Minnesota’s most successful CTE teacher mentoring and induction program.

With more than 20 years of experience mentoring new agriculture, business, family & consumer, medical, trade & industry, and work-based learning teachers, our CTE Teacher Induction Program (TIP) and the advanced mentoring programs give you the tools to be successful.

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CTE Teacher Induction Program (TIP)

Introductory mentoring and induction for secondary teachers new to the profession who are in need of support with foundations of CTE and basic pedagogy/instruction, most often Tier 1 and Tier 2 teachers. CTE TIP offers free curriculum, mentoring, professional development, and resources. BIPOC teachers have priority in this program.

License-Specific TIP

Advanced mentoring and induction for those who have recently completed a teacher preparation program (Tier 3) or those who have completed CTE-TIP (Tier 2 or Tier 3) and need license-specific support to build a program, design and adopt curriculum, and enhance their teaching and pedagogy. AFNR TIP is currently operating; TIP for B&M, FCS, HSE, T&I, and WBL are coming soon.

Introductory Mentoring

CTE TIP

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Advanced Mentoring

AFNR TIP B&M TIP FCS TIP HSE TIP T&I TIP WBL TIP

Note: B&M, FCS, HSE, T&I, and WBL TIP are coming soon.

Frequently Asked Questions

As a result of a legislative appropriation and funding from several grants, we are generally able to offer our program to candidates at no cost to them personally. There is a limited number of spaces based on this grant funding; if funding is exhausted, federal Perkins funding may be an option to support these costs.

CTE TIP includes two, 24 hour in-person conferences, one at the beginning of the program and one at the end. There are monthly, 1.5 hours online meetings that focus on just-in-time topics such as safety, grading, teaching methods, and funding. We also offer optional professional development workshops on special topics such as licensure and program requirements.

District mentoring programs may work well for academic content areas like mathematics or science—where there are competent and experienced mentors within the local district—but CTE teachers are often the only licensed teacher in their content area in the district. District-level mentoring programs simply do not provide teachers that are the only teacher at their school with their license (e.g., CTE, the arts, world languages) sufficient mentoring and resources they need to ensure success and student achievement. CTE teachers need a program that pairs them with regional mentors, statewide content experts, and other teachers who can share resources, curricula, and best practices that are relevant to their specific teaching assignment, in addition to a mentor at the local level for site level onboarding.

Mentors are current educators with successful teaching experience, a reputation as an effective mentor, and are eager and willing to support other teachers. Many mentors in our program have worked with us for several years, and some are part TIP participants themselves who have come back to help others.

Our licensure programs are technically separate from the Teacher Induction Program (TIP), but staff work in both. We commonly work to support TIP participants with licensure as they move from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and eventually Tier 3. Participants commonly advance one tier per school year during TIP.

Can’t find an Answer?

“Meeting people in my same position who can understand the stress and trying to figure out the new job was so helpful.”

“I enjoyed connecting with people that have done it for years and leaning on them at times for help.”

“It was so useful to know I was not alone.”

“I could not have made it through this school year without TIP.”