Be a great mentee

The relationship you have with your mentor in the early years of your career is important in supporting your learning and development as a teacher. We spend a lot of time in education looking at how to be a good mentor ourselves, but what does it mean to be a good mentee, and how can you get the most out of your mentoring experience?

Focus on the learning taking place, so when you speak about a lesson with your mentor, you need to reframe how you look at it. Don’t criticise yourself – focus on how you could have improved students’ understanding.

For example, instead of ‘I spoke too quietly,’ say, ‘I know the learners at the back didn’t hear me. They didn’t know what to do, so I need to find a way to make sure the entire class is clear on this.’

Similarly, don’t take your mentor’s advice personally. Their feedback is designed to support you, your development as a teacher and student outcomes.

2. Stages of development

There are many models of teacher education, but all agree that as you progress you become more self-sufficient and focus less on your own actions and more on how your pupils are progressing. Knowing what stage you are at – and how you would move yourself to the final stages – will help both you and your mentor.

Key final stage identifiers of student teachers include whether you are motivated to improve your own performance, if you are driven to understand why the learning took place as it did and if you can regulate your emotional response to events.

3. Take responsibility

Schools are busy places and there are so many factors outside of your control. Perhaps there wasn’t time for the practical to be completed as you had planned because a broken cooker in the canteen delayed your students getting to class. An appreciation that schools are dynamic places, and that your lesson might have worked had the situation been different is also healthy and useful. It is okay to say to your mentor, ‘I am going to try this lesson again to try to improve the learning’.

While it is important to examine your own decisions closely, it is also best not to dwell on them.

One approach to mentoring is instructional coaching. With this approach, the first step is to identify an area of improvement. Most of us will have many areas, but think of a particular area before your meeting with your mentor. It will save time and make your session more productive.

Your mentor will want to challenge you to improve yourself and, like any learning process, they will be trying to find that perfect place where you are challenged but not overwhelmed. Try to be honest about how well you are coping with the job’s demands.

We all want to make a good impression, but pretending everything is going wonderfully when it is not won’t help your mentor support you, as they won’t be able to judge the correct level of challenge.

7. Trust your mentor

Most (probably all) find teaching very challenging when they start. The lack of support in the room as a new teacher as well as an increase in teaching hours will test anyone. That doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong. Trust your mentor to challenge you appropriately and believe them when they say you’re doing well!

Mentees can feel it is the job of the mentor to decide what to discuss, but most mentors will have other roles and won’t be able to commit as much time to you as either of you would like. If you send a list of what you’d like to discuss in advance, your mentor will have the chance to add their own thoughts. This will lead to a more productive discussion for both of you.

9. Stay positive

It’s especially important that you develop self-reflection skills but make sure you always think about what went well in a lesson. It can be easy to focus on the negatives and beat yourself up. Take the time to think about what you did that helped the pupils to learn and how you know it went well. Then, discuss this with your mentor.

If you find yourself working with a mentor who focuses too much on the negatives of your lesson, steer conversations using phrases such as, ‘What did you think I did that enabled the learners to get the most out of the class?’.

10. Regular communication

Keeping regular contact makes it much easier for your mentor to support you. As a new teacher, you’re not expected to have all the answers, so it’s fine to ask lots of questions. However your mentor will find it hard to provide the right support if you flag up an issue two minutes before a lesson starts.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a successful new teacher shouldn’t need to ask for help.