Surviving placement

I'm a trainee teacher and on my work placement I work with two other student teachers. I love teaching but I hate it when they're in the class. They tell me I have no confidence and need to act better infront of the class. But I am confident- I'm confident in myself. I know who I am and who I want to be, but my self esteem in front of them is awful. They're the ones who bring my self esteem down and make me seem less confident and incompetent as a teacher. They watch me and snigger and whisper. If I have an idea, they say it's no good and they make me feel stupid. I have my main teaching placement these next three weeks and don't know how I can cope seeing them every day only to be made to feel like rubbish.

Sorry to hear that, I've experienced something similar, its horrible how anxiety can affect doing things in front of other people. I know this is really difficult but you have to try to imagine they are not there in the room, you are confident in yourself and that's the most important thing. Its unfortunate that you have to be around these childish student teachers, they are probably jealous of you.

It sounds like they act more like school children than student teachers. I would confront them over it separately or make a formal complaint over it to the headteacher. No-one should have to put up with that especially if its affecting your placement.

Good luck and keep believing in yourself!:)

Thank you. In class I'll try focus purely on teaching rather than them. :)

I agree - it sounds to me like you are far more professional than them. The next time you see them, give yourself a big mental pat on the back, put on a great big smile and think to yourself "I'm so glad that I don't have as small a life as those people, that I have to resort to putting others down to make myself feel better".

Thank you. :) This helped a alot and made me feel better about myself.