Mentor Connect October 2026

🔍Use the Table of Contents on the left to click on District Campus Leader Support for the month.

Lorraine and Evelyn work at Howard Burnham Elementary, Burnham Wood Charter Schools, El Paso, TX.

I really enjoy being able to support a beginning teacher as they develop their teaching skills. I like exchanging ideas and experiences with my mentee.

One strategy that has been effective is modeling strategies that can immediately be used in the classroom. I make sure to check in regularly, listen for concerns, and find ways to (collaboratively) solve any problem she might be having.

Mentoring and coaching has helped the beginning teacher feel more confident and prepared in the classroom. Through feedback and collaboration, my mentee is able to reflect on her instruction and make adjustments that better support her students’ needs.

Being a TxCEE Mentor has helped me grow as an educator and leader. It has encouraged me to reflect on my own teaching practices and strengthen my communication and coaching skills. I enjoy being able to support another teacher while also learning from her experiences.

One thing that has been helpful is setting aside regular time to check in and have meaningful conversations about what is going well and what challenges she may be experiencing. I’ve learned that being a good mentor is not just about providing answers, but also about listening, asking questions, and helping the beginning teacher reflect and find solutions. Keeping our conversations focused and documenting our goals and next steps has also helped us stay on track.

Thanks for sharing, Lorraine! We appreciate all you are doing. 🤩

Are you ready to share your experience? Click on the Mentor Spotlight Survey below.

Each month we will spotlight ONE mentor. If you are feeling excited about what you learned this summer, how it's going so far, or the current or future impact of your work, please fill out the Mentor Spotlight Survey by clicking the link below.

*TxCEE may include all or parts of your response in a future Mentoring Spotlight, on the TxCEE website, or on social media.

The disillusionment phase is typical. As a seasoned teacher, some of us still feel the slug. However, we know it doesn't last forever, and we have a few tricks up our educational sleeve: prioritize our to-do list, go with the flow of the chaos, wait to be sure that directive sticks before jumping to complete the task, and give ourselves lots of grace.

The beginning teacher does not have our experience....so how do we support them when disillusionment hits. Believe it or not, it is not to do their work for them. It is not to rush to fix every problem immediately. Instead we want to emotionally triage by actively listening to categorize and contain stress.

Here are three ideas to support your mentee:

• De-escalate the Immediate Surge: Before analyzing lesson plans or student data, address physiological overload. Encourage the mentee to pause, step away from their desk, and set aside non-essential duties until their nervous system regulates.

• The Three-Tier Sorting Method: Have the mentee list every task driving their stress, then rank them into three distinct categories:

  • Survival (Today): Grading the assessment due tomorrow or setting up tomorrow’s lab.

  • Maintenance (This Week): Basic lesson outlines and routine administrative communications.

  • Parking Lot (Next Month): Detailed curriculum mapping, complex center rotations, or elaborate bulletin boards.

• Grant Permission to Simplify: Help them identify non-critical tasks to streamline or drop entirely, such as replacing hand-graded exit tickets with peer checks or digital self-grading tools.

While routine administrative updates, non-urgent reminders, and quick progress checks might be fine in an email, phone calls are perhaps more necessary for sensitive, complex, or behavior issues. To this point, your mentee may need some support as communication starts to pick up.

Consider role playing phone calls and difficult conversations.

• Scripting High-Stakes Calls: Use mentor meeting time to outline talking points, anticipated parent reactions, and clear action steps before making challenging phone calls.
• Practice and De-escalation: Role-play scenario responses so the new teacher feels comfortable steering tough conversations back to collaborative problem-solving and student support.
• Documentation Habits: Teach the mentee how to log contacts efficiently in the school’s database immediately after a conversation to maintain an accurate history.

Mark your calendars!

🟨MS CLASS & MS CLASS Hybrid mentors!

Attend October VCLC

Choose ONE:

Tuesday, October 13 @4:00 pm CST

Wednesday, October 14 @4:00 pm CST

Thursday, October 15 @4:30 pm CST

Zoom link here and below.

🟨Monthly TxCEE coaching support. *Email information will be sent from your TxCEE Mentor Coach. (MS CLASS mentors must meet with your TxCEE Mentor Coach at least 3 times in the Fall semester. Presidio mentors follow your District's expectations.)

🟨 Log your support hours. All mentors must have at least 12 hours of support logged EACH semester.

Which of the CLC strategies is your mentee's team focused on this week for MS CLASS?

Touchbase with the beginning teacher and see how the strategy is working in their classes. What support do they need? What will they bring for AAA?

Everyone, even your best teachers, are feeling the October dip. To maintain your mentor program be sure to

1. protect the release time you agreed to that allows the mentor and beginning teacher to work a coaching cycle. TMT districts release time is in statute. (Texas Education Agency, 2025) See images below for TEC/TAC expectations.
2. Check in with your mentors and monitor for burnout.

• Dedicated "Mentor-First" Touchpoints: Conduct brief 5-minute check-ins focusing exclusively on the mentor’s capacity rather than the mentee’s progress. Ask targeted questions like: "What part of your mentoring duties feels heaviest right now?" or "What can admin take off your plate this month?"
• Informal Interaction Audits: Observe joint planning sessions or hallway interactions. Burnout manifests as transactional, rushed exchanges where the mentor acts as a quick-answer teller rather than a reflective coach.
• Mid-Fall Pulse Surveys: Use a 3-question anonymous survey in mid-October to gauge energy levels, administrative support satisfaction, and protect time utilization across the entire mentor team.

3. Remember, overworked mentors cannot effectively shield beginning teachers from turnover.

If you have mentoring questions, please reach out to your TxCEE Coach or TMT Program Manager if appropriate. TxCEE Mentor Coach contact information is below.

If you are not a TxCEE Mentor and no longer want to receive The Lightning Connect, please send an email to dana.phillips@txcee.org.

The Texas Center for Educator Excellence (TxCEE), an Austin-based satellite office of the Region 18 Education Service Center, provides leadership and technical assistance across Texas to improve educator quality.

TxCEE staff consists of Texas educators with decades of experience as teachers, teacher leaders, campus and district administrators, state education officials, and higher education professionals. Our team is passionate about helping Texas school districts develop and implement systems that support teachers and principals.

Rufo, Y. (2024, August 26). Why Gen Z & Millennials are hung up on answering the phone. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgklk3p70yo

Texas Education Agency. (2025, October 17). Mentor Program Allotment. https://tea.texas.gov/educators/educator-initiatives-and-performance/mentor-program-allotment

The stages of a teacher’s first year. (1999). www.alabamaachieves.org. Retrieved September 10, 2026, from https://www.alabamaachieves.org