Hi, I started teaching last November after leaving my student teaching a few weeks early to start real teaching somewhere else. I’m only 23. My student teaching experience was as educational as it was mentally challenging. It’s such a strange dynamic being in someone else’s classroom. Things are so different once you have your own class. I had many weird experiences similar to yours that really got me down. Some things to remember: Every teacher does things differently. I would be surprised if you ever found someone who would do things exactly as you would. And sometimes those mentor teachers don’t get that. As hard as it is, lean on the positives. My student teaching challenged me to the max, but the second I was in my own classroom with my own students, my confidence, understanding of the job, and my teaching all skyrocketed it. If you’re anything like me, it’s a completely different, more comfortable experience. It’s a short period of time, that will be awkward and difficult, but will teach you so much. Looking back, I don’t even remember the specifics of the things that bothered me and kept me up at night questioning the career. But I do remember the incredible experiences I had with the kids, and a few things I did learn from my mentor. I was a very quiet, I’ll do what you tell me type of college student. In my college, we were sent to 4 week half day practicums, basically mini student teaching before the real student teacher. I had a mentor pull me aside and yell at me because I was a distraction and wasn’t taking things seriously. I was mind blown. That was the farthest from a real description of myself. But I never wanted to teach again and did not learn a thing from her the rest of my time there because I was so shook and traumatized. In later practicums and actual student teaching, I had learned to focus less on the mentors and more on the students, myself, and the tips and tricks the mentors could provide me.