Ask a Mentor Program

Being a new teacher can be a daunting experience. The Lubar College offers a mentoring program that will help you meet this challenge. The program gives you access to LCB faculty who have volunteered to be teaching mentors. The mentors will help you deal with challenges and issues that may come up in your classroom. Developing your teaching “sea legs” early in your career will help you become a better teacher and navigate the demands of your first academic position. The program is described below.

How Does the “Ask A Mentor” Program Work?

You don’t have to sign up for the program. All graduate students (TA’s and RA’s) will be given a resource list of faculty mentors you can contact for advice about teaching. These faculty mentors will be available for short-term interactions to help you deal with problems and issues that may emerge in your classes.

This is not a traditional “one-to-one” mentoring program in that you are not assigned to a single mentor. You can contact anyone on the list. If the first mentor you contact is unable to immediately respond to your message, and it is an urgent issue, you can simply contact another mentor on the list. This provides immediate help and a quick response to your needs.

Scope of Assistance

The program is designed to help you develop your teaching skills and meet challenging situations you might experience in the classroom. For example, you may need a sounding board on how to handle difficult students, feedback on developing a syllabus, advice on how to encourage class participation, or what to do when your class exercise fails. We do ask that you be respectful of your mentor’s time, as they are volunteering for this program.

Please keep in mind that our mentors are not technology experts. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) can help you with Canvas questions and the UWM Help Desk is super helpful for tech issues (414-229-4040). If you are doing face-to-face classes and having tech issues in your classroom – the classroom support hotline is 414-229-2382. They are on top of it!

Who is Organizing this Program?

The LCB Teaching Committee is organizing this program. Please feel free to contact your area representative on the committee (listed below) if you have any questions. We hope this program is a helpful resource for you!

2025-26 LCB Teaching Committee