"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."
—Einstein (maybe),

"Patience you must have, my young padawan."
—Yoda, Star Wars

"You are young, Grasshopper, but you will learn."
—Master Po, Kung Fu

If you've ever wished you could be the master uttering such phrases to your young student, well, the time has come. Though we recommend that you should probably wait until at least a week or two into your mentor-student relationship to make sure they'll go over well. We wouldn't want you quoting Star Wars to the uninitiated or accidentally insulting someone who thinks "young grasshopper" is a pejorative term.

Still, mentoring a student teacher may provide you the opportunity to play Yoda (or Master Po, or Einstein) to a young mind, and—as these geniuses note—the teacher always has plenty to learn from the student as well.

If you decide to take on a student teacher at some point in your career, these seven tips will help you make the most of the situation. And that's both for the benefit of your apprentice (because that's really what a student teacher is—someone learning a craft from a master, so to speak), and for you.

You all set, young grasshopper? Let's get hopping.

Tip #1: Establish guidelines with your student teacher during your first meeting.

Ideally, you'll meet with your new student teacher prior to his first day in the classroom. During that meeting, remember: your student teacher is new to this and might not know what to expect. Work with him to set clear expectations—particularly when it comes to the timeline for the whole experience.

Some potential questions to hash out may include:

• How will you introduce the student teacher to your class(es)?
• What role will the student teacher play in the classroom initially?
• When will the student teacher be expected to teach a lesson?
• How about taking over a whole class period for a day, a week, even a month-long unit?
• When might the student teacher be expected to carry more than one class?
• What role will you play when the student teacher is "in charge"?
• Will you remain in the room or leave the student teacher alone during lessons?

The clearer you can be about how the schedule will progress—working toward, perhaps, the student teacher carrying your entire course load (with you acting as an assistant where appropriate)—the better. You may even create a shared calendar (via Google, TeamUp, iCloud, or hey—paper!) so you can have a clear visual reminder of the schedule to help both of you stick to it.

Tip #2: Don't just leave the room.

You can't really call walking out the door mentoring, after all. After all, one of the roles a mentor teacher should play is that of feedback provider, but, well, how can you provide feedback if you leave the room?

Sure, we get it. You don't want your student teacher to feel like you're hovering; you want her to have a chance to manage the class alone; you don't want students constantly looking to you for approval or permission instead of your student teacher.

These are all compassionate reasons to exit stage left and let your student teacher do her thing. And eventually, perhaps, you will exit. But not right away. In fact, maybe not until the end of the experience.

The time to leave (or not) will be different in every mentor-student relationship, but keep in mind: your student teacher is in the process of learning. Feedback, guidance, and support are crucial at this stage. As a new teacher, your student teacher will be observed and critiqued, and he will be both better prepared for that process and a better teacher overall if you remain in the room and offer your perspective and expertise on a regular basis during the student-teaching process.

Tip #3: Spend time planning with your student teacher.

Planning lessons can be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. As we're sure you learned when you were in the mentee position yourself way back when, it takes a while to figure out how much will fit in a class period and how much you need to plan to make sure you don't find yourself scrambling ten minutes into the lesson.

As a mentor, you can help your student teacher improve at this very important skill, and one way to do that effectively is to spend time planning together. Help him think through a lesson by asking, "How long do you think that will take?" or "What if the students don't have any questions or the discussion doesn't get started right away?"

Talk through a lesson you've planned and explain why you made the choices you did. By modeling your process, you will help your student teacher develop one of his own.

And of course, a final benefit of planning together is that you can also benefit from your student teacher's feedback. A lesson you've taught a thousand times may be improved with a new perspective or a small tweak. Be open to receiving feedback as well as providing it. And speaking of feedback…

Tip #4: Use the feedback sandwich.

Ultimately, basically any situation involving advice, suggestions, or, well, feedback is bound to go more smoothly if you use the feedback sandwich model. It's a simple concept: start with a positive comment, provide some constructive criticism, and end with either another positive or a plan for moving forward.

It can seem disingenuous at first. Especially if you're a person who despises small talk or often wishes you could just say what you mean without having to sugarcoat it. However, it's worth noting that people really do receive feedback better when it comes in a thoughtful and respectful format. Ticking off a list of things someone needs to do differently isn't all that effective in promoting reflection or change.

And the positive comments? They don't need to be untrue.

In fact, they shouldn't be.

Yes, really: don't just make up something nice to say about your student teacher's instruction if it was abhorrent. The positive could be as simple as, "I can see you're really trying." Or perhaps, "Keeping a class on task isn't easy, but you really gave it a great effort." Maybe, "I like the way you smiled at [Student X]. He really needs positive encouragement." Or even, "Your voice is clear and easy to understand," or "You started right on time."

See? There are plenty of small ways to throw in a confidence boost without inventing a pack of lies.

Tip #5: Help your student teacher view mistakes as learning opportunities.

One of the best ways to do this is to be honest about mistakes you have made—and the mistakes you make while you're student teacher is watching. Excellent teachers, particularly those who act as facilitators for student learning, are constantly adapting and tweaking their approach, even in the middle of lessons.

You may say to your student teacher, "Did you see how nobody responded when I first asked the question? I realized that I'd put it in a way that made it hard for them to digest. That's why I backtracked and came at it from a different angle."

Mistakes are inevitable. Help your student teacher to see that they are also invaluable.

Tip #6: Involve your student teacher in all aspects of your job.

Yes, sometimes a student teacher will need to skip the staff meeting to attend a student-teaching seminar or support group. But otherwise, all those itty-bitty pieces of the job that occur outside the classroom should be on the table. Staff meetings, team meetings, budget planning sessions, parent conferences, dealing with disciplinary issues—these are all part of being a professional teacher. And that means your student teacher should participate in them as much as possible.

#7: Give your student teacher opportunities to be creative.

Maybe you shake up your lesson plan each time around. Or maybe, especially if you've been teaching for a long time or if you've worked with your colleagues to map out a specific curriculum, a lot of those lessons will be set. In that case, much of what your student teacher is expected to do will already be planned to some extent. The textbooks and materials that are available, the content to be covered, the tests to be administered—these might already be in place.

So that just makes the student teacher's job easier, right? Maybe for now, it does. But as for the best way to actually learn the great art of teaching, not so much.

In the case of set plans, do what you can to give your student teacher a chance to plan out some lessons or try some new ideas on her own. Because seriously, stepping into your role and doing everything you would do the way you would do it won't give your student teacher much of a chance to find her own approach, her own voice, her own tone.

So, let go a little. Give her a chance to come up with some of her own material and see where it goes. Who knows? You might find yourself wanting to incorporate some of her new ideas into your well-established curriculum. Or hey, maybe you won't. Still, autonomy is a good thing, and your student teacher needs some.

Bottom line: "Pass on what you have learned."

Yup, the bottom line is from Yoda. And if all else fails, there's always lifting a stalled X-wing out of the bog. What better way to inspire a student teacher than that?