Though most teachers experience some back-to-school jitters in September, first year teachers undoubtedly have the most anxiety to cope with. From navigating paperwork and logistics to managing classrooms full of students, the learning curve can be steep.

That's why so many schools have adopted first-year teaching mentoring programs--including 60% of our surveyed Teach100 Mentors, who also report having mostly been mentored during their own first year (67%).

So how important is this practice, and how much does it actually help with retention (undoubtedly the desired result)?

We asked our Teach100Mentors and here's what they had to say:

Have you mentored other teachers? What did you learn from the experience? What did you need to provide assistance or guid…

SPED Talks is an essay series dedicated to--like TED talks--sharing “ideas worth spreading” in the Special Education community. The topics, experiences, and points of view are all different, but the prompt for our writers--education professionals from all walks of life--is always the same: “What do you wish people understood about Special Education?”

Recently I took a job at another school down the road from the one that I taught at for the last seven years. It was a hard decision because the school faculty and administrators were my family and support system for a long time, but it wasn’t a decision I made lightly. Here is how I made that difficult decision and what factors impacted my journey in taking a leap of faith.

I recently invested in a new venture called …

Teaching abroad can be an exciting way to take your skills as an instructor outside the classroom and out on the road. But with great adventure comes a lot of uncertainty--what to pack? Where to work for? How to have a safe and happy experience? We asked ESL/TESOL teacher and world traveler Phil Stott to share the kind of wisdom on these issues that can only come from experience. Here's what he had to say.

The lure of life as an English language teacher for ESL students is easy to understand: the ability to travel the world and experience a new culture and language while, in some cases, making enough money to fund further adventures or even student loan payments. What’s not to like?

Like any profession, however, ESL teaching isn’t for everyone. No matter where…

SPED Talks is an essay series dedicated to--like TED talks--sharing “ideas worth spreading” in the Special Education community. The topics, experiences, and points of view are all different, but the prompt for our writers--education professionals from all walks of life--is always the same: “What do you wish people understood about Special Education?”

Our classrooms are a tapestry of students with different cultures, socioeconomic circumstances, race and abilities. Whether intentional or not, there is social, emotional, physical and intellectual diversity even within the most seemingly cohesive group of students. There is social, emotional, physical and intellectual diversity even within the most seemingly cohesive group of students, which means there are also challenges to teaching diverse groups and ensuring all students feel involved and included.

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SPED Talks is an essay series dedicated to--like TED talks--sharing “ideas worth spreading” in the Special Education community. The topics, experiences, and points of view are all different, but the prompt for our writers--education professionals from all walks of life--is always the same: “What do you wish people understood about Special Education?”

Awareness "should not be our primary focus as advocates"

As many of us already know, acceptance and awareness are common themes in the classroom, but they are very different. Awareness is having the knowledge of a situation or fact, and acceptance typically means having an understanding and approval of a person, place or situation; recognizing conditions and flaws exist and embracing them anyway. While raising awareness is important and meaningful, it should not be our primary focus as advocates. Instead, we should focus on building acceptance in and out of the classroom. As a special educatio…

8 QUESTIONS is a series of interviews with teachers who have effectively transitioned their classroom skills into new and exciting careers in the field of education. We at Teach.com believe that teaching is a rigorous and diverse classroom in and of itself; the skills learned “in the trenches” can translate into an exciting portfolio of professional options. From education tech to consulting, the only “X factor” is where you want to go — our interviews hope to shine a light on the steps it takes to get there.

1. What's your name, location and current career path?

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