Increasingly educators and policy makers recognize that new teachers need help making the transition to independent teaching. One particularly important role mentor teachers can play is to help beginning teachers to focus on students' ''mind activity'' in order to build on their prior knowledge, experience, and interests, and to promote understanding and meaningful learning. Drawing on interview and observational data collected over two years, this article presents two detailed cases that portray educative mentoring and illustrate how new teachers' personal history and professional school culture influence what they can learn even from serious mentoring. The authors also offer several directions for strengthening induction programs.