[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: 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.
SANDRA
ALEXANDER:
Hello and welcome to the Teacher to Teacher podcast. I'm Sandra Hollins Alexander, associate vice president,
content advisor and scholar here at Corwin. This season of the podcast focuses on mentoring in action.
We have such a rich episode for you today centered around the topic of purposeful mentoring conversations. Our
guest are Doug Fisher and Vanessa Smith. This episode is interesting because it provides the perspectives from a
seasoned educator who is a renowned author paired with an early career teacher.
Doug Fisher is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health
Sciences High and Middle College. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy
Research Association.
He has published widely on literacy, quality instruction, and assessment. I also have had the opportunity to work
very closely with Doug on some writing projects, and what I can say is he knows how to pay it forward.
He is always looking at and seeking ways for educators to continue to grow and develop in their own passions.
And so Doug is just a really great friend of mine, and I'm just thankful that not only does he do that for me, but
he does that, I would say, probably for the entire world. But there are many people who have been able to just
benefit from the way in which Doug continues to give back.
Vanessa Smith is a National Board certified elementary educator in her sixth year of teaching and a proud
recipient of the Milken Educator Award for North Carolina. Passionate about making learning fun and creative,
she strives to inspire a lifelong love of learning in her students. I just want to say, way to go, Vanessa! Oh my.
You are a National Board certified teacher in your sixth year of teaching and a Milken Educator Award recipient.
Oh, my goodness. I know that you all are going to be able to learn so much from her. In this episode, Carol talks
with Doug and Vanessa about purposeful mentoring conversations. This means understanding the specific needs
and goals of the mentee and tailoring the conversation accordingly.
By doing so, mentors can provide targeted guidance that will have a more significant impact on the mentee's
growth. So whether you are a mentor or a mentee, remember the importance of purposeful conversations in your
professional development journey. We hope this insightful conversation will spur your own reflection. Let's listen
in to Carol, Doug, and Vanessa's conversation.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Hello, everyone. I'm Carol Pelletier Radford, and I am your host for the Teacher to Teacher podcast. The theme
for season four is really close to my heart is mentoring and mentoring in action. What does it look like? How
important is mentoring for all of us? And what does it look like in schools?
So today, I have two very interesting guests. I have a professor and very famous literacy published author with
many books that we are going to talk about. And I have an early career teacher, Vanessa-- hi, Vanessa-- with me.
And we're going to have a conversation about purposeful mentoring conversations and what does that mean.
So this is episode two, and we're glad you're here. So before we get started, Vanessa, would you introduce
yourself and give us a little background of where you are in your career?
VANESSA
SMITH:
Absolutely. Thank you, Carol. I'm Vanessa Smith. I'm in year six of teaching. I just got my National Board
certification this past winter, which is awesome. So yeah, year 6 and I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Thanks, Vanessa. And you also recently received a national award. Share a bit about that.
VANESSA
SMITH:
Absolutely. So yes, also, a week after I found about my National Boards, I was honored with the National Milken
Educators Award. So in December, they came down and shared with me that I won that national award, which is
for just teaching excellence and then also leadership as well. So that was a really exciting experience.
CAROL
RADFORD:
So before we get on to Doug, just tell me, what is the motivation for a beginning teacher in your sixth year of
teaching to go for National Board, which is a daunting process of reflection and inquiry, what was it that was your
motivation?
VANESSA
SMITH:
My motivation honestly lied truly in the passion, which is the data. I wanted to make sure-- I feel like I was doing
a really good job moving kids with data, and I feel like National Boards really helps get you to dig even deeper.
And it guides that process a little bit.
And since I started that in my classroom, I was like, you know what? I'm going to push myself and go do my
National Boards. My mentor, actually, Catherine Shoup, she was the one who was like, you're already doing this.
Go get your National Boards. And so she gave me that little push.
And that's really what pushed me more to do the National Boards. But it was a really good experience just to
really dig into student data and make sure that rigor you're pushing, regardless of what the kid is scoring or
where they are, you're really moving them in the right direction. So it was a really--
CAROL
RADFORD:
I love that. And notice how your mentor, and I do know your mentor as well, Cat, had probably a purposeful
conversation with you about moving forward with that.
VANESSA
SMITH:
Absolutely.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Thank you and welcome. Doug, it's a pleasure to meet you and have you on the show. Tell us a little bit about
your background and your motivation for writing and sharing.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
So Doug Fisher. I was born and raised in San Diego. I've only ever lived in San Diego. I always wanted to be a
teacher. My mother was a library media assistant in our elementary school, and my stepmother was a fourth
grade teacher for 36 years in the same classroom, only with fourth grade.
So I had a lot of models around this. I love the whole idea of helping other people learn, and I heard that passion
in Vanessa and her whole point of wanting to be nationally board certified to say, because we receive these
moral rewards when we watch young people learning. It just feels amazing to do that.
Over the career, I started doing other things and moving to grade levels and then being recruited in a university
and professional development. And you asked me about writing. I write to clarify my own thinking. I'm happy with
people read my writing, but I'll tell you Nancy and I when we have a problem at school where we work, we go dig
into it and we write about it, because writing helps me clarify my thinking.
CAROL
RADFORD:
I love that. So what grades did you teach? You had all these teachers around you.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Awesome. So when I started, I started in preschool.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Preschool? Oh, my goodness.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
All of my early field experience is with preschool. There were not a lot of jobs in the time. I know people have a
hard time believing this, but we were producing at one point more teachers than there were jobs for. So I was
like, I'll take any job there was.
And I got a substitute teaching job, and then I got a long-term job. And then this really rich man gave a school
system $18 million. And he made a deal, if you take this as a school, if you take my $18 million, the teachers
have to be the teachers of the kids all the way through their elementary experience. So we taught the same kids
K 1, 2, 3, 4--
CAROL
RADFORD:
Oh, my God, talk about--
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
A loop across.
CAROL
RADFORD:
The loop. The whole loop.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Yeah. And off they went to middle school and we went back to-- my team went back to kindergarten. The school
was so big that we had 18 kindergarten teachers. That's how big the school was.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Wow, that is amazing.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
But they went off to middle school, it was not a great experience. So a group of us who started the very first-- it
was called the bridges cohort. The very first cohort that went all the way through. We decided to go back to
school and get single subject credentials.
And so I went back to school and got my single subject, and I taught the same kids in ninth grade when they
came to ninth grade.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Oh, wow.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
And then the teacher, the 12th grade teacher went on medical leave in October, and I taught them again in 12th
grade, their last year of high school.
CAROL
RADFORD:
These students are moving in with you. Yeah, they're definitely your family. Do you still have--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
We all know each other. Oh, yes.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
They still come back and see their families in San Diego. Yes. And we often share stories like, well, when you
were in first grade or when you were in fifth grade or you were in high school, you did this. So, yes.
CAROL
RADFORD:
So did you have mentors along the way that were guiding you through all these different grade levels?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Well, that was the cool thing, because when you teach the same grade level year after year, you start getting
good at it. And you start to anticipate--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
--conceptions. Here's how the year will go. Well, when you change grades every single year of your life, this rich
man hired mentors for us.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Oh, interesting.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Helped us organize the curriculum as grade levels. And so the mentors stayed with us for multiple years and
said, OK, now we're moving to third grade. Here's what third grade is going to be about. And I like to say, the
math got hard in third grade.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Right. Content coaching all along because it takes so much to rebuild that curriculum in your head if you haven't
taught it before. So our listeners are hearing some really interesting dynamics of the way you can teach, a
beginning teacher who is nationally board certified and then a very experienced educator who taught all the
grades in school. And now, you're writing about it.
So let's dive into the importance of mentoring, because you both mentioned mentoring in your intro. Vanessa,
can you share a time when you really felt mentoring feedback or when you observe somebody mentoring? How is
mentoring important to you?
VANESSA
SMITH:
Absolutely. Makes me always think back to my first year of teaching, and it was one of the first times my mentor
ever observed me teaching in the classroom. I had 26 students, first graders. And I felt super prepared for the
lesson. I knew she was coming in, so I knew the curriculum pretty well.
After our little debrief when she watched the lesson, she's like, oh, how did you think it go? And I was like, I was
so proud. I had things to share out and feedback that I was giving myself. But then she asked me, she's like, oh,
what were the kids doing while you were teaching? And I was like, oh, well, they were on the rug listening. They
were doing this and this.
And she's like, well, did you notice this student and his name was Lamar? And he was sitting directly right below
me. And I thought that's where he stayed the whole lesson. But she shared that he actually moved around the
rug all over the room. And then by the time I turned back around, he was right where he should be, because
where I was standing wasn't a place where you really notice that movement because it's all out of your
peripheral vision.
And so the feedback when she was giving me, it was honestly just very short, very sweet, very simple. And it was
where you stand matters. And it's called pastor's perch, I think is what it's called, where you always want to have
the L the view of the class. You never want to have just straight on, because you miss so many things that
happen.
And when you miss that, you really can't hold yourself or the class really accountable, because you never know
what they're doing. And so that ah ha moment really came there, because she taught me really that what you do
matters just as much as what you're doing, what you're teaching. That management part really is crucial in
teaching.
And that conversation felt no judgment. It was so nice to just have that honest conversation of, hey, this is
something for you to do. It felt like a friend just giving you advice versus somebody coming in to judge you.
And so that was a really nice part of having such an open mentor was they're really able to give you simple,
focused feedback without that judgment that you can implement the next day, or even if it's a break and then
you go back to teaching, just stand in a different place because you can really see the room engage the 100% of
the kids.
CAROL
RADFORD:
So what you're sharing, a lot of novice teachers have said to me, and Doug's going to weigh in too, is just
teaching that content is what all of us want to do. And that clarification of what I'm teaching and that awareness
of who are we teaching.
And I remember a time when I was doing a supervision class, and we would record for the novice teachers, with
their permission, just the students. So we did this whole supervision class, and we never recorded the teacher up
at the front of the room delivering.
It wasn't stand and deliver. It was reaction to what you're delivering. And then we would have this conversation,
looking at the video together and actually seeing what the student was doing but not even telling. So sometimes
purposeful mentoring conversations, I learned, were showing the novice, this is what happened. What do you
think was going on? So we don't know. Doug, what's your reaction to Vanessa's story with your experience in
working with beginning teachers and teaching yourself?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Awesome. So all of us, not just early career teachers, all of us, when we're learning a new strategy or routine or
whatever, we tend to pay more attention to ourselves, because it's a new habit we're trying to develop. So even
when we're mentoring teachers who are more veteran to go and adopt a new practice, a new strategy, a new
technique, we tend to focus more on ourselves and not the impact of whatever we're doing, because we have to
learn the strategy.
So I really appreciate that acknowledgment. And second, the comment that Vanessa made around not feeling
judged. And every one of us who's been in a classroom, we've had people walk in the room and our anxiety goes
up, our blood pressure goes up.
We don't know if they have our best interest at heart. We don't know if we're going to be judged, evaluated,
criticized. And that mentor was able to ask some questions, get Vanessa to reflect in a non judgmental way,
which is how we improve our practice.
If I don't feel judged, and I can feel authentic and say, well, here's what I was thinking, here's what I noticed.
What did you notice? And it's more of a collaborative conversation. Yeah. Some people have a lot of experience,
and they want to share it, but they're not there to judge and evaluate and criticize.
We're all there to improve this practice called teaching. And I do emphasize practice, because I have been
practicing this for a lot of years. I still learn stuff all the time, and I am lucky to have people mentor me, and I am
lucky to be able to mentor.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Thank you. Thank you for that, Doug. It's important that we have these conversations. It's so good that you're
here, Vanessa, because we don't always have the opportunity to get inside a beginning teacher's head and hear
your reaction to that kind of mentoring that we do want to offer. All right. Let's hear your story, Doug. Let's share
a ah ha moment about how mentoring influenced you.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Well, I could talk about my personal experiences early in my career, but I'll go to a later experience. I have the
opportunity to mentor a variety of teachers. I'm lucky to be able to do that, and I think the mistake I probably was
making was it's kind of one way.
And I remember sitting with a biology teacher, who was a very skilled teacher, nationally board certified, by the
way. And at the end of the session, I said to her, Kim, how did this feel to you? Could you give me some feedback
on this mentoring experience?
And she said, oh, Doug, it was great. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I'm like, no, I need to improve as well.
This is a two-way street. I want to know how I can improve. No, Doug, it was great, I promise.
And I finally said to her, we have a good relationship. So trust is important in these kinds of conversations. And I
said to her, Kim, that's not how this ends. This ends when you give me some feedback because I gave you some
feedback. And she says, well, there was this one part where I felt myself getting a little defensive. Oh, it wasn't
you.
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's go back again. I want to know what I said and did that got you a little
defensive. Because I want to think about that, because I didn't intend that. And I know impact and intent are
different. So tell me a little bit more about the time in our conversation where you felt your insights getting a
little defensive.
We had a spectacular conversation. There was a level of trust. I was open to receiving feedback about my role in
this partnership, and she was open to receiving feedback about her role in this partnership.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Doug, what you did is so brave, and I don't know that every mentor could do it, but our goal in this episode and
in our mentoring is to have mentors hear that they need to be prepared for purposeful conversations and that we
all don't know how to do it. But I so appreciate your courage to ask for that feedback.
And it shows our listening audience that we all as mentor preparers, mentor trainers, whatever we want to call
the work we do need to be intentional about how we frame these conversations, so that the beginning teachers
like Vanessa do get what we're doing. Because sometimes here's the bottom line, mentoring conversations are
very personal. We're talking about somebody's teaching.
And then what you did, Doug, a nice bookend to Vanessa is you said, I'm going to make it personal for me too. So
Vanessa, what do you think about that story? I'm impressed.
VANESSA
SMITH:
Yeah. I was going to say the same thing. I think Doug said it earlier too when he said that teaching is practicing,
and I think he was able to build such a good trust with that teacher because he showed them that, hey, even
though I've been in the field for a while, and I might be somebody you're learning from, I can still learn from you.
And so it put that value in the teacher right back, regardless of how many years they've been in the field,
because just like you said earlier, teaching, you really can learn something no matter what year you're in. You're
always practicing to get better.
Every year, something changes to be added as a best practice. Something new comes out where you can now
develop different strategies and you want to try it out. And so teaching really is about that. I know it's cheesy.
They always say, it's lifelong learning, but if you're not willing to change, you're not going to be able to educate
the newer students that are coming in. Same thing with the newer teachers, because you're not building that
relationship that's a true, honest relationship, not one to just have because you have to mentor.
You're there because you want to be better, and you also want your mentee to be better as well. And I think
sometimes there's a stigma around that, because mentoring sometimes can be seen with a negative connotation
of, oh, that's only for somebody who's new. They're the only ones that need mentors, when in reality, everybody
could benefit from coaching, mentoring, because kids change every year.
I know, Doug, you got to keep the same class, and I bet that also came with a lot of challenges as well. But even
when you stay in the same grade, the kids change. So just because what you're teaching is the same, you still
have to make a lot of changes to really adapt to that classroom. So everybody could benefit from that mentor,
that coach to really push you to be so reflective in your practice.
So mentors need that preparation and practice as well is what I'm hearing from what Doug's saying, from what
you're saying, and we're going to dive into that conversation in a minute. But any reaction to what Vanessa just
said that you'd like to respond to?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
I appreciate her comments around the receptive nature of this, that it's intended to be growth producing. It's
intended to be humane. It's not gotcha, you're doing this wrong. This is a hard job.
Everybody in the public thinks they can do our job at least as good as we do the teaching job. And I think that--
everyone says, I was in third grade. I could be a third grade teacher, but it's way harder than that. And this job is
complicated.
And one of the things I think is super important, and maybe I'm foreshadowing to something we'll dive into a little
bit later, but the mentor's job is not to recreate themselves. There are many right ways to teach. There are
probably wrong ways too, but your job is not to recreate yourself and what worked for you.
Your job is to help that person become the best teacher possible. And there are strategies I like, there are
routines and procedures I like. That doesn't mean that's what I make the early career teachers do. I can say, here
are some that don't work.
We know Round Robin Reading is a really bad idea. They call that malpractice. Let's not do that. But here's the
thing.
CAROL
RADFORD:
But we used to do that, right?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
We did that. I suffered with that.
CAROL
RADFORD:
We did that.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
But there's 25 other things you could do. I'm not telling you how to-- I don't tell anyone how to teach, because
there's lots of right ways to do this job.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Because we're introducing strategies in these conversations. So let's dive into the topic that I chose for us today.
But I want to just say, this is not evaluation. That's what we've been jumping around is that mentors, and when I
prepare mentors and they're in schools, we want them not to be the principal that's coming in to assess whether
you're going to get rehired or not.
And in a lot of places, that's a touchy situation, because some mentors have told me that principals have asked
them, is Vanessa a good teacher? Should I rehire her? And the mentors have had to say, I'm a confidential
colleague. This is the role that I am playing, and the novice teacher has to know that, otherwise they don't open
up, like what you're talking about, Doug, and tell you. Because if they thought you were assessing them, you
never would have gotten the answer that you made me feel uncomfortable.
But because the role of a mentor has to be identified as a confidential colleague who's, as you say, helping
someone learn how to teach and introducing a variety of practices. So here's how I first came into mentoring
conversations.
I was a cooperating teacher, and the college gave me a student teacher. And it was my first experience with
what am I supposed to say or do with this person? And the answer was just let her follow you around and watch
you teach, like what you're saying, Doug. And she will replicate it, and she will copy it.
And I will come in and supervise her, and we'll move on. Well, those days are over, I hope in most places. And
what happened to me is I became so interested in what would the conversation be if I were really prepared for
my role to help this novice student teacher.
And fast forward, I ended up going into higher ed, as you did, Doug. Earned the doctorate, taught two different
higher ed and was invited to write a book for mentors. Let's prepare the mentors. And we do mentor preparation
in schools, but my interest was in the graduates of our higher ed program were going into school districts and
coming back and complaining.
They were like, my mentor doesn't know how to help me. We were just seeing in our higher ed institution the
inconsistency of the mentoring. One got a good mentor. One got a mentor that left the room all the time. It was
just all over the place.
So when I wrote the book The first edition ofM entoring in Action, at the same time, the paradigm is shifting from
direct telling teachers how to do it to a collaborative approach where the novice teacher would be involved in the
conversation.
So when I first did my research for the book, I decided I would ask mentors who were mentoring what they
wanted. And it was so eye opening, because the mentors that I interviewed in the city district that I was working
with, they said, we just want to know what we're supposed to be talking about every time we meet.
And I go, OK. It evolved into the mentoring and action cycle that I made up to help them as busy teachers who
are also teaching. They're all teaching at the same time, and I defined it as purposeful mentoring conversations.
And how do I define it? It was talking about student learning or teaching practice.
It wasn't where the Xerox machine was. It's not where to go to dinner. No. It has to be something about your
classroom, and then I would call it mentoring. It has to be based in the student teacher's needs, instead of me
just telling you what I think you need, as you were saying, Doug, here's some good strategies. Here, try them. It's
like, well, what do you need? Maybe you don't need that strategy.
Collaborative back and forth. And then I just created this mantra, because the busy mentors needed to
remember what they were doing. And it was plan, connect, act, reflect, and set goals. And this mantra has grown
over decades of me doing the mentoring workshops and preparing mentors to do that before every conversation.
That's your conversation, follow that. So I'll leave it there, because that's how I came to it. And that's what I think
a purposeful conversation prep is for mentors. So let's see what you think. Vanessa, reaction. What's your
experience? Is it like that? Different? You can talk about your mentors now.
VANESSA
SMITH:
I was just about to say-- so currently, I am a mentor too.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Oh, OK.
VANESSA
SMITH:
It's awesome. But honestly, since I was newer to leave the practice, I've been really lucky in the mentors I've
gotten. Catherine Shoup, who I mentioned before, I know Carol has worked with too. She was one of the most
incredible mentors I had, because she really had that connection piece down.
The second she walked in the room, I never felt like-- like I said earlier, there was no judgment, but I felt like she
just was there to make me a better teacher, to make my kids learn more. And that was the bottom line. I knew
anything that she said, the bottom line was, she's here for the kids and how she can make me do better for them.
CAROL
RADFORD:
So what was purposeful that she did? Tell us something she did. So we know she's wonderful. I do know.
VANESSA
SMITH:
I could spend the whole podcast on it.
CAROL
RADFORD:
So what purposefulness, intentionality did you take away from the mentor that helped you?
VANESSA
SMITH:
I feel like for her, she would always come in with almost like the cookie sandwich of something really good, but
she'd always have something for me to improve my practice. And it wasn't something that would take weeks for
me to figure out and for me to plan. It was something that was in the moment, real, and could honestly be
remedied in that day, whether it was making-- one time she was in the room, and I was reading a book to some
of my students, but some of them have never been to the beach.
And so she was like, the next time something like that happens, stop, pull up references, and have them act out
the beach. What would it look like? What would it feel like? So they really had that text to self connection.
And it was one of those things where it was like, oh, wow, what a simple fix but such a big connection for my
students to really--
CAROL
RADFORD:
She did give you resources and reaction to what you were doing in real time?
VANESSA
SMITH:
Mmm Hmm.
CAROL
RADFORD:
So that's important. Doug, what are you hearing? What did you hear from me? From Vanessa? What is this meant
to preparation to be purposeful in what they're doing?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Well, first of all, I just love that you call it purposeful.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Thank you.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
It's purpose, intention in the mentoring. We don't just show up and react to what we see. We plan the
conversations. We plan the observations. We have different conversations with different mentees. And this
includes where to next and where to next with you might be different than where to next with you and you.
It's not the phrase cookie cutter. It's not formulaic. And that's why I like that you call it purposeful. And I also like
that you call it inaction, because it implies to me that I am helping this person take action based on what's
happening. What's next in your development as a teacher?
I used to work with student teachers a lot. I do a little less of that now. I work with leaders now. I used to talk
about going to the mall, and I know we don't all go to the mall anymore. We go on online, but go to the mall, and
you're looking for something to wear.
And you try on a lot of things. There are some things you don't even try on because you're like, no way. Not for
me. Some things you try on, not a good fit, not a good look, doesn't feel great. Sometimes you take things home
but then return them. Sometimes you take things home, and you wear them for a while.
Sometimes you take things home and they become a loving piece of your wardrobe that you keep for a really
long time. I don't know which of those things that are in the store are right for you, but I'm going to ask you to try
on a few things.
Then I ask you to try it out. And if it doesn't fit, no harm, no foul to me. But I have a lot of ideas. That's the power
of mentor in action. I'm [INAUDIBLE] I know what I was trying to do. I know where we're going but it's different for
you and you and you.
CAROL
RADFORD:
That's the differentiation piece that when I first started with the student teacher wasn't there until I had enough
student teachers but it didn't have a common language. And that's what I was trying to develop, well, through
mentoring in action when I had the student teachers go to the school districts. And it was so inconsistent, there
was no common language.
I could never talk to a group of mentors because they were-- differentiation, though, is different. What you're
saying, Doug, I totally agree with. We have to differentiate based on the need, and the novice teacher knows
what they need in some ways, but they don't know to do the beach thing, because Cat had to introduce that
because you didn't see it. You didn't see the students in your class moving all around.
VANESSA
SMITH:
Yeah. Exactly. It's the same. In the beginning, it's hard to see beyond just simply because when you go to school
for education, they teach you about it, but you're not actually there to experience the real life action. Exactly.
So it's all the theories which are wonderful and as you should know them, but it's the tools you really need to be
as you need the mentors to be like, well, try this. That didn't work, well, try this because all of the things to try
just simply because you haven't had the experience yet.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Yes. So Doug, let's talk a little bit about how do you prepare mentors to do what you just said. I feel like some of
us intuitively do it as mentors, but I'm interested in how do we teach mentors to have purposeful conversations.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
I'll add a couple of things. I think mentors have to check their egos. And I said this earlier in our conversation, it's
not about recreating you. We tend to find superstar teachers, people who are very good at what they do, like
Vanessa, and we make them coaches.
And the risk is they want to create themselves in other people's classrooms. And often, there's this gap between I
know you're amazing, I don't feel amazing. So there's this gap there. So I think that ego part and understanding
that there are lots of ways to do this job. And if you can get that part in there, I think they also need really good
observation skills. And being very careful when you observe and you collect data, you don't jump to judgment.
And you get into the thinking of that person, you try to get them talking. My colleague, Nancy Frey loves to ask a
teacher, how is the lesson you taught different than the lesson you planned? It's an opening question that gets
them talking about their thinking, because our thinking is where we need to get.
Because yeah, this happened in the class, and this happened in the class. And this kid got up and did this, and
there was a fire alarm in the well. Whatever. How was that lesson different than what you planned? Because then
we can go back to, OK, if you planned this, what were you intending to accomplish? And did you see evidence of
student learning? And how did you check in with learners to see if you were making progress towards the learning
goals?
I think those are some of the skills that we have to get into the--
CAROL
RADFORD:
I love what you're saying. I think what you're saying is so important, Doug, because it's part of that human
condition that we all have. And we have to remember mentors are people too.
And most mentors are teaching full time and they're helping novices as a heartfelt experience. It's not for the
money, that's for sure. And so what advice would you give to a mentor, Vanessa, if someone was preparing to be
a mentor and they were using my tools and they had listened to Doug and they welcomed-- what should that
mentor do to really help you?
VANESSA
SMITH:
I think it goes back to keeping things simple. Sometimes I feel like there's so many things that are going on in
education right now that there's already so many things on a teacher's plate that have nothing to do with
teaching, just simply because the demands of the classroom go so far beyond that.
And so I think in that mind of a mentor, sometimes it's so easy to feel overwhelmed if there's a lot of tasks that
need to be completed. So really focusing on what the priority is for that teacher. If they're new, there's going to
be a lot of growth. That's the whole point of why we're here. We all want to grow, but what's the priority?
What's one thing that teacher I can focus on to really best improve my practice that's going to be the most
successful without truly overwhelming somebody? It's just that nitpick.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Right. Right. Right. OK. I want to ask you another question, and then I have one for Doug. So we do tend to as
teachers always focus on what we're not doing that well. We're always looking for the extra thing that we can do.
And we love it when our mentors point out what we're missing, the students moving, because we want to fix it.
So one of the questions in the Mentoring in Action, the first act, I call it, the first act is tell me what's going well.
And then we usually have to wait. So part of the mentor preparation, mentor training is don't talk, don't say
anything. Let the novice teacher actually answer the question, even if it takes-- this is the old wait time, right,
Doug?
We have to have practice to wait. So Vanessa, I will ask you. I know a lot of things are going well for you because
you have so much for us to congratulate you on. But in your classroom today, what is one thing that went well?
VANESSA
SMITH:
I would say biggest win for me today was student engagement. We had a two hour delay, so they all came in
very interested and confused why I said no recess because--
CAROL
RADFORD:
Oh, no recess. That didn't go well.
VANESSA
SMITH:
Yeah. It was like recess would have already happened. I mean, they're 6 turning 7. So they kind of struggled with
the idea of no, I just got to school. What do you mean it's the same thing? I'm like, no, it's 10:00 AM, not 8:00 AM,
but--
CAROL
RADFORD:
So that went well?
VANESSA
SMITH:
Yeah, it went honestly pretty well because I think sometimes with any type of change in schedule, it's easy for
the kids to either go a little bit crazier or just lose interest in things, because it's way more like we got to get
through things.
So my big win today was the kids were really engaged. We made a lot of lessons a lot more fun and creative in
the moment because sometimes that's what it takes to really get everything going. But yeah, that would
definitely be--
CAROL
RADFORD:
Right. But I did notice there was a little hesitation when I asked the question.
VANESSA
SMITH:
You have to think about it.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Yeah. So--
VANESSA
SMITH:
I mean, because--
CAROL
RADFORD:
We don't think that.
VANESSA
SMITH:
Well, I messaged these parents. And I did this because you're focused on honestly what you did, not what went
well, because like you said, it's honestly really hard, regardless of your job I would assume, because you're
always focused on, well, I could have done this. Oh, I wish I said this. It's hard to sit and be like, what was one
thing I'm proud of that I did?
CAROL
RADFORD:
So we want to integrate both kinds of questions clearly. So Doug, I'm going to ask you, what are you doing well
right now as a leader in the program, the educational leadership, all the books that you're writing? What's going
well for you at this stage?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
So I work at a high school that Nancy and I and other colleagues started in 2007. I am very proud of our current
intervention efforts and the percent of kids that are getting more than a year of learning and reading in a year of
school. I'm very, very proud of these efforts.
We've worked very hard with support for teachers, coaching of teachers, expectations for the teachers and the
paraprofessionals who do this. But if I could go back to a comment Vanessa made, [INAUDIBLE] the plate
analogy, if it's on our plate. And I appreciate the plate analogy a lot. So there we are with this plate, and our
plate's already full.
And let's pretend we're at the buffet with this plate, and we say, hold this plate. I got another plate. I'm going to
fill that up as well. What I don't hear mentors often do is take things of the plate. Deimplementation in the world.
What do we not need to do in class today that would make room for some of the other things?
It is so rare to talk about taking things off the metaphorical plate rather than adding things to this place. And we
don't have five plates. We're not plate spinners. We can't do that. We have to be thinking about what could we
say to teachers.
You don't have to do this. You can cut that down. You can cut that out to make room for this. I also want to
comment on your focus on strengths. It brought me joy because I think our profession is very deficit oriented. We
are much more medical model.
I went to the doctor, I have a complaint. My doctor diagnoses it, they try to fix it, and we move on. That is the
wrong way to approach education with our young people, with our teaching workforce. We have to start with
strengths.
We have to say, these are the good things. And it is hard for all of us to talk about strengths, because we've been
socialized to be humble and to attribute success to others. And we have to be saying, there are strengths. These
kids that I'm teaching, these high schoolers that I work with, they come with a huge array of gifts or funds of
knowledge, strengths and assets.
And if we could get teachers and teams to talk about strengths, they might just raise their expectations for
themselves and for their students.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Thank you for that. So what's your biggest strength, Doug?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
I probably would say that I synthesize evidence really well. I think I'm good at reading primary research articles
and saying, here's what it means in a classroom. I am not a researcher. I don't write research studies. It's not
who I am. But I'm really good at reading them and figuring out what they mean. Some people call that
translational research.
I think about, what am I good at in making it happen in the classroom?
CAROL
RADFORD:
I love that, and we need that right now. The work that you're doing, we really need that. So share some of the
work that you're doing.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
You might remember about a year ago, there was a survey of teachers, and the least favorite word of teachers is
rigor. The least favorite.
CAROL
RADFORD:
It sounds heavy to me. Heavy.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Yeah. Rigor, I don't know what it means. So when you dig into that, the survey data, teachers say, I don't what it
means. And it's used against me. I'm not rigorous. So that spurred us to say, well, what do mean by rigor? And
there's lots of different definitions out there.
So we went through a process of taking a whole bunch of indicators and narrowing them down with 420 teachers
and administrators, narrowing, narrowing to the top 25 indicators and what they would look like in a classroom.
And then we organized them into categories around relationships and instruction and goal setting. The
organization, so Vanessa was talking her first year about the organization of the flow of the lessons and then
relevance.
It was a really fun process to say, what would it look like in a classroom if there were high levels of expectations
and rigor? That's been a really fun, interesting project.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Well, because you're debunking the word rigor. So you got to do two things.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Yeah.
CAROL
RADFORD:
You're pretty sneaky there [INAUDIBLE] Doug. So the title of that book is?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Rigor Unveiled.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Unveiled. And I was calling it debunked. See, same thing. So, Vanessa, what's your reaction to that new book
that's coming out?
VANESSA
SMITH:
I love that. I love something you said was what does it look like in the classroom? Because I feel like sometimes
ideas-- honestly, the word rigor. Well, oh, your lesson needs to show more rigor. Wow, that was so rigorous or
that group got-- It does. It sounds so abstract, but knowing, well, here's how many ways and this is exactly what
it looks like. I think that's such a big missing piece is people always say things, but there's no actual application
or there's not an understanding of what that application looks like in the classroom.
And I think that sounds like it will really change a lot of people's thoughts on what rigor is and then also make it
easier to implement in their own classroom, whether it's instructional, relationship, whatever, because you're
giving them I feel a shortcut to making things--
CAROL
RADFORD:
I think this is a testimonial, Doug. When's the book coming out?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Last week.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Last week. OK. Well, we can--
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
It's very new.
CAROL
RADFORD:
We can still put a testimonial out through our online. Thank you, Vanessa, for that.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Thank you, Vanessa.
CAROL
RADFORD:
All right. I think I want to end with your strength, Vanessa. So what's your strength?
VANESSA
SMITH:
In teaching or?
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
In life.
CAROL
RADFORD:
What comes to mind? What comes to mind?
VANESSA
SMITH:
I think my strength would be mindset. I feel like my mindset is super optimistic about everything I face,
regardless of what the challenge is. I'm definitely what everybody calls a glass half full. And my colleagues are
always shocked that it lasts the whole year. They're like, wow, I didn't know that the energy was that real and
that bubbly. And I'm like, can't turn it off unfortunately. But I feel like that mindset has really set me up to be
successful just because it's like the theory of yet the growth mindset.
So you can't do that yet or you don't know that yet. And I teach it to my students every year, and I like that's
something I've really embraced. And so having that optimistic outlook I feel like is such a big strength of mine,
because it makes me feel a little bit more bold in my choices and to push myself even further because I'm like,
well, if you don't do it, you're still young, you can do it in a year or two, because it really does.
It gives me failure is just another way to keep learning. It's not the definition or the end. That's just a way to keep
pushing yourself.
NARRATOR: Thank you, Vanessa. The last word, Doug. Last word before I close out.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
I just loved hearing Vanessa's optimism and mindset and her ability to risk take in front of colleagues.
CAROL
RADFORD:
Thank you both for being with me today. It was an interesting conversation, and I just changed the affirmation
for the end of the show. I had this affirmation, I focus my mentoring conversations on my novice teacher's needs.
And I'm changing it to I focus my mentoring conversations on my novice teacher's strengths.
DOUGLAS
FISHER:
Beautiful.
CAROL
RADFORD:
And for novices, I share my needs with my mentor. So I can improve my practice. And now, I would like you,
Vanessa, I share my strengths with my mentor and others, so I can improve my teaching practices. Let's come
from our strengths. Thank you both. Awesome.
So to all our listeners, I hope you'll tune in to episode three. And the topic is going to be prepare mentors and
novice teachers to be leaders. So you will listen in for that. And thank you very much. Thank you everyone for
listening in.
VANESSA
SMITH:
Thank you, Doug.
NARRATOR: 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.
FEMALE
NARRATOR:
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