Questions to Ask Mentor Teacher
Questions for a student teacher or a first-year teacher to ask the mentor teacher whose room they are sharing. They cover how you two will split the class, routines, pacing, behavior, reporting duties, parent contact, and how to get feedback that is worth having.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How do you want us to divide the room while I am here: when do I lead, and when do I step back?
Why ask it
Settle this in week one, because the most common friction in a shared classroom is two adults with different ideas about who is in charge at any moment. Ask for it in terms of specific parts of the lesson rather than as a general principle.
What should I be watching for when I observe you this week?
Why ask it
Without a focus, observation turns into watching a person you already like. A mentor who names one thing, how they use the first two minutes, or how they redirect without stopping the lesson, gives you something you can actually try on Thursday.
Which of your routines took longest to establish, and what would fall apart without it?
Why ask it
The routine they fought for is the one holding the room together, and it is usually invisible to a visitor. Knowing which one is load-bearing keeps you from casually skipping it during a lesson you lead.
How do you open a lesson so the first five minutes do not get away from you?
Why ask it
New teachers lose more time at the start of lessons than anywhere else. You are looking for the mechanics: what is already on the board, what students do as they come in, and what the teacher is doing while that happens.
How long does your planning actually take, and what do you not plan?
Why ask it
Experienced teachers improvise far more than a student teacher expects and plan a much smaller portion in detail. Hearing what they leave loose is what stops you writing twenty-page plans for a forty-minute lesson.
How do you decide what to cut when you are behind on pacing?
Why ask it
Everyone falls behind, and the answer reveals a real judgment: which objectives are non-negotiable, which activities were enrichment, what gets folded into next term. Watch for whether they cut content or cut the practice time, since those choices have different costs.
How do you tell in the moment that they are not getting it, and what do you do next?
Why ask it
You want the specific signal they read: blank faces, a wrong answer from a strong student, silence where there is normally noise. Then ask for the next move, because noticing without a plan is the part new teachers get stuck on.
What does your marking load look like in a week, and what do you not mark?
Why ask it
Sustainability comes from what an experienced teacher chooses not to grade. A concrete answer, for example marking one class set closely and sampling the rest, is more useful than any advice about work-life balance.
Which students should I know about before I teach them, and what has worked with them?
Why ask it
Ask this as a professional question and expect a professional answer, some of which will be confidential. What you need is practical: who has a plan in place, who should not be paired, who needs a warning before being called on.
What do you actually do when a student refuses to work?
Why ask it
Refusal is different from disruption and most training covers it badly. Look for the sequence they use and, importantly, how they avoid turning it into a public standoff they cannot win.
Where is your line between handling behavior yourself and involving the office?
Why ask it
Teachers differ enormously here and the school's written policy is usually stricter than daily practice. You need their line, not the handbook's, because while you are in their room your calls reflect on them.
What am I required to report, and how exactly would I do it?
Why ask it
Student teachers are often mandated reporters and frequently unclear on the mechanism. Get the name of the person, the form, and the timeframe now, in a calm moment, rather than working it out on the day it matters.
How do you handle a parent email you would rather not answer?
Why ask it
The useful content is timing and wording: how long they wait, what they put in writing, when they move to a phone call, and when they copy an administrator. Ask to see a real reply with names removed.
What do I need to know about this school that is not in the handbook?
Why ask it
Every building has practices that are widely followed and nowhere written: which forms actually matter, how duty rosters really work, which requests go through the office manager. This is the fastest way to stop making avoidable mistakes.
Who else in the building should I get to know, and why?
Why ask it
The answer is often not other teachers in the department: it is the special education coordinator, the librarian, the custodian, the front office. Ask for a reason with each name so the introduction has a purpose.
If I get something wrong with a student, how do you want to hear about it?
Why ask it
Agreeing this in advance makes it far more likely you will tell them at all. It also tells you how they handle mistakes, which shapes whether you will take risks in their room or play it safe for the whole placement.
How would you like me to ask for feedback, and how blunt do you want to be?
Why ask it
Many mentors soften feedback until it stops being useful, largely because they do not know how much you can take. Naming a preference, including a request for the unvarnished version, changes what you get for the rest of the term.
When I lead a lesson, will you take notes, and can we debrief the same day?
Why ask it
Same-day debriefs are far more accurate than end-of-week ones because both of you still remember the specifics. Asking for notes also gives you a written record to look back on when you write your own reflections.
What are you seeing in my teaching that I probably cannot see yet?
Why ask it
Broader than asking about one lesson, and it invites patterns: talking over students, standing in one spot, asking questions and answering them yourself. Ask it a few weeks in, once there is a pattern to see.
What do you think I should not copy from you?
Why ask it
A generous question that gives an experienced teacher room to be honest about their own habits and about the difference between you. Their answer usually points at something rooted in years of relationship with these students that you have not earned yet.
Working in someone else's classroom
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
The first week
- Agree on signals before you need them: how they will step in if a lesson goes wrong, and how you will hand the room back without it looking like a rescue.
- Learn names faster than anything else. It changes how students respond to you more than any technique will.
- Ask where you may and may not go: their desk, their files, the shared drive, the copier codes, the staff room seating that everyone pretends is not assigned.
- Find out the daily and weekly rhythms, including duties, assemblies, and the days when the schedule changes without notice.
- Write down the reporting procedure and keep it somewhere you can find in thirty seconds.
As the placement progresses
While you are mostly observing
Watch one thing per lesson rather than everything. Transitions, questioning, and what the teacher does while students work are three separate studies, and trying to see all of them at once produces general impressions instead of usable notes.
While you are co-teaching
Take the parts of the lesson you are least comfortable with, not the parts you can already do. Reading instructions aloud is safe and teaches you little; running the check for understanding is where the learning is.
Once you are leading
Pick one improvement target at a time and tell your mentor what it is, so their feedback lands on the same thing you are working on. Two targets at once usually means neither moves.
Near the end
Ask what they would want the next student teacher to do differently, and ask directly what they will write about you. Both conversations are easier a fortnight before the placement ends than in the final week.
Getting feedback you can use
- Replace how did I do with a specific question: was the second explanation clearer than the first, or did the group work instruction land.
- Ask about one moment rather than the whole lesson. Mentors remember moments accurately and lessons impressionistically.
- Repeat back what you heard before you defend anything. Half of poor feedback conversations are misunderstandings about which part of the lesson was being discussed.
- Keep a running note of feedback given and what you changed. It is the clearest evidence of growth for any assessment, and it stops the same point being raised repeatedly.
- If the feedback is consistently vague, ask them to name one thing to change for the next lesson. A single change is a request most mentors can answer.
What goes wrong
Copying the mentor exactly
Their authority in that room was built over months and does not transfer with the technique. A quiet look that settles a class for them may do nothing for you, so borrow the structure and build the rest yourself.
Undercutting them in front of students
Reversing a decision they made, even a small one, teaches the class that rules are negotiable depending on which adult is asked. Disagree afterwards, in private, and expect to hear the reasoning you did not have.
Saving up the difficult question
Concerns about behavior, about a student, or about your own assessment get harder to raise the longer they sit. Raise them at the next planned check-in rather than waiting for the right moment.
Treating basic questions as embarrassing
Where the paper goes, how to log an absence, whether you may email a parent: asking looks far better than guessing wrong. Mentors expect these questions and are rarely bothered by them.