Teaching is going "fine"
by Jenny Combs on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 4:33am
Many of us started a conversation with beginning teachers and asked, "So how are things going for you?"
Only to hear a long pause, and then, "Everything is fine."
What do you say or do next? Share your favorite conversation starters, follow up questions or strategies that you have found to be effective with your beginning teachers.
Comments
2 comments postedI think that is good to say "It is good to hear that things are going fine..." even if you are not sure if "fine" is a short brush off rather than a genuine sentiment.
I like to follow this up by discussing what I am doing at the time and possible issues that I see for myself. Things like "I will be doing a lab and on [Topic X] later this week. I need to figure out the best way to assess this, but I am leaning towards a lab quiz rather than a formal lab report. What are you teaching this week? Any labs coming up?"
This opens up a direct question and the broader topics of labs and lab assessment. Hopefully it would open up something that would draw the mentee out a bit more.
I agree with Mathieu that by sharing about what you are going to do for the week is a good conversation starter with Beginning Teachers. From here, I will then shift the conversation to what the BT would be doing and then try to open up her perspective in planning the lesson.