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Teacher Leader Mentors

Teaching is challenging work and teaching is only sustainable when there is a supportive community for teachers to access and learn from. One way that we support our Fellows is by connecting them with veteran teacher leaders.

In 2022, Knowles created a new position—teacher leader mentors (TLMs). TLMs allow our Fellows to see visions of themselves as veteran teachers who are leaders in their schools and communities (e.g., local, state and national). Our Fellows meet together three times per year and TLMs would join Fellows at meetings to share their teacher perspective and support, and offer empathy and encouragement. Additionally, they would help Fellows brainstorm strategies for in-the-moment problem-solving. We think attendance at in-person meetings is important to support impromptu conversations and build relationships with these beginning teachers. Our hope is that TLMs would also authentically discuss and model the ideas of each meeting focus, e.g., what “doing” content looks like in their classroom or how they engage with their colleagues at their school. They would also connect our Fellows to their networks, locally and nationally. TLMs will be paid a stipend for their work and all travel expenses would be covered by Knowles.