The Reflective Mentoring Seminar: Providing a Means for Teachers To Cross Boundaries in a Professional Development School.

MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. College School Cooperation; Collegiality; Course Content; Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education; Inservice Teacher Education; *Mentors; Multicultural Education; Preservice Teacher Education; *Professional Development Schools; Program Implementation; *Reflactive Teaching; Rural Schools; *Second Language Instruction; *Teacher Education Curriculum; Teacher Role; Teaching Experience; .Teaching Methods ;Pioundary Spanning; School for International Tra_ning VT; Teacher Development This paper describes the structure and activities of the Windham Partnership for Teacher Education, a collaborative of four rural Vermort elementary professional development schools (PDSs), a high school PDS, and the School for International Training graduate program in foreign language teacher education. Three integrated activities are at the core of the program. In the first activity, foreign language instruction and multicultural education, preservice teachers use authentic materials and study and apply varied foreign language pedagogical principles. In the second activity, Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) students work as classroom interns for one year. During weekly seminars, they examine and reflect on their teaching experience. The third element of the program is professional development of inservice teachers who serve as mentors for the interns. Mentors meet in biweekly, two-credit mentoring seminars to explore issues associated with learning to teach and developing mentoring skills. Mentors' words are used to illustrate the four major areas where they had moved beyond previously felt or held boundaries: level of self-reflection, levels of professional dialogue with colleagues, boundary between high school and elementary teachers, and shift in professional roles.