Mentoring Program

Beginning a new teaching position is both exciting and challenging. The mentoring program is designed to provide every new teacher with the guidance, encouragement, and professional support needed to build confidence, strengthen instructional practice, and grow as an educator.

A successful mentoring relationship is built on trust, collaboration, and intentional planning. The initial mentoring meeting establishes the foundation for the partnership by developing shared expectations, identifying areas of focus, and creating a plan for ongoing support throughout the school year. 

Mentoring conversations and professional growth should be centered on the four domains of the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching:

1. Planning and Preparation
2. The Classroom Environment
3. Instruction
4. Professional Responsibilities

These domains provide a common language for reflection, goal setting, instructional coaching, and continuous professional growth throughout the mentoring experience.

Access the overview of the Danielson Rubric Access the full Danielson Rubric

To prepare for the initial mentoring meeting, both the mentor and mentee are expected to complete the following activities:

• Mentee Introduction Exercise – Share professional experiences, strengths, interests, and goals to help establish a meaningful connection. *See Tool 1.1
• Partnership Agreement Planning Template – Establish communication preferences, meeting expectations, confidentiality, and shared commitments that will guide the mentoring relationship. *See Tool 1.2
• Areas of Focus Exercise – Identify professional growth priorities aligned to the Danielson Framework for Teaching. *See Tool 1.3

Completing these activities before the first meeting ensures that both the mentor and mentee arrive prepared to establish a meaningful partnership focused on professional growth and improved outcomes for scholars.

Mentor Meeting Expectations

Mentor meetings are designed to provide ongoing support, reflection, and professional learning throughout the first three years of teaching. The frequency of meetings is based on the mentee’s year of experience and assignment date.

Standard Mentor Assignments 

(Mentors assigned to staff members hired or identified before March 2)

• First-Year Teacher: 18 hours per year
• Second-Year Teacher: 9 hours per year
• Third-Year Teacher: 4 hours per year

Prorated Mentor Assignments 

(Mentors assigned to staff members hired or identified after March 1)

• First-Year Teacher: 2 hours per month
• Second-Year Teacher: 1 hour per month
• Third-Year Teacher: 1 hour per quarter

These meeting requirements represent the minimum number of meetings required for mentor compensation. Mentors are responsible for recording all completed meetings in the GRPS Electronic Mentor Matching System.

All completed mentor meeting hours may count toward the New Teacher 90 professional learning requirement when meeting criteria for instructional support, classroom management, curriculum, or professional growth.

GRPS Electronic Mentoring Guide for MENTEES

The GRPS Electronic Mentoring System is an online system that allows principals to assign mentor matches, mentors to accept assignments and log meetings, and mentees to have documentation of their mentor/mentee logs that count for new teacher PD credit via the mentors.grps.org website. This electronic system has been customized to house and track all GREA mentoring activities from start to finish.

Electronic Mentoring Procedures for New Hires

Log In
To access the site, go to mentors.grps.org
Username: Use your GRPS username
Password: Use your GRPS password

Part 1: Meeting Approval

To review and approve meetings submitted by your mentor

1. You will receive an email alerting you of a posted meeting.
2. Click on the website link provided in the email and log in with your GRPS username and password.
3. Click on the Meetings tab located at the top of the page or the “meetings” button next to your mentor’s name.
4. To view the information submitted by your mentor, click the “confirm/reject” button to open.
5. After reviewing, click “confirm” or “reject” to change the status of the meeting.
   1. If there is a discrepancy in the information submitted, click “reject.” A follow-up conversation or email with the mentor will need to take place.
   2. To view any documents posted by your mentor, click on the Documents tab to view.

Part 2: Mentor Meetings Automatically Submitted into KALPA

Once the mentor submits the mentoring log in the electronic mentoring system, the mentee's mentoring hours are automatically transferred to KALPA as a New Teacher Mentor Meeting course. No additional action is required by the mentee.

Do not submit a Special Request for mentor meeting hours. Special Requests are not used to record mentoring hours and will delay the approval process.

Contact Patrice Pierre at pierrep@grps.org if you are in your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year of classroom teaching and are missing the new teacher PD requirement in your PD Plan.