“Three nine eight,” Carlos mumbled, pen cap held precariously between his teeth as he scribbled down the call number. “Two oh eight…nine.”

He tore the paper from the pad and left his bag at the library computer as he went to search the stacks. The Curriculum Lab was practically vacant, no sign of other students except for the chatter of two girls from his cohort, searching the fiction section.

“I just met with my UC to talk about it,” he heard Elle say. “Hopefully it should get better now.”

“Oh she came to observe you yesterday?” That was Desiree.

“No,” Elle said. “I mean I literally just met with my UC at the Tim Hortons.”

Carlos froze, then nonchalantly veered toward the fiction section, pausing at the end of their aisle.

“You met with your UC on a Saturday?” he asked, startling them.

“Way to eavesdrop,” Desiree said, but Elle welcomed a larger audience.

“My TA hasn’t been giving me any feedback, so I was super frustrated!” she said. “I texted with my UC about it and she asked if I’d like to meet. So we met at the Tim Horton’s like an hour ago, had a very professional conversation, and sent my TA an email about it all. I hate confrontation, so it was great having her support me through it.”

“That’s…wow.” Desiree shook her head. “I can’t imagine meeting with my UC like that. For me, it is very sterile…I do the teaching, and on we go with our lives. And to be honest, I don’t mind it like that. I told you about that crazy group feedback thing Irene did, right? The less interaction I have with her, the better.”

“I didn’t hear about the crazy group feedback thing,” Carlos said.

Desiree rolled her eyes. “Suffice it to say, it was horrible.”

“Well, you aren’t alone,” Carlos said. “I…feel very judged and discouraged by [my] UC…[They do] not support me and it feels like they do not believe in me.”

“Yikes!” Elle said.

Carlos shrugged. “I just [have] someone who [is] against me and just [looks] at lesson plans and [doesn’t] look at the overall…[They] just [look] at specific things that they [don’t] like and [focus] on it and [nitpick] at it…You can’t just attack the student teaching. I feel like there’s more to it than that.”

“Well maybe their role will change as the practicum goes on,” Elle said. “I think that once it has been established in [a UC’s] mind that a student is going to [pass, they are] somewhat different in how [they] provide feedback. They shift from evaluator to mentor once you’ve met the requirements of the evaluation."

“So Carlos and I are both failing, is that it?” Desiree teased.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I knew this girl who was going to fail her practicum last semester,” Desiree said. “She said there was almost this weird therapist kind of relationship…where [the UC] was trying to talk [her] through self-discovery things and stuff like that.”

“That sounds pretty awesome compared to what we’ve got,” Carlos said.

“Could you imagine failing?” Elle said, hooked on the idea now. “Putting it all that work and getting kicked out? How horrible that would be!”

“Well this girl apparently realized, ‘This is not the job for me. I’m not suited to it; I don’t enjoy it. I can’t handle the stress that comes with it.’…It was tragic that [she] didn’t make it, but it ended up being super positive.”

“Well that won’t be us.”

“Easy for you to say,” Carlos said, turning his attention back to the scribbled call number in his hand. “Your UC is taking you out on coffee dates.”

Elle rolled her eyes. “It’s not like we were hanging out!”