Mentor in Your Pocket

You've got the folder. You've had the meetings. You're still figuring it out alone.

When the staffroom door closes, you still don't know who to ask.

Mentor in Your Pocket is the framework you can carry into every classroom moment. Built by a teacher who's still in the system, for teachers who feel like they're holding it together with hope and good intentions.

Mentor in Your Pocket is a 90-minute guidebook built around the CARES framework: Context, Action, Result, Evidence, Standards.

It's not a course. Nothing to log into. Nothing to schedule.

It's the thing you flip to at 7am before duty. Between lessons. On the Sunday night your brain won't stop running through Monday.

Built by Hayley Lyons. Highly Accomplished Teacher. 20 years across Years 6 to 12 in regional South Australia. Now a university teacher educator and University Liaison bridging theory and classroom practice. Founder of Teaching Futures.

WHO IT'S FOR

This is for you if:

You're in your first three years of teaching and tired of being told to "trust the process"

Your formal mentoring is a 15-minute meeting where someone signs off your evidence and asks how you're going

You're the only ECT at your school, or one of two, and the people around you have forgotten what year one feels like

You've started to wonder whether the gap you're feeling is your fault

It isn't. The system was built this way. That's a different conversation.

FAQ

Is this just for new teachers?

It's built for the first three years. I've had teachers ten years in tell me the framework gave them language for things they'd been doing intuitively. If you're in induction or working on your Proficient evidence, this is for you. If you're further along, you'll probably still find it useful.

Is this connected to AITSL standards?

Yes. The evidence map links every reflection prompt to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Teaching Futures is built on the standards because that's the structure your evidence has to live in anyway.

How is this different from my school's mentoring program?

It's not a replacement. School mentoring is structural and important. This is what you reach for in the gap between your formal meetings, when you need to think and the meeting isn't until next month.

I'm in WA, Vic, NSW, Tasmania. Does this work for me?

Yes. The framework is national. The standards reference is national. The examples draw on regional South Australian schools because that's where I work, but the methodology is portable.

Will I be added to a list?

You'll get the guidebook and a five-email sequence over the next week with a worked example, a teacher's story, and an invitation to Growth Hub if it's the right fit. Unsubscribe anytime.

Mentor in Your Pocket is the bridge between the free Teaching Story Masterclass and Growth Hub.