Queen Anne's County Public Schools

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools’ new teacher induction program begins with a 5-day orientation program prior to the return of all staff. During orientation, all new teachers meet centrally one day to learn the overview of the county including vision, mission, and philosophy. They are greeted by the Superintendent, Board members, Assistant Superintendent, and others. The supervisor of the induction program facilitates presentations and discussions on the evaluation process, certification, health benefits, and various technology platforms such as Schoology and Performance Matters. The remaining four days are divided among school-based sessions covering topics from attendance and discipline through planning instruction and assessment and county sessions with content supervisors who outline the curriculum and discuss subject-specific strategies for instruction and assessment.

After the intensive week of orientation, new teachers are supported on a regular basis at the school level.  Teacher specialists, at the elementary and middle school levels, and academic deans, at the high school level, conduct monthly meetings with them.  Topics include conferencing with parents, giving feedback to students, and needs identified at the school level. 

In Queen Anne’s County, novice teachers are assigned a mentor; that means that all teachers hired with 0-3 years of teaching experience receive mentor support of two hours per week.  Mentors are all experienced, practicing Queen Anne’s County teachers.   Mentors are selected based on the needs of the novice teacher; every effort is made to match content and/or level of mentor-mentee. For example, we try to place a mentor who is a math teacher with a novice math teacher whenever possible. Mentors nurture novice teachers’ skills in relation to planning, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. Additionally, mentors arrange for and accompany novice teachers on observations of exemplary teachers up to twice a year. Mentors receive bimonthly training on how to gather observational data and provide actionable, effective feedback aligned to the Danielson Domains. Twice yearly, the Mentor Coordinator collects feedback from all stakeholders -- mentees, mentors, and principals. The feedback is used to make modifications or improvements to the program.

Finally, new teachers engage in professional development through a new course which focuses on the implementation of The Framework for Teaching by Charlotte Danielson. The course consists of both face-to-face and online portions and integrates modules which enable the participant to practice the principles of effective planning, instruction, and assessment.

                9/23/2021