ROCK HILL—The Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) and the Division of Educator Quality and Leadership are hosting a series of regional South Carolina Mentor Trainings this spring and will offer a Train the Trainer Workshop in April.

The South Carolina Mentor Training is a three-day foundational training focusing on the knowledge, skills, and understandings critical to those accomplished teachers who work with beginning teachers. Mentor trainings are guided by the belief that learning to teach is a career-long developmental process that involves continuous cycle of planning, teaching, and reflecting. At the core of this work is the mentor’s ability to respond to each new teacher’s individual developmental and contextual needs and to promote the ongoing examination of classroom practice.

More than 530 South Carolina educators attended regional training sessions held last fall and are now working in their schools and districts as certified mentors.

“Mentors are recognized educational leaders who provide a critical service by fulfilling a role that is essential to high quality teaching that results in increased student achievement,” says Jason Fulmer, the CERRA program director who leads the program. “The South Carolina Mentor training provides the insight needed to understand the broad scope of mentor roles and responsibilities. A mentor’s work not only serves our beginning teachers, it makes our learning communities stronger.”

Trainings this spring will assist school districts in building a cohort of trained mentors to meet the South Carolina Mentoring and Induction Guidelines. Upon completion of the training, participants will become certified mentors for South Carolina.

Training dates and locations for South Carolina Mentor Training:

• January 30 – February 1: Rock Hill School District 3 Office, Rock Hill

• February 27-29: Poyner Center, Florence

• March 10-12: Spartanburg District 6 Office, Spartanburg

• March 18-20: Genesis Education Center, Greenwood

Train the Trainer is a comprehensive two-day training for educators who have completed a South Carolina Mentor Training. This workshop prepares certified mentors to be effective mentor trainers in their schools and districts. More than 70 school and district personnel from across the state took part in this training in the summer and fall of 2007.

Training date and location for Train the Trainer:

• April 29-30: Environmental Educational Center at Saluda Shoals Park, Columbia

Educators and administrators wishing to attend an upcoming training should register online at www.cerra.org or click the link above for the training.

CERRA, an independent state agency located on the campus of Winthrop University, is the oldest and most established teacher recruitment program in the country. The purpose of CERRA is to provide leadership in identifying, attracting, placing and retaining well-qualified individuals for the teaching profession in South Carolina. CERRA’s programs have been adopted at school, district and state levels in more than 30 states in the United States.