Placement

[India1999]

I’m currently in my third week of placement in a primary school. My mentor is lovely but my placement partner (19) isn’t the easiest person to work alongside. I get the feeling that she is constantly trying to outdo me, despite it not being a competition!!

Whilst I was busy teaching today, my mentor let my placement partner choose the lessons she wanted for next week. When I finished teaching, I was told to choose my lessons to find that my placement partner had “claimed” all the more fun lessons, leaving me with the ones she doesn’t want to do (maths and English, basically!).

AIBU to say that this isn’t right? It feels a little unfair for one student to get full choice and the other to just make do with what’s left. I don’t know whether to bring it up to my mentor and the other student tomorrow.

Any grievences you bring up to your mentor only. Ask them if you will get to choose next time. Your colleague might be naturally competitive, you've just got to not get drawn in.

Thanks for the response. I’ll try to get a moment with my mentor tomorrow.

I have done surprisingly well staying out of her competitive shenanigans up to now (and her drama with the other students!) but this has really irritated me. Just couldn’t decide if I was being sensitive about it.

Definitely bring it up with your mentor . It’s only fair and right for your practice that you have a good mix of core and non-core lessons to teach each week. She won’t be doing herself any favours!

Do you get first pick next week?

This can be tackled in a positive way. Something like "Is it ok if i pick first next week? As I'd like to get a good mixture of experience with different topics" should do it.

I'm sure it's really annoying. However as a qualified teacher you may find out you end up covering lessons you find less naturally enjoyable sometimes. I'd take the opportunity to throw yourself into trying to make the subjects you do have really enjoyable. Then you can say to your mentor that although you ended up with lessons that felt less naturally fun and interesting you learned a lot. Sometimes we learn quite a bit from things we don't naturally enjoy. Reflecting on it also avoids the drama but subtly let's them know you were stitched up a bit. This other student will soon be a distant memory

I don’t know. Last week we took it in turns where she chose a lesson, I chose a lesson, she chose another lesson etc. I expected this to be the weekly routine for the duration of our placement.

I like this idea, thanks. I don’t want to be a negative Nancy or cause a rift but I don’t want to be pushed aside either!

Surely this is to your benefit. You will learn and gain so much more experience than your colleague who is only doing fun stuff.

Thank you I see what you are saying. I cannot wait until she is long gone out of my life. 5 more weeks.

I just want a mix and a choice

Ooh @India1999 that's actually not too long to be fair. Keep your head down and avoid any drama before you can swan off into the sunset. Bet she'll be interesting at interview 🤣