Macon County Schools is renewing its support for new teachers, with a focus on mental health, mentorship and educator feedback.
At the June 30 school board meeting, Human Resources officer Bryan Singleton gave a brief report on a new Beginning Teacher Support Plan designed to help retain new teachers. The school system builds a support plan every three years, with the last plan implemented in 2023. The new plan will last until 2029.
“We really want to emphasize the word ‘support’ a lot more,” Singleton said. “Really kind of doing some temperature checks on their emotional wellbeing, their stress level and really emphasizing the mentorship program a lot more too.”
The plan moves check-ins from being quarterly to monthly to ensure new educators feel greater support. A new provision of the plan involves building a beginning teacher advisory committee made up of Singleton, two principals, the district teacher of the year, a middle school teacher and an Exceptional Children teacher. Singleton said this committee makeup will allow the system to better accommodate the specific needs of new teachers that he, as a human resources specialist, cannot relate to.
“I’ve never been a teacher, never been an educator,” he said. “So when I meet with the new teachers and they ask me questions … I learned really quick I couldn’t really empathize with them in that situation. That’s what led me to say, ‘Hey, I need to have some folks who can really talk the language and have been there.’”
Singleton also wants to emphasize the new teacher mentorship program, which allows experienced teachers to help guide and support new teachers as they get their bearings and plan for a future with Macon County Schools. The plan’s vision is to help prepare teachers to stay within the system for “many years,” Singleton said, and to eventually join into the teacher mentorship program.
Singleton said after the meeting while the state does provide some resources for their program, most of the support plan is built by dedicated teachers working together to share their experience.
“Retention is a big piece of it,” Singleton said. “I want to make sure it’s an environment where they can easily grow. We provide plenty of development opportunities and where they can eventually retire someday.”
Singleton said he wants to look into an AI feedback system to examine teachers’ work in the classroom and make recommendations. Singleton said he has not found a model to try yet, and remains skeptical of how effective it would be until he sees evidence, but he is trying to implement some of the strategies incorporated by other school systems.
“It’ll never replace that actual person providing that mentorship and feedback, I strongly believe that,” he said. “But I think it’s more that those in-between times, those interim times, if they’re wanting a little personal feedback, they can videotape that [a lesson] and upload it.”
Singleton said, “I want our new teachers to know that they are supported and we’re looking after them.”