St. Joseph CHS develops mentor teacher program

Friday, Jan. 16, 2015

OGDEN — Saint Joseph Catholic High School boasts 100 percent senior graduating rates, and, although most of them go on to college, many return on a regular basis to visit former teachers.

To continue this culture, Principal Patrick Lambert and President Joanna Wheelton have asked three longtime teachers – Jay Hart, Chad Loosemore and Peggy Barker – to serve as mentors to first-year teachers. They also are available to other teachers on a more informal basis.

Hart is in his 30th year at St. Joseph; Barker has taught for 29 and Loosemore for 20.

Teaching can be an isolating profession, and many new teachers have a “sink or swim” mentality, Lambert said, but mentors help provide a nurturing environment.

“Having a master/apprentice relationship in any profession is where you really learn the ins and outs of the profession, and not just the book smarts,” Wheelton said, adding that the mentors care about other individuals as well as ideas. “They drive that, and they exhibit in their teaching.”

While Hart sits in other teachers’ classrooms and offers tips, Loosemore and Barker provide more emotional support, Lambert said.

“Chad provides an open door and people will just go there and have a safe place to talk about anything … and just decompress,” Lambert said. “And Peggy does that, too.” 

A high percentage of new teachers leave the profession within their first three years. At St. Joseph, the three mentors help their colleagues “get through those early challenges,” Lambert said. 

The mentor teachers stay on top of research in teaching methods, technology and other areas of education, then share these with new teachers, and are able to get them “excited about breaking from the mold of having to have 100-question finals,” Lambert said. “You don’t need to do that. You can be more creative. I think it’s really uplifting for a lot of our newer teachers.”

While the formal mentorship program is new, Hart says the support the teachers at St. Joseph give each other “is something this place has done forever.” 

He enjoys speaking with younger teachers because they “bring a lot of good ideas and energy … and reinvigorate all of us,” he said. 

Although he is interested in what makes a good teacher, he can’t define it, he said, but two characteristics are that the person “works hard and cares about the kids,” he said. 

Tom Tulp, who is a student teacher of theology at St. Joseph, has a formal mentorship because of his master’s degree program, but said he also appreciates the tips he has learned from Hart, particularly his observations about how students react while Tulp is teaching. 

Likewise, Gourab Bhattacharje, in his first year teaching science at SJCHS, said Hart’s classroom observations helped him with his teaching, but more than that, he finds all the teachers helpful. “I could not expect any better teaching atmosphere with colleagues anywhere,” he said. 

Former students applaud the idea of having Hart mentor other teachers.

“Mr. Hart was an amazing teacher, and one of the most important things he could pass on is … how crucial it is to have a set of standards and maintain them,” said Karl Jurek, Class of 1990, who struggled as a sophomore  in Hart’s senior-level Modern European History class, but because Hart didn’t lower his standard, “I raised my abilities because of him. … He was an amazing teacher.”

Likewise, Jennifer Mijer, Class of 2008, says she considers Hart a mentor, and visits him when she is in Utah; she is a medical student at Tufts University. “He is a passionate teacher,” she said. “He really cares not only about the subject matter he’s teaching but also about his students. … He really did make an impact. He made learning fun.”