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I had the honor and privilege of serving as the Faculty Mentor to our colleague Mr. Chris DiBello during the 2018/2019 school year. One of the incredible aspects of teaching at Haverford is that all new teachers to the community, regardless of their years of teaching experience, are assigned a Faculty Mentor who's role it is to help the new colleague acclimate to the Haverford school culture. When Ms. Sara Adkins invited me to participate as Chris's teacher mentor I was enthusiastic to help facilitate Mr.DiBello's introduction as a teacher to the Haverford community, but at the same time I was a little nervous since Mr. DiBello is a Haverford alumni and the 2018/2019 school year was only my second at Haverford. Surely, I thought, Mr. DiBello knew much more about the culture and many of the programs at the school. After talking a little with Ms. Adkins about how to approach my role, I settled on explicitly recognizing with Mr. DiBello all the qualities and perspectives he brought to the community from his experiences and how I could learn from him while simultaneously acknowledging how I could support him in his transition from his relationships with many of our colleagues as a student to a teacher colleague. Additionally, I was able to support him in many aspects of being a first year teacher at Haverford, from his duties and responsibilities such as bus duty to his understanding of his teaching of the students. We had multiple opportunities throughout the year to visit each other's classes and to enjoy check-in lunches where we would talk about everything from Haverford sports to assessment strategies.
The mentor experience was also an awesome opportunity for me to connect with my other fellow mentors in learning from their perspectives and experiences. During several of our morning mentor meetings, we would exchange advice about things that were happening in our own classrooms and on campus, so in that regard, the mentoring experience offered me a continuing opportunity for growth in the Haverford community.
I will be serving as a Faculty Mentor again this year to Dr. Bridget Gurtler and I look forward to getting to know her better, supporting her in her teaching at Haverford and learning from her experiences and areas of expertise.