All of these excuses didn’t matter…Deep down I knew there were a few things I needed to work on, but I hadn’t figured out exactly what I needed to do to fix the problems I was having while teaching.

The peer mentoring program at High Trails Outdoor Science School is a way for instructors to support each other and help out someone who might be having a difficult time with a certain aspect of teaching. For me, peer mentoring was a useful, rewarding, but at times stressful experience. Not every staff member participates in the peer mentoring program, so how did I end up with this opportunity?

The Class Evaluation

Well, High Trails has many different ways to check in with staff to see how things are going and one of those is called a full evaluation. A full evaluation is when an administrator follows an entire class while taking notes on your teaching and then rates you in a variety of categories. My first full evaluation was completed by site director, Chris, towards the end of a day in October. Unfortunately, I wasn’t on my “A” game that week and the results of my evaluation weren’t great.

Having an administrator watch a class that was not my best was intimidating and disheartening. After it happened it was hard to not make excuses. The previous weekend I was sick and had barely been eating all week while trying to recover. I had a tough group of students that week and had to give out multiple strikes, and the day of my evaluation I gave out a second strike to a student. It was also the last class of the day which is a tough time to keep students focused, and I had only taught the class a couple of times before that.

All of these excuses didn’t matter though. Deep down I knew there were a few things I needed to work on, but I hadn’t figured out exactly what I needed to do to fix the problems I was having while teaching. I knew I needed to be more firm and fair with discipline issues, and I was having a hard time setting up and being consistent with behavior expectations.

I also needed to work on building rapport with my students so I could understand their decisions better and find a way to help them with issues they were having in class and at High Trails. My degree in Biology set me up with a strong understanding of the material we teach at High Trails, but I wasn’t being the most effective teacher possible and it was taking away from my students’ experiences.

My Peer Mentoring Experience

I worked with senior instructor, Alex, for three weeks during this process. The peer mentoring program gave me a chance to collaborate on ideas, reflect on what I was doing right and what I needed to improve, and observe someone with a similar teaching style as me to help me improve as a teacher. We switched off evaluating each other’s classes and meeting at the end of each week to discuss the evaluations and ideas on how to improve. Alex was full of great ideas and useful tips and tricks that helped me as a teacher and helped my classes run smoother.

Those three weeks of analyzing myself (via video), meeting with Alex, and watching Alex’s classes helped immensely with my teaching.

I became more direct and confident with my discipline which helped maintain an orderly classroom. I started to focus more on getting to know my students and focus on their needs to help reduce distractions and help the students stay engaged so that it is possible to flow through material effectively.

Overall, peer mentoring helped me feel more comfortable as a teacher, educator, and High Trails employee. It helped me give students a better, more rewarding experience while they are at High Trails. This all especially showed in my second full evaluation when almost all of my scores and my overall score improved. Seeing that measurable improvement was rewarding and encouraging. Of course there are always things to improve on, but I know I have a solid foundation to work, experiment, and grow with as a teacher.

At High Trails Outdoor Science School, we literally force our instructors to write about elementary outdoor education, teaching outside, learning outside, our dirty classroom (the forest…gosh), environmental science, outdoor science, and all other tree hugging student and kid loving things that keep us engaged, passionate, driven, loving our job, digging our life, and spreading the word to anyone whose attention we can hold for long enough to actually make it through reading this entire sentence. Whew…. www.dirtyclassroom.com