Superintendent’s Message
11/2006

Mentors and Relationships

I have been blessed with mentor teachers who I have developed long lasting relationships throughout my life.  These mentors have inspired me to know what it is to have purpose and passion in my life, job and my relationships with people along the way.  Mentors help us develop the purpose and passion that lies within all of us.  My purpose and passion is do what is right for students and to ensure they have every opportunity to be successful in life. 

As I have visited classrooms in the Winnisquam Regional School District, I have seen evidence of purpose and passion as teachers work with students.  I’ve seen teachers such as Josh Keaton (WRHS), Jackie Blake (Sanbornton), Sue Penny (Southwick) building relationships with their students by acknowledging and elaborating on all responses and questions.  Kathy Beliveau (WRMS) greeted and welcomed students as they came in the door for class.  She also related to students by placing them in working groups according to interest for solving real-life math problems. Michelle DelSignore(Union Sanborn) built on what she heard from students by sharing stories and examples that reinforced their learning.  These are only a few examples where students were engaged and enthused with learning.  In these classes, the relationship between students and teachers were working well.  This is what inspires purpose and passion for learning. 

Another wonderful example is the Mentoring Initiative taking place at the HS.  Teachers meet with students three days a week to mentor and build relationships for improving student success.  Getting to know student interests, what they care about, and what they want to do with their life helps us to understand the complexity of their needs.  Knowing more about each student will forge stronger relationships as well as improve school climate and academic achievement. 

To inspire success is to mentor and build relationships with students.  Robert Marzano, a leading educational researcher and teacher indicates that teacher-student relationships are the keystone to a successful classroom.  He states that “Teachers who have high-quality relationships with their students have 31% fewer discipline problems, rule violations, and related problems over a year’s time than did teachers who did not have high-quality relationships with their students.” 

Mentoring and building relationships inspires success for all of us in working with students.  This is what makes our jobs so rewarding and why we have purpose and passion for coming to work everyday.