New Teacher and Mentor Support

Welcome to the New Teacher and Mentor Support Website. Our mission to nurture and cultivate the educators of today and tomorrow is at the heart of all we do! 

Your Support Team!

The New Teacher Support Department is tasked with exactly what our name implies - supporting new teachers! That work takes a variety of forms and includes things like:

We look forward to working with you! Reach out to us with questions, concerns, and input. We're in this work together!

KJ Rhoads,

Director of Instructional Implementation & New Teacher Support


Contact her at kelleyjean.rhoads@trusd.net

Holly Rogers, Coordinator New Teacher Support 


Contact her at holly.rogers@trusd.net

Amy Kraft-McGowan,  Program Specialist  New Teacher Support 

Contact her at amy.kraft@trusd.net

Katria Butler, Admin Clerk Senior New Teacher Support 

Contact her at katria.butler@trusd.net

2023-2024 Marigold Minute

This Month's Newsletter

Explore strategies, tips, and resources designed to help you navigate "teacher life" this month.

Our newsletter is a Google Slide Deck, with the most recent month at the front. You have access to the entire year's newsletters at all times.

This Month's Gratitude Invitations

We hope you'll join us this month in looking for moments of daily gratitude. 


Having trouble finding them? We've got you covered! Check out this month's invitations for a place to start.

2023-2024 Gratitude Invitations

Seed for Thought

Positive Self-Talk

Our "Seed for Thought" this month circles back around to November's disposition of positive self-perception.

As anxious as we might be for the end of the year to "just get here already," May is an EXTREMELY busy month and we have a lot to get done before we say so long for the summer. State-testing. End-of-year assessments and grading. Celebrations. Preparing your room for the summer. Planning for a different school or grade for next year. It can all weigh you down, cause a lot of stress, and create negative narratives to form in your head. These narratives can unconsciously result in you focusing on all of the things not going the way you want or need them to, allowing all of the bright spots to pass unnoticed. Before you know it, the negative narratives can be turned inward and you find yourself talking to yourself in ways that deplete your energy, your motivation, and your resilience.

This month, we invite you to be intentional in battling these "Negative Nellies" by pumping up your self-talk! Your MTSS Specialists have been sharing resources in their weekly emails, newsletters, and SEL slide decks promoting positive attitudes and positive self-talk for our students. We deserve to shine that same focus on ourselves, right? Right! Our resilience gets fired up when we are self-affirming.

Explore the resources below as you work towards talking yourself up this May.