Over the past year I have served as mentor to two new special needs teachers.

This role entails going to mentoring meetings with my mentees, filling out monthly mentoring logs detailing the times we met and what was discussed, as well as 2 classroom observations a year. Also, my mentees are required to come and observe me teach as well. Beginning teachers are required to be assignment a mentor for their first two years of teaching. This person serves as a sounding board for questions and concerns. Furthermore, the mentor is required to attend multiple mentor meetings throughout the year covering topics from ethics to fierce conversations. Mentoring has provided me with great leadership experience. It has provided additional opportunities to observe teachers and provide feedback. In this experience it has been challenging to provide non-evaluative feedback, which will be different in a principal's role. I have learned how to coach and reflect with them in positive and supportive ways while still providing with opportunities to improve their teaching. It has also given me experience with working with teachers across grade levels and providing immediate feedback and discussion with teachers about strategies for differentiation. This experience has helped me understand the time and effort it takes to become a teacher leader, as a future leader I need to realize it takes a lot of time to listen and respond to teachers (especially those just starting out) when providing opportunities to visit and share, these new teachers will become much more effective. Furthermore, I have learned it is useful to set aside a designated amount of time, as one of my mentees has difficulty pinpointing specifics to discuss, setting a time limit has assisted in utilizing all the time allotted. Overall, the mentor experience has been one of the most beneficial in preparing to become a future leader. Again, this experience was helpful in providing me with opportunities to build capacity in new teachers and do what I can do help them stay in the district. There is a high turnover in Waterloo and realizing that there will be times when I need to just sit and listen to make sure teachers feel heard is crucial. I chose this experience for ISSL three because it shows my commitment to helping to retain staff. Throughout this experience it was important for me to protect instructional time by setting time limits for our conversations and also help my mentees to understand the state and federal policies in place (especially when writing IEPs). Serving as a mentor to two teachers

required a great deal of time and commitment, but the hope would be that by providing support and encouragement these teachers will become loyal and happy in Waterloo.