Introduction
In order to complete this activity I met with my school’s Human Resources Director, AB, the Lower School Principal, DA, and considered my own orientations as both a new and veteran teacher at my school. During our interviews we discussed what was effective from both of our perspectives, what changes were made year-to-year, whether those changes achieved the desired results and the philosophical ideas behind them.
I then went away and created an agenda for a single-day new teacher orientation and met again with each of them to discuss what I had come up with. The result is a plan which we hope to use for next year’s New Faculty Orientation.
After my discussions and much consideration of the various orientations I have participated in, I settled on a modest objective for a New Faculty Orientation: to make sure that new teachers feel at home in their new school. That sounds too simple but actually contains a number of elements. By the end of a day of orientation, faculty new to a school should:
- Be familiar with the physical facililty. They should know where key locations (offices, restrooms, classrooms, resources, etc) are and where specific members of the administrative team can be found.
- Have already met and know something about all new members of the faculty. Asking a new employee to meet an entire faculty in a single day is absurd. But asking him or her to get to know the other newcomers is more reasonable. It gives him or her some familiar faces on the first day and lets him or her know that he or she is not alone in facing a new environment. Being a new teacher in a school is daunting because everyone else –students as well as teachers– seems to know more than you. Knowing others are new also helps.
- Have met and gotten to know at least one veteran member of the faculty. Knowing and being able to find at least one resource person is a great comfort to a new teacher.
- Be familiar with basic policies and procedures.
These four goals, all designed to make the new teacher feel at home in a new environment, can be accomplished in a single day’s orientation using the following agenda.
The Agenda
- 8:00 – 8:30 AM – Breakfast
- 8:30 – 9:00 AM – Welcome by Head of School, Director of HR and Principals
- 9:00 – 10:30 AM – Scavenger Hunt
- 10:30 – 11:00 AM – Debrief
- 11:00 – 12:00 PM – Presentation A by Department Head (Lesson Plans, Syllabi
- 12:00 – 12:45 – Lunch
- 12:45-1:30 PM – Presentation B by Department Head (Schedules, Procedures)
- 1:30 – 2:30 PM – Vertical Team Meeting
- 2:30 – 3:30 PM – Horizontal Team Meeting
First and foremost, this agenda is of equal value to brand new teachers and veteran teachers in a new school. There are no sessions on methodolgies or theory; those discussions can happen at another time.
Breakfast: An informal breakfast gives people the chance to get inside, get settled and make a friend or two with little pressure. Since everyone in the room is new, no cliques will form and administrators will have an opportunity to introduce themselves to people informally. Looking back at my last orientation in a new school, this sort of breakfast helped me meet people who turned into close friends and colleagues; the informal, comfortable atmosphere set the tone for the entire day.
Welcome by Head of School, HR and Admins: Once breakfast has ended, a formal welcome by the Head of School will gather the group and their attention. No speech is required, but since the HoS sets the tone and mission for the institution, it is fitting that he or she is given the chance to share that vision with the new faculty right away. Presumably the HR Director has met all new members of the faculty and may, in fact, be the only employee they all know. Familiar faces are important. Finally, giving the Principals a chance to intoruduce themselves to the group gives new teachers an important first resource to get questions answered.
Scavenger Hunt: I scoffed at this idea when I saw it on my first Orientation schedule but, once it began, I recognized the value it has. Breaking the group of new teachers up into small, informal teams makes it even easier for them to make friends. Then each team is given a map and a list of objectives, such as a band-aid signed by the School Nurse, a Tardy Slip from the Attendance Office, an Add/Drop Form from the Guidance Office and a business card from each Principal. This forces the team members to work together to learn the “lay of the land.” It’s important to give each team enough time to complete the exercise without rushing and critical to debrief afterwards. Be seeing the successes of other teams, every member of the faculty will quickly learn what and who is where.
Department Head Presentation: Moving into more formal sessions, it’s time for the faculty to meet in teams with their Department Head to cover some of the nitty-gritty. Breaking this long session into two parts with a lunch-break serves to dispell the tedium of what is a necessary but often boring exercise.
Vertical and Horizontal Team Meetings: At this point the new faculty can join the veteral faculty for grade-level and subject-area meetings. This allows the new members of the team to get to know at least one of their veteral colleages and begin the work of integrating their new skills and presence into the established order of things. It also makes it clear from the start of the year that the entire faculty is expected to work as an integrated unit and establishes both the horizontal and vertical teams as working groups.
Following this agenda, a new group of teachers can quickly and efficiently be made to feel at home on an unfamiliar campus, meet each other and many members of the existing faculty and administration and begin the year successfully and confidently. They certainly have more to learn about the school but that can come later, at ongoing professional development sessions.