Waiting for Thursday: New Teachers Discover Teaching.

This paper focuses on the experiences of two cohorts of teachers who participated in a series of inservice workshops designed to provide instruction and support for novice teachers. A case study approach is used to describe their changed perceptions and beliefs about teachers, teaching, and students during the first year of teaching. The teachers' views were examined in December of their first year and again in the following May. Their views are analyzed in terms of the roles of the teacher as carer for and nurturer of children, manager and controller, collaborator and learner, and in terms of the time-consuming nature of teaching and the teachers' sense of self. Data reveal that first-year teachers were imbued with feelings of self-doubt, insecurity, and aloneness. The most important factor that contributed to their growth as teachers was their development of a strong sense of self. The paper concludes that novice teachers' focus on sense of self is a necessary part of learning to become a teacher, and their sense of self and their sense of their students evolved simultaneously. Implications for mentorship programs and teacher education programs are discussed. (Contains 37 references.) (JDD)