. And

now, I look back and say, if I had given up because one guidance counselor said, this isn't for you, I wouldn't be

having this conversation with you today.

And we do have to trust these early mentors as well. It's not just career counseling. It's the heart-centered

mentors that influence who we are today in this conversation. Jay, reaction to Suzanne's story. And then I'd like

you to share your story.

JAY CORREIA: Yeah, no, I enjoy Suzanne's perspective of what got her so involved in this work. It always fascinates me

because, even though our stories have different kind of paths, there's still that common denominator. So I heard

a lot of me in those words just said differently, which I could relate to very well.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

So what's your story, Jay?

JAY CORREIA: Yeah. So when I think about this topic, it always brings me back to year one. And I think about the dynamics, how

the dynamics have changed in the approach to mentoring and induction, working with novice teachers, working

with all teachers because there's always room for growth for all of us.

And I just remember thinking I was an unbelievable teacher year one. And when I look back, boy, how much help

I could have used from an official mentor, someone that I could have leaned on, someone that I could have just

truly bounced anything off. And I was kind of stirred into getting trained as a mentor by the former coordinator

who was retiring.

And she said, I think this is a great fit for you. This was moving on about 15 years into my career. And I actually

took the grad course with you, Dr. Radford. And it was something that changed my life.

I was in there with an HR coordinator, principals, teachers. We were all in there trying to learn more about, how

do we just find the niche? Forget about the curriculum because people come out, they know their curriculum. But

how do we find out truly how to help new teachers from the mindset of balance from making sure they take a

deep breath every day and not knowing at that time that sometimes the best mentoring I could do was a 5- to

10-minute unplanned conversation to help someone right in the hallway or things of that nature?

But I get into it for the simple fact of I was ready to quit my first week in the high school I was a student at

because of a poor experience in a teachers room and getting told to get up out of someone's seat, not knowing

the hidden rules of that teacher's room. And I called my mother. Suzanne talked about her mom. And I said,

mom, I'm out of here. I'm going to go become a state trooper. And she told me, quote, "to put my big boy boots

on and get back in there. And let's go." So here we are 35 years later.

And I just think that we just really, really needed this program when I was a new teacher. But we didn't. And we

had a lot of informal mentoring from all walks of life.

Carol's training talked about a board of mentors. We can all point to people from different aspects of our life and

being a little kid to right now of who's helped us, who's guided us, who's kind of told us yes and no, that might not

work. But I like hearing from other people in the profession to try it and see what works for you because what

works for me in my classroom may not necessarily work for you.

So great leaders are our mentors. But I also am from the position of not everybody is ready to be a mentor. You

really need that intense training. And you got to have that heart that you spoke about. Because if your heart's

not in it, don't bother.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

Thank you for bringing all that up. Suzanne, react to what you're hearing Jay say. How does that resonate with

you?

SUZANNE

MOLITOR:

Well, when Jay was recounting his story, I was thinking about, once again, the power of a mentor and how just

even a phrase or a sentence at a time of need really can change your stance on what's happening and propel

you to pursue the dream that you had to be a teacher.

Sometimes, I think mentors are everywhere. There's so much around us and people that we can go and ask for

help from if we're not officially assigned to a mentor. You can get a feeling that, at the photocopy machine, this

colleague is somebody I could ask. Or just as you said, it's just in time or spontaneous mentoring moments. And I

also agree with a comment that you made earlier about not everyone is ready to be an impactful mentor, that

professional learning really can catapult the mentoring into a much deeper experience.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

Thank you. That's a great segue to the topic that we're going to talk about today, which is preparing mentors to

be leaders and preparing our novice teachers to be leaders as well, that we don't have to wait for a teacher

anymore to have 10 years under their belt before they can even be a mentor. We're learning if we can do the

preparation with them and, yes, have some experience that these heart-centered conversations and leadership

can emerge, I believe more quickly than I thought they could.

And working with Jay in the past, I've seen Jay's work evolve over time with that more preparation for the

mentors and the choice to be a mentor. Everybody doesn't want to be a mentor. So here's my take on teacher

leadership. And I'm actually using my own mentoring and action book.

Sometimes, I look back at some things I write and go, did I write that? Where is this message coming from? And I

remember being very clear when I wrote this.

Mentors are teacher leaders. So if we go through that formal prep and that acknowledgment that something is

needed-- and my definition for mentoring-- and we have the informal and the formal and all of that-- is that these

mentoring conversations that we want our mentors to have as leaders will relate to classroom practice and

student learning. And I kind of have divided in my training of mentors and preparation of mentors the informal

orientation kind of conversations, which we do need from these formal conversations that are planned, that have

reflection in them. Those purposeful mentoring conversations are the ones where the mentor has to be the

teacher leader.

So it's not that the heart-centered conversation that I had with my mom that kept me going and teaching. And all

our three moms are in this call apparently, cheering us along. And that is part of leadership because it's a place

we're coming from.

But I want to talk more about how we retain our teachers in schools through confidence and competence in the

classroom. And the well-being does fit into that. But as I look back at what I had written and that I will want you

to react to is I have this sustainability tree. I call it the tree of leadership.

And the roots of the tree in any mentoring program to me are the teachers. It's teacher leadership because the

administration may come and go. But mostly, the teachers and the mentors stay. So when we prepare our

mentors in a solid way and they are the roots of that school and that district, they can ripple and expand their

knowledge base in these conversations with novice teachers and other mentors who aspire to be leaders.

And I remember put purposely having these three branches of leadership, where it was, we want to align the

conversations and the leadership to the teaching standards, to best practices, to what works in classrooms. And

we also want to branch where we differentiate. And Jay and I have worked on this a lot.

We have career changers. We have people student teaching in their 20 years old and jumping into a classroom.

We have military people. We have programs. We have to differentiate the conversations for the novice.

And then that final branch of leadership, if you will, to me, relates on that impact to retain the teacher. And what

else do we need? Do we need the well-being? How can we shift the school culture? When you have a group of

mentors who are all in a common language, speaking the language of purposeful helping students learn, it

impacts the culture of a school when there are groups and networks.

Ultimately, why we're doing all this is to influence student learning. We want to impact student learning. That's

the whole purpose of why we have mentoring programs and why we're in school.

So that's kind of my take. And just a little aside about novice teachers as leaders, where we started to work more

with the mentors is having the mentors let novice teachers organize sharing best practices group because we

spend a lot of time in mentoring on what is not working and trying to help and fix it because we're teachers.

That's kind of just where we go. So what if we have groups of novice teachers who are brought together and they

share-- all you can share is what worked in your classroom this week. And that kind of dynamic also impacts and

shifts the culture.

So that's kind of my take on teacher leadership and mentoring as they interface and weave together. So Jay, how

do you want to react? I'll give both of you-- let's have a conversation about what you agree with, what you don't,

another spin to it. What do you think?

JAY CORREIA: Yeah. So to look at the topic in a broad way, I've always thought that good teaching is good teaching across

every grade level. And we talked about-- something I like to bring up is at the beginning of this school year,

across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, there were over 4,400 teacher openings across about 340 or so

cities and towns.

That's a crisis. We know there's a national teaching shortage. We know this job certainly changes daily and over

the years. But I've always talked about the balance of keeping it real but also the approach of kid gloves.

I think it's super important the tone we take with new teachers. They're consumed with a million things. Forget

the curriculum. Forget about a new job. They're consumed with correcting, planning, routines, rituals, parental

conversations. The dynamics are incredible.

And I think that's where this whole topic of leadership and a great mentor, someone who's going to listen in a

non-judgmental way to give effective but critical feedback, is crucial. And I also think that it's got to be a team

approach. It can't be an us versus them. We have to work with admin and the districts in building and fostering

that partnership for each new teacher.

Now, to put it in perspective, not every principal is going to hit a grand slam on every hire. It's just impossible to

hit a grand slam or a home run. Call it what you want.

But if you can hit a single or a double, with the right approach, we can grow that teacher into that next level of

leadership. And I think that's how we have to look at it, is that growth and remembering-- I go back to the

balanced mindset that new teachers have to remember to exhale. They have to take a minute to not-- when you

say, what's going well? Well, you got to get the small wins in order to grow in the profession. So I think that's

where the mentor can help guide them towards that and help them realize the wins along the way and not just

kind of honing in on the classroom discipline issues and everything that goes with all of us from a classroom that

we've encountered. Celebrating every win along the way, I love that.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

Thanks, Jay. Suzanne, reaction to teacher leadership and mentoring and what you're hearing me say and Jay say.

How does that interface with your perspective?

SUZANNE

MOLITOR:

So Carol, when you were mentioning about novice teachers and their providing opportunities for them to be

teacher leaders by sharing their practice, I was thinking of Lieberman and Miller, who said, teacher leadership,

one form of it could be going public with your work. And so this whole idea of providing a space and place for

teachers to share what they're doing, it was sort of in my mind when you were making that comment.

And in listening to Jay, I was reminded about, I guess, the incredible tensions and stresses that new teachers

face. They have to learn everything. And they think everything is important.

And so they're exhausted because they're giving all of their energy and attention to so many things. And so

mentors, I think, can really focus them in on the things that are going well because that, I think, is sustaining the

well-being of the teacher. So I found it interesting when I spoke to these mentors because I wanted to know-- I

thought, like you, Carol, that mentoring is teacher leadership. But I just wanted to have a look at what kind of

leadership is it and how do they see themselves, if at all, as leaders.

And so the mentors I spoke to said, oh, absolutely. This is a leadership role. I don't have a formal title. But I am

guiding a new teacher or a couple of new teachers. And so that's a leadership role indeed.

And the interesting thing was that they sensed and they communicated that it was more of an obligation and a

professional responsibility. It was service. And it was influence rather than a title. And I always remember one of

the mentors who said, quote, "Leadership is not a portfolio. It's a gesture of professional support." And so that's

thinking a little bit more broadly about teacher leadership and beyond title.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

I like that though. I like that. But here's the thing that I think we need to pay attention to. We need to make it

more visible. So it can be informal. And it can be formal.

Like, when I had been working with Jay and other districts, we created even a lead mentor status. We had

mentors. And then we wanted to have lead mentors who could lead the mentors to make sure they had a

common language and support because the history of this is it's one on one. And we are obligated. We want to

give back, either because we had a terrible experience or we had a wonderful experience.

So when I interviewed for my-- it's interesting that we both did the same research, Suzanne. We'll talk about that

later-- that I interviewed during the student teaching experience-- why did the teachers even do it? We know

we're leaders. But we're not these visible leaders. It's almost like this undercurrent of teachers that we do this

work.

I want to make it more visible. I want the people who are hearing this podcast to see how they can contribute in

their own way informally. Informal doesn't mean invisible. So I don't know. Jay, what do you think?

JAY CORREIA: Yeah, no, great take. I was thinking about The Wizard of Oz and Wicked.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

OK.

JAY CORREIA: I'm going to go in that direction.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

All right.

JAY CORREIA: So not every teacher is going to follow the yellow brick road. In the originalW izard of Oz, they kind of would have

had to. But in Wicked, there's a train that takes them to the Emerald City. And I didn't want to watch the movie.

But I was forced. And I was glad I did.

My point being there is that we build leadership from within, with understanding the external pressures that all

the teachers and admins have. But good teaching is good teaching and remembering along the way that

teachers want to hear from each other. They want to know what's working, what people are struggling with.

And I like the fact that there is no portfolio. There's no binder that's going to have every magic potion for the new

teacher. There are going to be pitfalls. And there's going to be highlights. And I think mentors need to understand

that, to build that next level of leadership, they have to be receptive to listen twice as much as they speak.

Practice that active listening that we were trained on.

And to Carol's point, too, yes, we built lead mentors. We developed a district action plan that centers around that.

But I just remember one of the new things I tried when I was a new teacher. And we're doing it constantly.

I was told to keep my students in rows, not do the workshop model, not work in groups. And yet, here we go, 35

years later, how far we've come in education. So I think that, again, an open minded approach-- and more

importantly, I still always listen to other veteran people. Because if it's worked, I always encourage the new

teacher to try it. But again, there's no one secret recipe. You have to find what works for you in the classroom.

And again, the mentors have to take the time to observe. The mentors have to take the time to listen. And more

importantly, they have to take the time to realize that we're all humans.

I encourage mistakes, to be honest with you, because it's how you grow. If we're just talking about the highlights,

shame on us because there are days when I look at myself and I go, wow, what just happened today? That was

not how I expected it to turn out.

So I just think being a little more understanding, having the patience, having the heart of a mentor and

understanding that there are many ways to get to being a leader. But more importantly, if you listen twice as

much as you speak, you'll be in good shape in this profession.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

Which isn't the normal way we think of leadership. So preparing our mentors-- the topic of this is preparing

mentors and novices to be leaders. So we're kind of getting to the part of the show, which is some practical

things. I'm hearing listening. I'm hearing accept the pitfalls and-- but make a conscious effort for the highlights.

I think we don't do that as much in leadership roles. Like, prepare that space like Ann Lieberman talked about, for

people to have a safe space to share. So what are the qualities of leaders and as mentors? That's what we're kind

of diving into a little bit here.

We're just following the yellow brick road a little bit, Jay's metaphor. Suzanne, what qualities does a novice

teacher need then if we're preparing a novice to be a leader? They're leaders in their classroom. But let's talk

leadership with colleagues.

Like, when you're coming out of your classroom, what Jay is doing as an induction leader for the adults in the

school, it's different from a teacher being the leader of their students. So any ideas on that, Suzanne? What has

showed up in your work or experience of that kind of leadership?

SUZANNE

MOLITOR:

Yeah, I think one of the-- and we've been touching upon this. You were talking earlier about listening and keeping

the eye out of it and some of those really important stances. One of the things that keeps resonating for me is

that to be really effective as mentors or as in school leaders or to model for new teachers, teacher leadership, I

think, mentors need professional preparation.

In the findings that I was able to uncover, mentors who were prepared, who understood about pausing,

paraphrasing, inquiring, and the whole concept of having a third point-- like, let's talk about the lesson plan or

the observation video. And so the skills that they learned to facilitate important learning conversations were

contributing to new teacher growth, to their own growth because they were having these deep conversations

about instruction.

And this is kind of different from that improvisational help a teacher get oriented to the school. It's a kind of

stance whereby you can engage a colleague one to one. You're both just teachers. But you can do it in a way

that is a learning conversation. And it becomes very, very safe.

And there's some joint work, as Judith Warren Little talks about, that can come out of this. So even though new

teachers are in the position of being mentored, I think if we have those deep conversations and those strategies

for having those conversations, new teachers are inadvertently learning this is leadership activity. This is the way

I, as a leader, can talk about my own practice and share with my colleagues or, in the future, facilitate someone

else's learning. So yeah, it's just [INAUDIBLE].

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

Very important. I want to underscore the professional preparation. That's what Jay and I have been working on

for years, is in preparing mentors to do the work, to know how to have that kind of a conversation, that it is more

than that orientation. So I appreciate that you're bringing up some of my favorites, Judith Warren Little, and

these researchers that have studied it.

It is true. And how many times have we heard mentors say, I got more out of this than the novice did because I

was having to think about how I was going to say this, and it helped me be a better teacher in my own

classroom? Gosh, the time went by so quickly. I want to-- Jay, reacting to anything. I want to-- what are you doing

now, Jay? What's your focus?

You're the induction coordinator for the district. You've seen a lot of good. What's a highlight of the work that

you've seen? Let's talk about a highlight and a goal that you're working towards this year with your mentors and

novice teachers around leadership.

JAY CORREIA: Absolutely, thank you. I was able to do a mid-year training of 15 new ELL, ESL, MLL mentors due to our influx of a

changing population. So based on Carrol's books, our district-- that's the only text I'll use, is all of Mentoring in

Action. First Year Matters, Teaching With Light. It speaks well to what our goal is here in Fall River.

But it's deeper conversations, much to what Suzanne said, and deeper learning. [? Desi's ?] encouraging deeper

learning this year as one of their main themes for students in 21st century programming. So I said, well, I mean,

that's what we need from our mentors, the deeper understanding of what our new teachers, face daily and

building-- Carol, building that next level of leadership, the sustainability of the program.

Because as people potentially retire or maybe change districts-- we hope not. But having the new mentors be

ready to step into that role, you always taught us that we've got to have the next level of leadership ready to

assume. And I think that's one of the main highlights that I'm trying to build, is the fact that there's such a need

for it.

I think we had a 162 new teachers being mentored this year across 17 schools. When you think about it by

schools, we hired a lot of new positions. But at the same point, there is so much opportunity for that leadership.

And I've had the success of finding the right people. But when I started doing this, I would pick them. Now, it's in

joint efforts with the principals. It's a conversation. Who are your building leaders that you think should be doing

this level of work? So for me--

[? CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

?] [INAUDIBLE]

JAY CORREIA: Yeah, it's been a lot more open communication and learning from my missteps along the way.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

That's the next level of leadership as we're all creating this common language to sustain the profession, really,

through mentoring and leadership. Suzanne, I know that you're working in the well-being leadership mentoring.

And I'm a trained yoga teacher. So I've been integrating more mindfulness practices into the mentoring

programs.

And the mentors love it. With Teaching With Light, that book had more strategies for resilience. And looking at

our strengths instead of always our weaknesses, what can you tell us? What are you celebrating with that way of

looking at it?

SUZANNE

MOLITOR:

I think I'm really inspired by taking a look at how mentoring can foster communities of well-being and resilience

in schools. So the research has told us often that mentors grow from the mentoring experiences. And they're

encouraged to reflect. And so we know this.

But now, there's a new line of research that I've been following that suggests that because mentoring is such

meaningful work and teachers have opportunities to be in this mindset of service, have positive relationships,

they are driving as much for their own well-being as educators as much renewal as seasoned teachers, as the

new teachers are deriving from being mentored.

So I'm fascinated by that reciprocity. And I'm just interested in Seligman's PERMA model and how could that

structure be an avenue for inquiry into the work that mentors and educators do. And I'm just about to-- I hope--

we're gathering participants right now-- embark on a new study that will explore how learning about-- educator

learning about mindfulness practices is influencing their well-being. How have the strategies that they have

learned filtered into their well-being and beyond that, even in their home lives and personal relationships?

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

We're human beings, teachers. Even though the students might think we live at school, we're still human beings.

And I guess the well-being, back to Jay, is we have to exhale.

We can't just be always-- so there's the mindfulness. When I learned in yoga teacher training, it was all about the

breath. It was the breath work, not the poses. It wasn't about standing on my head and doing contortions.

It was being able to sit quietly and breathe and know that that made a difference. I want to thank you both for

being wonderful guests on our important topic. I want our listeners, as this winds down, to think about how your

leadership influences the work you do in school as part of a mentoring program or if you're a beginning teacher.

So I thank the listeners for being with us. And I always close with an affirmation for mentors and novice teachers.

But for today, I feel the conversation is one affirmation for all the listeners, which is I am a teacher leader. So I

thank you both. Thank you, Jay. Great to see you.

JAY CORREIA: Thank you.

CAROL

PELLETIER

RADFORD:

And Suzanne, it was a pleasure to meet with you. And thank you to our listeners. I hope that you'll stay tuned for

episode 4, which is going to be titled Cultivate Positivity Through Mentoring Groups. All right, see you all next

time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR 1: Thanks, everyone, for joining today's Teacher to Teacher conversation. We hope this time together energized

you, inspired you, and reminded you why you chose to become a teacher. You can purchase any of Carol's books

and any books mentioned in the podcast online at www.corwin.com. Please leave a review and share this

podcast with your colleagues. Thank you for listening to the Corwin Teacher to Teacher podcast, a place to share

teacher wisdom and engage in authentic conversations with experienced educators.

NARRATOR 2: Come explore Corwin's free new teacher toolkit and resources. We've curated these resources based on

extensive research from teachers, coaches, and principals alike. Whether you are brand new or a veteran

teacher, find ready-to-go teaching tools at corwin.com today.

Jay Correia

34 Year Veteran Educator / Master Mentor / Former Teacher of the Year Southcoast Massachusetts

Suzanne Molitor

Suzanne is currently a researcher, consultant and writer focusing on teacher leadership, mentoring and educator wellbeing. She worked in public education for more than 30 years as secondary school English teacher. In that time, she also served as the district's coordinator of the new teacher induction program in a large urban school board in Ontario. She has worked extensively with induction mentors and beginning teachers.

Carol Pelletier Radford

Carol Pelletier Radford is the founder of Mentoring in Action, an organization dedicated to the success of novice teachers and their mentors. Before she established her own organization to support mentors and new teachers, she was a veteran elementary school teacher and a teacher preparation leader. Carol is the author of Corwin’s bestselling books Mentoring in Action: Guiding, Sharing, and Reflecting With Novice Teachers and The First Years Matter: Becoming an Effective Teacher.

Carol received her Education Doctorate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where she focused her studies on mentoring and teacher leadership. She is also a certified yoga teacher who practices meditation and shares mindfulness strategies with educators through her online courses and website. Her podcast Teaching With Light features the stories of teachers and inspirational leaders. Her next passion project is the creation of a Teacher Legacy Network, where retired teachers can share their wisdom with the next generation of teachers.

You can learn more about Carol, find free resources, videos, meditations, courses, and all of her books at mentoringinaction.com/.

Twitter: @MentorinAction
Facebook: @MentoringinAction4Teachers
Instagram: @cpradford