Questions to Ask Your Mentor Teacher
Questions to ask during student teaching, or in a first year with an assigned mentor, put to the experienced teacher hosting you. They cover planning, behavior, marking, parents, the placement itself, and how the two of you will work together.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
How did you end up teaching, and did you plan on it?
Why ask it
A short answer to open with. Many mentor teachers arrived by an indirect route, and hearing it makes the rest of the conversation less formal.
How do you plan a lesson, and how long does it actually take you?
Why ask it
Ask for the real number. Trainees routinely assume experienced teachers plan in ten minutes and conclude that they themselves are slow.
What does your first week with a new class look like?
Why ask it
The routines set in the first days do most of the behavior work for the rest of the year. Notice how much time goes on procedure rather than content.
How do you decide what to cut when a lesson is running out of time?
Why ask it
Knowing what can be dropped is the hardest thing to pick up from watching, because experienced teachers make the decision silently.
What do you do with a student who has quietly checked out?
Why ask it
More useful than a general question about engagement, because the answer is usually one small move: a seat change, a job to do, a word at the door.
What happens the first time a class tests you?
Why ask it
Answers tend to be concrete and unglamorous, and hearing one normalizes the fact that it will happen to you within weeks.
What does your marking routine look like week to week?
Why ask it
Marking is what makes new teachers drown. Ask about volume and timing rather than philosophy: how many books a night, and which night.
How do you give feedback that students actually act on?
Why ask it
Look for the mechanism rather than the wording. The teachers who get action usually build time into the lesson for students to respond.
How do you adapt one lesson for the range in a single class?
Why ask it
Ask what they do in practice, not what the plan says. The honest answer is usually two or three adjustments, not five parallel worksheets.
What do you do when a student is struggling for reasons outside the classroom?
Why ask it
Tells you the referral route in this school and how much of it a teacher is expected to carry personally.
How do you prepare for a difficult conversation with a parent?
Why ask it
Ask what they say in the first thirty seconds. That opening is the part trainees get wrong, and it decides how the rest goes.
Which technology has been worth the effort, and which hasn't?
Why ask it
Invites a candid answer instead of a list of tools. Most experienced teachers keep two or three things and quietly abandon the rest.
How do you stay warm with students without losing authority?
Why ask it
The boundary is easier to see in examples than in principle: what they will and will not joke about, how they use names, what happens at the door.
How do you work with the other adults in the room?
Why ask it
Teaching assistants and co-teachers can make a lesson work or fall apart, and almost nobody teaches trainees how to brief them.
How do you take critical feedback on your own teaching?
Why ask it
You are about to be observed constantly. Hearing how an experienced teacher handles it makes the process feel less like a verdict on you.
What do you protect in your week so the job stays sustainable?
Why ask it
Concrete answers, one evening untouched, no email after a fixed hour, are worth more than general advice about balance.
What did your first year cost you, and what would you do differently?
Why ask it
The honest version of this is worth more than most training sessions. Expect specifics about workload and about one particular class.
What's rewarding about an average day, rather than a good one?
Why ask it
Filters out the sentimental answer and gets at what actually sustains a long career in a classroom.
When would you like me to step in, and when should I just watch?
Why ask it
Sets expectations early and avoids the two common failures: sitting at the back for six weeks, or taking over before you are ready.
What would you like to see from me by the end of this placement?
Why ask it
Ask for something observable. It gives you both a way to judge progress that is not just a general impression at the end.
What is the plan for me taking over classes, and which one would you hand over first?
Why ask it
Most programs expect a gradual build from one class toward a full load, but the order is usually the mentor's call. Ask why they would start you with that class, since the reason shows what they think you are ready for.
How far ahead do you want to see my lesson plans, and in what form?
Why ask it
Some mentors want a full written plan two days out and others a quick talk-through that morning. Agreeing the deadline early spares you both the night-before email with an attachment nobody has time to read.
What does my program need from you, and have you seen the paperwork yet?
Why ask it
Evaluation forms, observation counts and sign-off dates vary by university and by state or country, so bring the handbook instead of assuming they have read it. A mentor who first hears about a form the week it is due has to fill it in from memory.
When my university supervisor visits, what should that lesson look like?
Why ask it
Your mentor may have hosted these visits before and can tell you what past supervisors paid attention to. It is also the moment to agree whether you teach the lesson that was coming anyway or one built for the occasion.
What happens if you are out for a day while I am here?
Why ask it
Whether a student teacher can be left alone with a class, or stand in as the substitute, depends on the state, the district and your program, so ask how it works at this school. Better to know before the morning it happens than to find out from the office.
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 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.
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 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 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.
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 alongside a mentor teacher
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting useful answers
Ask after the lesson, not during it
Note your question and raise it in a free period. Interrupting mid-lesson costs the class more than it gains you.
Bring a specific observation
Asking how they decide who to call on gets a better answer than asking for any advice, because it shows you were watching.
Ask for numbers, not principles
How long planning takes, how many books they mark a night, how many detentions they set in a week. Figures give you something to measure yourself against.
Spread your questions across student teaching
Nobody wants the whole list in one sitting. Settle the working arrangements in the first week, ask about classroom craft on the day you see it happen, and save the questions about your own teaching until you have led enough lessons for a pattern to show.
What to watch for while observing
- The first ninety seconds of the lesson, and what is already on the board when students walk in.
- What they ignore. Experienced teachers let small things go on purpose.
- How instructions are given: how many at once, and whether they are checked before work starts.
- What happens when a student gets something wrong in front of the class.
- How the lesson ends, and who is dismissed first.
Common mistakes
Reading lesson feedback as a verdict on you
Observation notes are about the lesson in front of them. Trainees who take them personally stop taking risks, which slows everything down.
Copying the manner instead of the method
What works for a teacher the class has known for three years will not work for you in week two. Take the structure, not the persona.
Staying out of the way
Waiting to be asked can look like disinterest. Offer to take a small part of a lesson early, even if it is only the starter or the exit routine.