New teachers have a lot to juggle—lesson plans, student behavioral issues, parent feedback, standardized tests and opinions from administrators. It’s overwhelming, but it’s more manageable when you have a knowledgeable and sympathetic mentor at your side.
Take it from Audrey Sattler, who landed a job at DeMiguel Elementary School in Flagstaff after graduating from NAU in 2024. Sattler said she made it through that challenging first year in the classroom thanks in part to fellow Lumberjack Casey Crowley, a veteran science teacher.
“There’s a lot to be stressed about as a first-year teacher,” Sattler said. “Casey helped take the stress away with little things, like additions to lesson plans I wouldn’t have thought of on my own and tips on how to manage a hyperactive student. I didn’t feel I was being observed or judged; she was truly just there to help me and listen to me.”
Sattler and Crowley met through NAU’s Arizona Teachers Academy mentoring program, which pairs experienced Arizona teachers with new Lumberjack graduates just entering the field. The mentoring program is free through the Arizona K12 Center and open to any NAU education students who participate in ATA.
The program is one of many initiatives created to address Arizona’s dire teacher shortage, which has left more than 2,000 teaching positions unfilled and created some of the largest classroom sizes in the nation. According to the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association, a huge source of the shortage is attrition: In 2021, the teacher turnover rate was 19%, more than double the national average.
“Teaching is a tough career, so it’s really rewarding to be a person who can help a first-year teacher stay positive and hopefully keep teaching,” said Crowley, who spent many years teaching science to students on the Navajo Nation and leading professional development courses for teachers. “That’s the whole goal—to keep Arizona teachers teaching.”
Growing impact
The ATA mentoring program began in 2019 with just two mentors supporting 10 new teachers. Since then, it’s ballooned to include 21 mentors with more than 450 combined years of teaching experience who are supporting 101 first-year teachers, according to Arizona K12 Center program director Joshua Meibos.
The program doesn’t just support graduates in Flagstaff—it also offers instructional mentorship to all NAU ATA graduates, wherever they teach in Arizona, along with Arizona Teacher Residency and West Valley Grow Your Own initiative graduates, both of which are affiliated with NAU’s College of Education. In addition to one-on-one mentorship, ATA graduates have access to free professional development opportunities, including a summer institute in Tucson. Mentors themselves receive professional development through the program: The Arizona K12 Center provides each mentor with multiple training sessions so they can provide effective, research-based and student-focused support to the new teachers on their caseload.
“Since Fall 2022, 95% of teachers who received ATA mentoring and responded to a survey have secured teaching contracts and will be in Arizona classrooms this school year,” Meibos said—evidence that the mentorship program keeps teachers in state classrooms on a long-term basis.
Sattler is proof of the program’s success. The Lumberjack’s first year of teaching at DeMiguel presented unique obstacles: Her preschool-aged class included some students with learning and physical disabilities, and it was challenging to develop a curriculum that suited everyone and to keep lessons moving while managing behavioral issues. She said Crowley’s calming presence and expert advice helped her through.
Since joining the ATA mentoring program four years ago, Crowley has mentored more than a dozen new teachers throughout northern Arizona, from Prescott Valley to Flagstaff and beyond. Crowley loves being the person she wished she’d had at the start of her teaching career.
“When I was a first-year teacher, I didn’t have a mentor at all,” Crowley said. “It was really hard. In some schools, you can feel very much alone and isolated. I love that this program gives me a way to help keep our most passionate, phenomenal new teachers in Arizona schools long-term.”
Mutual benefits
NAU’s mentoring program doesn’t just benefit new teachers. It’s also deeply rewarding for mentors like Beth Douthitt, who retired after decades of teaching in the Valley—only to find she missed making a positive impact every day.
“I remember an old co-worker telling me about the ATA mentoring program and thinking, ‘I wish I’d had someone like that when I was younger,’” Douthitt said. “I was fortunate to have older teachers take me under their wing in my first job. But to have someone who could come into my classroom and observe me, someone who wasn’t evaluating me but who was truly in my corner—that would have been really valuable.”
As a mentor, Douthitt now spends a few hours a week in a handful of classrooms across the Valley, from Buckeye to Apache Junction. She’ll start out by getting to know her mentees, their teaching styles and their specific challenges. Some need help with lesson planning, Douthitt said; others need help managing students’ learning or behavioral challenges.
“I try to meet with them outside of school as well, so they have the ability to be as candid as they need to be,” Douthitt said. “I don’t work for their school districts; I’m here solely for them. If they’ve had a lousy day, if they need to vent, I’ll listen and then that’s in the vault.”
Ciara Arellano, one of Douthitt’s mentees last year, chose to attend NAU partly because of the mentoring program. When she graduated, she found a job teaching first grade at William C. Jack Elementary School in Glendale, where most of her colleagues had years, even decades, of experience under their belts.
“Finding my groove as a teacher was intimidating and, at times, overwhelming, especially being surrounded by veteran teachers,” Arellano said. “Being a new graduate, it’s easy to doubt yourself and the impact you’re making on your students. Having Beth by my side to encourage, support and affirm the work that I was doing was invaluable.”
Douthitt said she appreciates that NAU uses part of its ATA funds—which totaled $8.9 million last year—to offer personalized, one-on-one mentorship. That’s why the Lumberjack tells prospective teachers to attend NAU’s College of Education, despite not having majored in education herself.
“I always tell people, ‘Look at NAU, because you’re going to get great support and mentorship you might not get elsewhere,’” Douthitt said. “I brag on it.”
Top photo: NAU 2022 ATA grad Marissa Blanco-Johnson talks with her ATA mentor Angela Buzan.
Jill Kimball | NAU Communications
(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu