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Great Teachers and School Leaders Matter: The New Teacher Support Program
North Carolina New Teacher Support Program's February Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill (Photo credits: Todd Brantley/EdNC

Great Teachers and School Leaders Matter: The New Teacher Support Program

The University of North Carolina's Academic and University Programs

Editor’s Note: The University of North Carolina Academic and University Programs Division releases its annual report this week. Great Teachers and School Leaders Matter surveys the work of the Division and UNC’s fifteen educator preparation programs that are focused on the University’s goal of preparing more, higher quality teachers and school leaders for North Carolina’s public schools. EdNC will be highlighting the report’s profiles of teachers, school leaders, programs, and partnerships from across the state as part of a nine-part series. The full report is available here.

The North Carolina New Teacher Support Program assists beginning teachers in their first three years of teaching, the period when a teacher is most likely to leave the profession. The program provides continuous professional development and pairs teachers with an instructional coach, an experienced teacher who acts as a mentor.

A cornerstone of the program are the regular Instructional Skills Institutes that occur throughout the year, across the state, giving teachers the opportunity to convene and learn from colleagues, coaches, and education professionals. In February, EdNC spent the day at the program’s Chapel Hill institute, and heard directly from participants about the triumphs and challenges of being beginning teachers and how the program supports them in their new roles.

“The first year of the New Teacher program has been great. I always have someone if I want to bounce off new ideas or if they walk in and there’s a situation, I’m like, “Hey, what would you recommend to do with this?” I know there is someone who can answer it immediately.”– Carson Ellis, Teacher, Southern Middle School, Person County

https://youtu.be/Z2ssDh1Cvmc

“I know that I have people that can support me, via email, being person-to-person, even text messages, just to see how I am doing, what’s going on, what’s new, what’s not working, suggestions–just feedback, natural feedback in any classroom that I have.”– Chelsey Robinson, Teacher, Northern Middle School, Person County

https://youtu.be/dZfjobPMKfY

“I finished out the degree, my history degree, and I couldn’t wait for Warren County to call me and say, ‘Come back.’ And I went running, and I have loved it ever since.” — Earlene Clanton, Teacher, Northside Elementary School, Warren County, on transitioning from being a teacher’s assistant to a teacher in the Warren County Schools.

https://youtu.be/yC_hQjvRtoM

“It’s been challenging, but it’s also been wonderful. I can honestly say I have the same smile on the first day that I have right now.” — Earlene Clanton, Teacher, Northside Elementary School, Warren County, on her first year of teaching.

https://youtu.be/r9M-J2-DIso

“Being in the program and having the mentors that I’ve had definitely helps to broaden my horizons with lesson plans. Everything I don’t have to do from scratch. I can recycle and reuse different ideas and plans.” — Chelsey Robinson, Teacher, Northern Middle School, Person County

https://youtu.be/CHvSypWxoKk

“You want the kids to be productive and to have all the information. And if you aren’t organized and know what you are doing, it’s terrifying.” — Earlene Clanton, Teacher, Northside Elementary School, Warren County.

https://youtu.be/axGth-v9FbA

“You learn in teaching from the day you step foot in the classroom until the day you leave.”– Evie Garner, Person County Schools Teacher Mentor.

https://youtu.be/4wH6FR3htx8

Learn more about the New Teacher Support Program

Video: Instructional Coach Tierney Fairchild talks about the program

https://youtu.be/Q-9mxfniZKw

Video: How does a teacher become a part of the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program?

https://youtu.be/nQEofEMO7Go

Video: What are the challenges and rewards of working with new teachers?

https://youtu.be/jPv4qW2yasc

Great Teachers and School Leaders Matter Series

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Katie B. Morris

Part 3: Yolanda Black

Part 4: Jeff Vamvakias

Part 5: New Teacher Support Program

Part 6: Diana B. Lys

Part 7: Steve Lassiter

Part 8: Chase Schultz

Part 9: University and Community Partnerships

The University of North Carolina's Academic and University Programs
Todd Brantley

Todd Brantley is the senior director of public affairs at The Rural Center. He formerly served as director of policy and research at EducationNC.

He grew up in Randolph County where he attended Farmer Elementary School, Randleman Middle School, and Randleman High School. Todd attended Randolph Community College before graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995. He received a master’s in theological studies from Duke Divinity School in 2002 and a master’s from the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2009.

Prior to his work at The Rural Center and EducationNC, Todd also worked as the associate communications director at MDC providing strategic communications support for several programs, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Partners for Postsecondary Success and the Developmental Education Initiative. Todd was part of the writing and research team that produced the 2010 and 2011 State of the South reports. While a graduate student, he interned at The Story with Dick Gordon and was the editor of The Fountain, the alumni magazine for the Graduate School at UNC-Chapel Hill.

He was part of the research and writing team that received the Governmental Research Association’s 2014 Most Distinguished Research Award for a report on the use of telepsychiatry in rural areas. He was a co-author of How the Triangle Gives Back, a 2008 report that examined local philanthropic and charitable giving in the Research Triangle region. His writing and research has appeared in the Daily Yonder; Insight, a publication of the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research; and NC DataNet, a publication of The Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill.

A native of North Carolina, Todd currently splits his time between Raleigh and Pikeville, where he helps maintain his wife’s family’s farm. He says, “As a product of this state’s systems of public education, from secondary, to the community college system, to our public postsecondary system, I have seen firsthand how important these institutions are for the social and economic wellbeing of this state and its citizens. Regardless of whether you are a new resident or a native, a parent or not, we all benefit from the fruits of our current system of public learning, and the hard work and foresight of those who came before us who understood that, regardless of political affiliation, North Carolina needed to be a national leader in access to quality education for everyone.”

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