Terrilyn H.

Ladd
AT Department Lead Teacher/2 years
Activity: Mentor/Collaborate With AT Teachers (D. s.)


In the Fall of 2012, I began the school year with two new AT team members. The new AT teachers were
not new to the school system but they were new to the AT Department. One teacher is a trained speech-language
pathologist like me and one teacher previously worked as an educator to the multi-handicapped population. Because
these two teachers were new to the AT Department, including how to complete AT assessments and reports, I was
assigned to mentor the teachers. Technically, I would be mentoring three AT teachers because the third teacher had
only been with the AT Department for one year.
As a mentor, I was able to share many things with the AT team. I was able to support them through
modeling how to complete AT assessments, modeling report writing, and through weekly collaborations regarding
student cases. The AT teachers would ask questions about how to handle unique situations and we would develop
strategies and solutions as a collaborative team. I would consistently but informally poll the teachers to ask if they
felt well-supported. The answer was always that the teachers felt that they were supported and they felt comfortable
asking for additional support if it was needed. These are examples of things that went well.
The two AT teachers are now what I would consider to be veteran AT teachers, since they have almost
completed two full years. However, looking back on the time where I mentored them, I would do some things
differently. The main thing that I would do differently is provide a way for the mentees to anonymously rate my
support as a mentor. I wonder if they felt pressured to say that they were supported. I do feel like I provided them
with adequate support but I am sure if I provided sufficient guidance. I wonder if my guidance and support were
enough because the skill levels of the AT teachers are totally different than I would have guessed. The one AT
teacher that had the most years of experience as an educator is the least confident as an AT teacher. She requires
consistent affirmation on the route she takes in providing technology to students. This reminds me of the model we
talked about in class of the amount of support you have to provide to teachers vs. amount of work they produce. It
only reminds me of what I would do differently if I had another chance at this mentor/mentee relationship. I would
differentiate the type of support given to fit the mentee. Some people need more support than others. Additionally, I
would provide the mentees a forum to speak freely about what they needed more of or less of to be successful as an
AT teacher/evaluator.