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Here are three tools used by KickUp partner districts to structure, support, and track their mentorship programs — a phase-by-phase mentor checklist, protocols for documenting mentor activity, and a new teacher needs assessment. Use them as inspiration for your own.
Jump to:
Rockwood's mentor checklist
ND RISE's forms for key meetings and observations
New teacher surveys
Further resources
To sharpen your expectations of mentors, consider: what's on your checklist at each phase of the year?
Rockwood School District built a mentor checklist aligned to Ellen Moir's phases of first-year teaching — Anticipation, Survival, Disillusionment, Rejuvenation, and Reflection. Use this as a starting point if you want to give mentors clear expectations. Click through the phases to see what's inside.
To add more structure to how mentoring happens and keep progress visible to everyone involved, consider: what protocols are your mentors following at each point in the year?
One approach is to take a checklist like the one above and turn it into forms that mentors complete at key moments in the year, with additional open-ended questions for context and reflection. This keeps documentation light but focused — mentors know what's expected, and coordinators can see who's on track.
ND Rise, a statewide mentoring program in North Dakota, goes further. Each semester, mentors are expected to hold 15 hours of 1:1 conferences, conduct at least 3 observations, facilitate peer observation time for the new teacher, and hold a triad meeting where the teacher, principal, and mentor align on progress. Every step has a form. Mentors know exactly what to do and when — and because the work gets documented along the way, coordinators end up with real data they can use to track progress and make the case for continued investment.
Here are some of the real forms ND Rise uses to scaffold and monitor the work, with minor adaptations.
To understand what your new teachers need and how they're developing, consider: what are you asking them — at the start of the year, and again at the end?
New teachers typically need support across four areas: emotional, instructional, institutional, and physical. A good survey surfaces where someone needs help across all four, so mentors can target their support and track how things shift over time. This example, inspired by real KickUp partner districts and our New Teacher Mentorship Webinar, is a starting point. Use it, adapt it, or reach out if you want help building something for your program.
Learning Forward (book): Mentoring New Teachers: A Framework for Growth
Learning Forward (blog): "Mentoring as a global imperative for teacher excellence and retention"
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