Excerpts from follow-up interviews with a mentors and protégées

• I learned I wasn’t as good of a teacher as I thought I was. Having [my protégée] observe me was a different experience. After class she would ask me if I had accomplished what I had wanted to accomplish, and I’d have to admit I didn’t even know.
• The best thing for me was watching [my protégée] because she would use things in class that I had taken out of practice. But she’d present them in a different way, and it would give me ideas about going back and changing my assignments. When she’d try things, the students seemed to engage in them. I would try to think about how she handled things differently than I had. I really did start to question some of my old approaches.
• I could see that maybe there were some possibilities [in her teaching activities]. She certainly opened me up to other things I had sort of checked off my list. Actually, through careful observation of [my protégée], I really learned.

• I learned how to better understand the level of English I was teaching to. I really didn’t have much experience other than what I’d learned in graduate school. I definitely came into the class with assumptions about what my students would know. [My mentor] told me to slow down on explanations and to give the students more practice.
• I learned I really love my students. Well, sometimes they drive me nuts (laughs), and I’m not a patient person, so being able to actually help my students who didn’t seem to pay attention or who were constantly behind-just being able to get through to them-that was a good feeling.
• Yeah, I had fears about being a new teacher, and I did wonder with some of these students: was it just me, or was it the students [who were having difficulty with the material]? It makes you feel so much better when you see other teachers have the same problems. It’s when [experienced] teachers have similar experiences; it makes [new teachers] feel better to know they’re not alone in that painful experience.
• One of the things we share [the protégée and mentor] is that we teach such difficult subjects, and I would come to her and she would come to me, and we’d say, ok, we have to be hard, and we have to keep up our standards. But it’s so hard when you have students who aren’t prepared for your classes. So we would commiserate with each other and support each other. Because one week I’d be pushed, and then the next time [the students] would push [my mentor]. It’s very hard [for a new teacher] to go through that alone.
• When [my mentor] came into my class, she would say she actually enjoyed it. She’d say it was fun and that it wasn’t boring. I always worry that my class will be boring.
• I have more confidence now. I think one of the most powerful things about the mentor program is removing that feeling of being alone. Teaching is such a connecting job, and it can also be a disconnecting job, and it’s hard to find the balance between the two.

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