Prologue

The purpose of this book is to provide a practical approach for mentoring teachers who are mid-career (i.e., 5–20 years) and are grappling with the question: “Is it worth staying?” It honors their years of experience and provides a model for individualized professional development through mutual mentoring. As high numbers of teachers are leaving the profession, this book is designed to provide the structure for teacher-friends to reignite a positive and well-reasoned conversation about teaching. Mentoring mid-career teachers can prevent the unnecessary loss of teacher experience and expertise. Mutual mentoring supports teacher-designed professional development experience for mid-career teachers. A trekking metaphor is used throughout the book to acknowledge that teaching is an adventure that comes with challenges and beauty. The authors also discuss the impetus for writing the book as veteran teachers who believe that teaching is an art.