New teachers at Frontier Central School District are benefiting from a new mentoring program that focuses on building stronger connections to one another and to the district.
The program for new and untenured teachers, colloquially called “NUTs” by its founder and leader, Frontier Central Teachers Association President Amber Chandler, covers the ins and outs of teaching with lots of support and “mom-ish” advice, Chandler said.
“It’s all the things that make up your day as a teacher, but aren’t necessarily content-related,” said Chandler.
A National Board Certified Teacher, Chandler has been mentoring teachers for 15 years and literally wrote the book on helping new teachers acclimate; her manual, Everything New Teachers Need to Know but Are Afraid to Ask, came out in 2024 and was based on questions she received from her own mentees. Chandler’s latest book, Reclaiming Connection: How Schools and Families Can Nurture Belonging in a Scared New World, is due out in March.
Chandler started the mentoring program in her suburban district in 2022, with support from an AFT grant, to help tackle a familiar but pressing problem: how to help the swelling ranks of new and inexperienced teachers get on sure footing as Baby Boomers continue to retire.
At Frontier, 140 out of its 478 teachers have been with district four years or less, and the ranks of untenured teachers are expected to grow to 250 in the next five years.
“I think new teachers need more support than they did years ago,” Chandler said. “It’s unfathomable to me how much new teachers have to go through now, before they even get to begin teaching content.”
Chandler rattled off a long list of challenges facing today’s new teachers, including keeping up with new technology, the strain of closing ever-widening income gaps, managing endless classroom disruptions, plus the added pressure of doing your job so publicly; it can be tough to manage it all without guidance and support, she said.
NUTs hosts in-person get-togethers like trivia nights and meetups. There, new teachers can meet with veteran colleagues to ask questions, get advice and most importantly, build fellowship.
“I feel like it can be isolating being a new teacher,” said Nicole Coolican, an FCTA member and middle school ELA teacher who joined NUTs shortly after coming to the district five years ago.
“Frontier is a bigger district, so it was great to be able to meet untenured teachers in other buildings and hear their experiences and learn from veteran teachers, too,” Coolican said.
Many districts have programs in place for first-years but the Frontier program provides sustained support for teachers until they get tenure, and that’s so valuable, Coolican said.
Coolican also said Chandler helped her and other new colleagues navigate the tenure process and assemble their portfolios. She also explained their rights when it comes to evaluation. “I feel like so many teachers go in blind,” Coolican said.
Chandler maintains an app for NUTs members where they can get expert advice on everything from professional courtesies to effectively communicating with administrators.
“With NUTs there are people there to welcome you and make you feel at home, and they’re there to answer your questions, even the ones that might seem silly,” said Lindsay Wright, a Kindergarten teacher and member of FCTA. “I think being part of the group makes you feel more invested in the school district, plus it gives you that soft place to land on hard days.”
Mentoring isn’t just about bringing new teachers up to speed, it can also play a vital role in retention, which studies have shown is particularly tenuous for new teachers.
According to a 2021 study, 44 percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years. Chandler said mentorship programs like NUTs can help combat high churn rates because they help these professionals feel more empowered and less lost in those critical first years.
“They really need someone to have their back,” Chandler said. Chandler’s own daughter, Zoey, is on the cusp of becoming a new teacher, giving Chandler a vested interest in improving the landscape for educators who are just coming up.
“I honestly could not do this alone anymore,” Chandler said. “I think that’s how we’re going to improve teaching, by all looking out for each other.”