• Be patient: This is a stressful experience for a student teacher, and change cannot happen immediately. The practicum experience is about growth, not perfection; look for improvement, and let the student teacher know when you see it.
• Make expectations clear: A student teacher can best meet expectations when those expectations are explicit. Clear communication between mentor and student teacher is necessary to promote optimal performance.
• Transfer responsibilities gradually: In supporting student teachers, it is important that responsibility be transferred to them at a pace they can handle. Each student teacher is different, so a mentor teacher must spend time getting to know the student teacher and what they can handle. Increasing the student teacher's responsibilities gradually lets the student teacher adapt to new situations at a more reasonable pace as opposed to all at once.
• Demonstrate the school facilities: Let the student teachers know exactly what goes on in the school and what facilities are available to the student teacher. Knowing where the important rooms are located; such as the photocopy room, the staff room, the custodial department and the main office, will greatly ease the student teachers’ transition into the school.
• Make introductions to other teachers: Introducing the student teachers to the other staff members will help them feel a bigger part of the school community; it will also let the student teachers know who else they can look to for help.
• Show the resources available: Letting the student teachers know where they can find resources will help them greatly in their planning; it also gives them an idea of what kinds of resources are available, whether they are the school's property or from the mentor teachers’ personal collections. Student teachers should always be on the lookout for resources for their own repertoire and need to be exposed to a wide variety of existing resources.

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