I am not really sure how I feel about this subject. I think that it would be great to know people in the field that are more than willing to help you and give you pointers. And I also agree that sometimes it is horrible to throw a new teacher right into the classroom and just leave them. In my opinion I don't believe that we have enough hands on training during the program. Yes, we observe in classrooms and we observe in the pre-school, and we block teach, and we student teach, but at the same time when we observe we only look and don't touch. Most of our classes do not have us get up and teach. I feel that this is an opprotunity that we are missing out on. To be a teacher you cannot be afraid to get up in front of a group of people, that is what you are planning on doing for the rest of your life! The teachers of the education program should take more advantage of this idea and give us the opportunity to teach. Then when we go out into the field we will have more hands on experience, so if we have a mentor then great; if we don't have a mentor then we can still survive on our own.