Going Beyond
So there we were, the young student teacher and me, the veteran mentor, meeting to discuss his teaching unit on World War II. It could have been the all business type of review where I approve what he's planned, or I suggest a few resources, or even encourage him to develop his own curriculum instead of depending on what his Cooperating Teacher (placement) had to offer. All typical agendas for such meetings. But this one felt differently. At the outset, I could tell he was eager to ask me questions, eager to listen to my responses. What started out as wanting to carefully explain that he needed to focus in on just a few topics became unnecessary because he began by noting just that. We easily agreed on two or three components from a list of 10 possible topics he has written. He asked for strategies and when I gave him a diagram of a Problem Analysis, he immediately liked the idea and saw exactly how he might enhance some of his ideas by including that activity. Having st