So You Want To Be a Consultant 

Unlike your isolated classroom, all consultants are housed in one main office so that ongoing training occurs and important ideas are shared. The program is designed to have experienced consultants in the office and each year add new consultants who learn from the experienced consultants. Consultants are rotated back to their classrooms after three years.

Training begins once a teacher is selected for the program. All active and inactive consultants, at least on a rotating basis, attend the Board of Review presentations at the end of each semester where all employment decisions are made. In addition, once a teacher becomes an active consultant, intense training is provided before the beginning of the school year. Most training is planned and presented by experienced consultants; however, outside presenters are used when deemed necessary. Classroom management strategies are always presented by our own consultants.

How do you make a decision to be a consulting teacher?

A consulting teacher works with adults in a mentor/evaluator capacity. The working day is different from a teaching day. Intern teachers often need to meet with the consultant before or after school and there are often evening meetings and phone calls. Dealing with employment issues is important, and therefore the job of the consulting teacher is sometimes stressful. It is difficult to work with an intern teacher who fails to meet the requirements for further employment. Organizing time schedules, report writing, training, and PAR panel presentations are an important part of this job. And one must be able to say, "No."

If you apply to become a consulting teacher, you should be aware of the demands and responsibilities. You will go through an application process that includes an interview, unannounced classroom observations, letters of recommendation, and completion of a writing sample. Consultants do a lot of writing. Once you are selected, the training process will begin even though active status depends on your district's new teacher employment profile. You should be matched up with interns in your licensure area - at least as much as possible. In Toledo, that means you could wait for active status two or three years depending on your specialty.

The Process

The evaluation phase of The Toledo Plan gets most of the attention, but most of the effort is actually expended in mentoring the intern teacher. The consultant and the intern teacher spend time each week in private conferences, classroom observations, or small-group professional growth sessions. In addition, the consulting teacher provides, through e-mail or phone calls, supplemental materials and other teaching information that could assist the intern. You present your two evaluations to the PAR panel, and you will get probing questions from panel members before they vote to accept or reject your recommendation. Those are stressful days - as they should be because an individual's livelihood is at stake.

Peer Assistance and Review

The PAR cycle begins with an initial meeting between the consulting teacher and the intern. This can be followed up by an informal observation or the first announced classroom observation. The consultant will prepare a written report to share with the intern teacher within five days of the observation. In that report, the consultant carefully describes the observation in narrative form and then makes suggestions, recommendations, or if there are serious problems, gives performance goals. All reports are signed at the end of the conference and the cycle continues.

Observations are unannounced from then on, and the consulting teacher will make an effort to see the intern teacher at different times and in different teaching situations. At the end of each semester, the consulting teacher makes a summary evaluation report that is shared with the intern teacher and later presented to the PAR panel. Intern teachers with unsatisfactory ratings at the end of the first semester will have one more semester to improve to "satisfactory" or that teacher will not be offered a second one-year contract. You will make that recommendation.

Life After Consulting

Activation for three years as an Intern Consultant is just the right about of time. The program is designed to send the consultants back to the classroom where they are most needed, and after three years our consultants are ready to go back to teaching. For more than 20 years, consultants have been bringing back to their school enthusiasm, stronger teaching practices, and motivation to help create a more professional culture at their schools.

Consultants say that this three-year period of professional growth is the single most important time in their teaching careers. It is rewarding to play the key role in coaching beginners to a competent level of teaching sooner than if they were left on their own or had to rely on someone without the time to coach properly. Consulting teachers are recognized for their excellent teaching, and to be chosen to join the program enhances the whole profession. We work hard to mentor and evaluate interns, and the skills we develop lead to opportunities to conduct professional growth activities, work on grants, and serve on other professional committees. Peer review allows teachers to feel a part of school reform, and that is real professional growth at its best.

You will return to the classroom a changed teacher. Once a consultant, always a consultant, and that means that most of us continue to be active in various roles outside the classroom and strive to achieve excellence in our classrooms and at our schools. Many of us also become active in our union because we see our union as leading the way to the professionalization of teaching and the key to professional growth and increased student achievement.

Consulting Teachers

• Limited to three years in the program as full-time mentors/ evaluators
• Receive an additional salary.
• Have a minimum of five years of outstanding teaching service.
• Conduct new-teacher orientation.
• Provide workshops for interns on current teaching procedures and classroom management techniques.
• Present periodic reports to the PAR panel regarding the status of each intern.
• Recommend further employment status to PAR panel.
• Attend meetings of the PAR Panel.