Certification & Mentoring

Is mentoring required?  How often should I meet with my mentor and what are the details of this required professional development?

To obtain a professional teaching certificate in New York State, educators must have a full-year of mentored experience.  And in the ICSD, we provide all educators new to the district with a mentor for their first year, regardless of certification status.   Our mentoring program is designed to be flexible and differentiated based on the specific needs and prior experience of the educator being mentored and there is a not a set number of required meetings for mentor/mentee pairs.  Schedule time to meet with your mentor as often as you need and want. And experiment with different formats (in-person, virtual, asynchronous text or email threads) to find what works best for you and your mentor.  This relationship is yours to cultivate. 

You are required to submit monthly mentoring logs in Frontline Professional Growth summarizing your interactions and work with your mentor (instructions here).  

• You must submit 9 logs total (one log each month, Sept. - May)

• Logs are due by the last day of each month EXCEPT May.  Your May log is due May 12, 2023. 

The primary purpose of these monthly logs is to gather information from you about the topics that are coming up in your mentoring interactions and to identify additional support that is needed.  The secondary purpose of these logs is to provide documentation for reporting mentoring to NYSED and paying our mentors.   Please consider these logs as a form of confidential communication between Lynn Klankowski and you.  If you include questions or support requests in your log, Lynn will follow-up with you directly.

What other professional development should I look for to maintain my educator license?

Use Frontline and other resources to seek out professional development that meets your learning goals. If you attend your Wednesday PLC times and the ICSD District Professional Development Days (in October and March), you will be all set in meeting the NY State requirements of 100 PD hours over 5 years. Just make sure you sign in to all of these PLC times to receive credit!

NY State law stipulates that 15% of classroom teacher PD hours be dedicated to language acquisition addressing the needs of English language learners (ELLs). ICSD provides opportunities for this type of learning and you can find more on Frontline.

How do I keep track of these PD hours to maintain my educator license?

If you sign in to the required PLC meetings, your building secretary and Sharon Warren work together to log your hours in Frontline. You can also log in to Frontline to monitor that you are receiving credit for these PD hours. ICSD sends this information to the state each year.

What does it mean to register myself as an educator in ICSD/NY?

Educators holding a valid NYS certificate in classroom teaching service, teaching assistant, or educational leadership are required to register through the TEACH system every 5 years. Log on to your TEACH account to register. More information can be found here, including exemptions.