Thinking like a mentor

Of course, this course is influencing my thoughts and experiences. I got a chance recently to catch up with a friend who is a teacher at my school. He too changed careers later in life and recently started teaching. He described the difference between a few teachers in his department who also taught the same courses that he did. In one case, the experienced teacher gave him all of the homework and tests for him to use with his class. In the other case, the teacher (also department chair) suggested they share the work, “You do the tests, I’ll do the homework. First of all, why not each do some of the work? And second of all, how are you going to learn?” I said to my friend, “That’s a mentor!”

My college-age son is interning this summer on a psych research project. He was searching for journal articles through his university library. He found a few abstracts and citations and then clicked through to get to the full article and discovered that his university didn’t have access to the specific databases with the article. He asked for my help. After replicating his dead end, I searched for the journal in one of the psych databases, then the volume, the issue, and the article, and was successful. A little while later, “Mom, here’s another one.” I reached for his computer to start to go through the process when the teacher/mentor voice took over. He had watched me do it before, now I watched and guided him as he did it himself.