thementoree

Different faculties use different terms—host teacher, associate teacher, cooperating teacher, collaborating teacher—but regardless of the title, any educator who opens their classroom to a teacher candidate is stepping into a mentorship role.

In our latest *Letter from The Mentoree*, we invite educators to consider what shifts when we view this essential role through the lens of mentorship rather than modelling. What happens when the goal is not to create a copy of ourselves, but to support another educator in developing their own professional voice and practice?

https://thementoree.substack.com/p/host-teachers-are-mentors?r=5hsz9j

We would love to hear your thoughts.

How do you view your role when supporting a teacher candidate? What does mentorship look like in your classroom?

Host Teachers Are Mentors Creating Practicum Experiences Rooted in Growth, Agency, and Belonging

In this final Letters from The Mentoree in this series written by Noa Daniel Dr Denise Furlong and iolanda volpe, directed to preservice teachers, we encourage all course instructors and professors to consider using these letters with their teacher candidates.

These pieces were written to validate, challenge, encourage, and humanize the journey of becoming a teacher. If they can help spark meaningful dialogue, reflection, or connection for even one teacher candidate, then they have done what they were meant to do.

Where do preservice teachers turn for help?
Perhaps part of the answer is: toward one another, toward mentorship, and toward communities willing to hold honest conversations about the realities of teaching and learning.

https://thementoree.substack.com/p/where-do-you-turn-for-help?r=5hsz9j

In this 4th letter to Preservice Teachers, Noa Daniel iolanda volpe and Denise Furlong, Ed.D share the value of actively seeking the people you need to support, challenge, guide, and teach you.

You may be lucky to find this in one person but, more likely, it is about building your network with a bevy of people.

Seek widely, choose wisely.

Find your flock.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thementoree/p/find-your-flock?r=5hsz9j&utm_medium=ios

Thank you to .mentoring.association for a wonderful few days of learning, networking, and connecting ideas around mentorship from across industries, k12, higher ed, and more. So much to unpack!

Congrats to Dr. Ben Kutsyuruba of for officially beginning his time as IMA president!

“A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defence—never for attack.” — Yoda

Mentorship is no different.

If you’re using your experience to:
- prove a point
- shut down ideas
- position yourself as the expert

That’s not mentorship.

Mentorship uses knowledge to:
- build confidence
- protect space for growth
- guide without controlling

The goal isn’t to create someone in your image.

It’s to support someone in becoming their own.

Because in mentorship—just like in Star Wars—
power isn’t defined by what you know,

but by how you choose to use it.

May the Fourth be with you.

Should I stay or should I go?

In this latest Letters from The Mentoree, Noa Daniel and Iolanda Volpe share insights on why teachers remain in the profession, despite the unending challenges.

We hope this piece is helpful and reminds you that mentorship has a role to play in curbing attition and helping teachers remind themselves why they love teaching.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thementoree/p/attrition-and-retention?r=5hsz9j&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

The Dunning-Kruger effect offers a powerful lens for understanding mentorship.

Early on, confidence can outpace competence. Without enough experience, it’s hard to see what’s missing.

That’s how mentorship makes a difference—not to correct or deflate, but to expand awareness. To make the invisible visible, while preserving a sense of agency and possibility.

Later, the inverse happens. Experienced educators may second-guess themselves or underestimate their expertise.

Mentorship matters here too—by naming and affirming what they already know.

At its best, mentorship builds accurate self-awareness, normalizes not knowing, and redistributes expertise.

It’s not about moving someone from “not knowing” to “knowing”—

but helping them see more clearly where they are, and what’s possible next.

Mentorship bridges the gap between what we think we know and what we’re still learning to see.

"Stop asking people for directions to places they’ve never been."

Yes—and even when they have been there, your role as a mentee is not to follow by default.

Besides owning their learning, mentees must own their choices.

Not all advice is meant to be taken.
Not all guidance is meant to be followed.

The work of a mentee is to discern:

What fits? What doesn’t? What needs adapting?

Because mentorship supports decisions—it doesn’t make them.

The mentee remains the one who chooses the path.