Staff Induction Plan for Teachers in the Middle Career Years: Growth Mindset and Tips

and Techniques to Avoid Burnout

Michael Fletcher

Jenny Gieselman

Andy Phillips

Shelly Schantz

Oakland University

EA 8820

Caryn Wells, Ph.D

November 21, 2017

Staff Induction Plan for Teachers in the Middle Career Years
By: Michael Fletcher, Jenny Gieselman, Andy Phillips, and Shelly Schantz
Audience: Teachers years 10-20

Purpose: Retention and well-being of teachers

Overview and rationale: School districts invest quite a bit of human and capital resources into
new teachers, and rightfully so. But rarely do districts make the same sort of investment to
simply “check in” with teachers that have been tenured for quite awhile and are not close to
retirement. Teachers in these years have become adept at their craft but are still constantly
asked to change the way they do things, based on new research related to best practice.
Additionally, life has changed for these teachers. Most of them are no longer newlyweds, and
have children that are school-aged, or perhaps growing up and entering college or beyond. The
point is the stresses that veteran teachers are under are also worth validating with some
investment on the part of the district.

Our proposal would be to do different induction exercises throughout a school year with this
group. We would recommend the following exercises to take place roughly on a monthly basis.
Most of this program would anywhere from an hour to a half-day. We would propose that other
induction programs for different groups of teachers not in this category be run simultaneously in
different buildings.

Part I

Month: September
Topic: Mindset
Rationale: Many teachers can develop a “false growth mindset” confusing effort with mindset,
when really their actions and words don’t match a growth mindset. This session will allow
teachers to discover their “fixed mindset beliefs.”
Who will present: HR director, building principals, and teachers with 10-20 years experience.
What are the goals for this program?
Teachers become more aware of their fixed beliefs that may impact their classroom culture and
the children in their classroom. This will allow teachers to begin the first step into further
developing a growth mindset, as well as participating in reflection.

● Start with videos, choose what you would like to watch. After watching, group
discussion on content of videos.
● https://www.mindsetkit.org/topics/about-growth-mindset
https://ideas.classdojo.com/b/growth-mindset
● These will help lead us to answer the question, “What is mindset?”
● Jigsaw the three articles below to come up with teams of teachers to develop a common
understanding and direction for PD- Career and life (all aspects)
● Articles on teacher
● mindset to jigsaw:
 https://www.edutopia.org/article/teachers-need-growth-mindset-christina-gil
https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/developing-growth-mindset-teachers-and-staff
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-
mindset.html
● After reviewing articles, chart paper will be posted for teachers to work in groups to
discuss what fixed mindset beliefs they discovered that they had because of our
reflective conversation.

Month: October
Topic: Mindset continued
Rationale: Developing a growth mindset is a continual effort. This session will reinforce what
was taught during the last session to help teachers become more familiar with the concept.
Also, October is generally the month where teachers develop professional growth plans for
evaluation. Teachers would be doing this during this month’s PLC time.
Who will be present: HR director, building principals, and teachers with 10-20 years
experience.
What are the goals for this program?
Teachers will continue to develop their understanding of growth mindset and how it applies to
their practice. During this meeting, teachers will form PLCs around subject areas they would like
to improve in by setting growth mindset goals. These goals will revolve around improving their
practice so they can be more effective in the classroom. They will discuss ways they plan on
demonstrating growth mindset and how they will record their actions and student data. PLCs will
meet bimonthly to discuss their progress.
● Make sure to have artifacts from last month posted. Start with article review of “What is
Mindset”- Career and life (all aspects)
● A discussion will be led to come up with a common definition of growth mindset and to
set a focused goal for the year revolving around growth mindset.

Month: November
Topic: What’s here to stay?
Rationale: Ideas come and go in education, knowing what we know about our mindset,
teachers will unveil how they feel about these trends, eventually allowing them to narrow down
the ideas that are here to stay.
Who will be present: Curriculum Director, HR Director, building principals, teachers from 10-20
years and academic coaches
What are the goals for this program: Begin to narrow focus on what is truly important. This
will avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed, which eventually can lead to burnout.

● Master vs still improving skill-What instructional things have come and gone? Identify
what is here to stay - Use a thinking routine where we compare past/present - “Here
Now / There Then”
http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03e_Fa
irnessRoutines/HereNowThereThen/HereNow_Routine.html
● After doing this routine pull out what has stayed
 ● What can we consistently count on in our profession?

Month: December
Topic: Life Work Balance
Rationale: Life has changed for teachers with this experience level.
Who will be present: HR Director, building principals, teachers and academic coaches with 10-
20 years experience, building counselors, school psychologists
What are the goals for this program: Focus on creating the most mentally healthy teachers,
this can lead to less sick days, happier teachers, and ultimately an impact on those teachers’
classrooms.

● Check in with PLC groups on their progress towards growth mindset goals.
● Next, do some relaxation and mindfulness activities. We’ll be starting today’s work by
doing lots of individual reflecting. Meditations could include prompting teachers to think
about what life was like when they first began teaching. Continue on with what life was
like 5-10 years ago, at the halfway point of where they are now. Finish meditations with
silent thought about what life is like now.
● Continue by giving teachers time to record. Teachers could list their reflections in
bulleted form or by journaling. Tech devices would be acceptable to use as well.
● Next, teachers will share in small groups their own personal journeys.
● Finish by having each group share out what the trends were. Use chart paper to record.

Month: January
Topic: Are you burnt out?
Rationale: It is okay to be burnt out, but it’s not okay to stay in that state. We must have
teachers identify if they are and help give tools to get them out of the state of burnout or to avoid
it completely.
Who will be present: HR Director, building principals, teachers and academic coaches with 10-
20 years experience, building counselors, school psychologists

What are the goals for this program:

● How is burnout different than stress? What are the sources of burnout? Generate ideas
with your group and share out. After sharing, read about the differences from Mind Tools
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/avoiding-burnout.htm
● After identifying what burnout is, ideas on how to combat it should be explored. The
following article from Psychology Today provides ideas:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pressure-proof/201306/7-strategies-prevent-
burnout
● In groups, discuss which techniques from the article would work for the teaching
profession and ways they could be implemented.
● Create a collaborative list of ways to avoid or deal with burnout. Choose one thing to try
before the February meeting.
Month: February
Topic: Mindfulness techniques and focused data analysis
Rationale: Mindfulness has the power to prevent teacher burnout by providing them space to
think, be present, and refocus a teacher’s energy. Additionally, February is a long, difficult
month for teachers. Providing them this training and support now will give them ideas on how to
survive until Spring Break. This is also the bimonthly PLC check in to discuss progress towards
growth mindset goals.
Who will be present: HR Director, building principals, teachers from 10-20 years and academic
coaches, building counselors, school psychologists
What are the goals for this program: Retain teachers, keep teachers effective
● What is mindfulness and how can it help educators? Reference Mindfulness:
How School Leaders Can Reduce Stress and Thrive on the Job by Dr Caryn
Wells
● Give quiz on pg. 124
● Give teachers tools and techniques to become more mindful, reference
appendixes in Mindfulness: How School Leaders Can Reduce Stress and Thrive
on the Job
● Analyze data collected in PLC (Referenced in October)

Month: March
Topic: Looking Forward
Rationale: Forward momentum, teachers will take what they have learned and apply it through
reflection
Who will be present: HR Director, building principals, teachers and academic coaches with 10-
20 years experience.

What are the goals of this program: We have examined what teaching was like in the
beginning, middle, and current phase of our careers. We have also examined what life was like
in those stages of our careers. Today’s focus will be on looking forward.

● Start with mindfulness activities. Prompts would include reflecting on exercises done
over the past few months. They would lead into silent reflection of goals for the future.
● After meditation, give teachers time to journal. Spend about half an hour of writing time
on the topic, “What do you want your life outside of school to be like in 5 years? In 10
years? When you retire?” Ask the same exact questions about what you want to look
like as a teacher during those time frames.
● Small group share out. Have each group come up with common themes to list on chart
paper. Make sure to keep these artifacts.

Month: April
Topic: Daily/ professional reflection
Rationale: Daily reflection is incredibly important for teachers to improve their practice and for
balancing work and life. Unfortunately, this daily reflection is the first thing to go to the wayside
for teachers as things become intense. This session will help participants discover new ways to
participate in meaningful self-reflection.
Who will be present: HR Director, principals, teachers and academic coaches with 10-20 years
experience.
What are the goals of the program: Review and celebrate PLC growth mindset goals. What
was the journey like and to what degree was it successful? What did you learn from this journey
that can be shared with colleagues or replicated? Additionally, what are other ways to reflect on
your profession and personal life?

● Gather in PLC groups to discuss outcomes of growth mindset goals. Take time to
celebrate your successes and reflect on the challenges you faced.
● Discuss with your group what are ways this journey could be replicated for your staff.
What obstacles and rewards would surface if growth mindset goals were used in your
building and how would they be addressed?
● Share with the cohort what things came out of your conversation with your PLC. These
comments should be recorded on chart paper.
● Next, do guided meditations. Reflect on work done thus far. Guide participants to use
this work to silently think about what pieces of advice would you give yourself if you
could go back to when you first started? When you had been teaching for five years?
● Small group work - generate some good advice to give to teachers in the above-
mentioned experience groups. This might take the form of elementary and secondary,
or it might not. Small groups will share out.
● After share out, agree as a group on the top five to ten things to tell each experience
group. Turn these into a video to be shared with those groups of teachers.
● Reflection- Impact
https://www.thoughtco.com/importance-of-teacher-reflection-8322

Month: May
Topic: Reflection - both personal reflection and reflection of the program
Rationale: As we wind the year down, we must recognize that we cannot always invest this
much time for topics that were covered with our induction program. This session will focus on
perceived impact of the overall program as well as what the district can do moving forward to
support these teachers. We want to provide teachers a time to practice the elements focused
on this year- growth mindset, mindful meditation, data analysis, and reflection.
Who will be present: HR Director, principals, teachers and academic coaches with 10-20
years experience.

What are the goals of the program:

● This session will start with mindfulness meditation, data analysis, and reflection.
● This session will survey teachers about the impact of the program. That survey would
include what they found most helpful and least helpful. It would also ask if any changes
were made either professionally or personally because of this program.
 ● We could conclude with a whole group discussion of what this group wants to see the
district support for professional and personal well-being of its staff. This might include
mindfulness programs after school, yoga, fitness, group reflection times, etc. It might
also include suggestions of areas where we could work more efficiently, or things that
might be able to be taken off of our plates.
● Participants will create one new goal for the upcoming school year.

Part II- next three years

Much of this would be dictated by survey results and small group work generated at May’s
meeting. District leadership would have to take time to go over those results and ideas and
decide where we would invest more district time (if any) and where we would offer district-
sponsored, but voluntary opportunities. For example, the group might want us to bring in a
mindfulness expert once a month after school. Or it might suggest we open gyms once a week
for exercise or basketball for staff members. Or it might suggest monthly meetings simply for
the purpose of reflection times.

Goals:
Maintain growth mindset
Maintain mindfulness practice
Maintain the practice of continual personal and professional reflection

Look for any improvement in the data. Was there any? Where was it? Did these strategies
help?

Part III- evaluation of program by Learning Forward standards

Learning Communities - Teachers with 10-20 years experience, academic coaches will also
be a part of this. The first year - whole group. The second year - cohorts within buildings led
by building principals. Teachers will also create PLCs around growth mindset goals to help
improve instruction in an area of their choosing.

Leadership - While this program will be led by the HR director, building principals will play a
major a part in the leadership capacity of this program

Resources - Presenters will research, gather and distribute resources for the cohort. Cohort
members will be responsible for retaining these materials throughout the program.

Data - Data will be evaluated in the second year to see what is working. Data will be provided
throughout the first year to justify our topics, this data will come from professional articles.

Learning Designs - The nature of this induction plan is to create reflective teachers who are
open to growth and change in practice. Each meeting is interactive
Implementation - As teachers implement the practices outlined in the plan the shall become
more present and open to a growth mindset which in turn increases effectiveness and and the
students benefit. Feedback is embedded in the 5-day Growth Mindset and will be shared
individually and in PLCs to move implementation forward.

Outcomes - As teachers gain a growth mindset and refreshment of the teaching profession as
outlined in this plan, they open themselves up to becoming more skilled and provided a growth
mindset and best practices to all students. Key pieces to the plan include collaboration with
other teachers who are in the same boat.

Resources:
https://www.mindsetkit.org/growth-mindset-educator-teams/growth-mindset-professional-
development-materials/5-session-professional-learning-cycle - this is a free 5 sesion PD on
mindset