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so excited for you to have a mentee!! I did student teaching almost 3.5 years ago, and I had two different teachers for a 12 week period. The first one was HORRIBLE! A word of advice to you is that if the experience is even slightly unpleasant, the student teacher will remember it forever. I can still remmeber every negative thing that she said to me. In her classroom, it was always her way or no way. I considered student teaching to be a time to explore what teaching was really like. I wanted to be able to implement somethings that I learned in college. She would not let me do any of that. I couldn't even implement attention getters that I learned. I also didn't have my own space. That I feel is so important. She told me I couldn't because it was HER classroom and I was a guest. My second student teaching experience was wonderful! She allowed me to take her lesson plans, and develop my own teaching style to her lessons. She also gave me positive feedback when I did something really good or if I needed to focus on something a little more. She also allowed me to have my own space, and she made herself and her room avaliable to anything that I needed. She also fostered relationships between her parents and me. the other teacher told the parents that I wasn't good at all.
Honestly, to be the best mentor, just think about and be the person you would have wanted beside you on your first day of teaching in your own classroom. Remember waht it was like to be the person comming in to something completely different. GOOD LUCK!
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