In this article, the author examines the expectations of a group of site-based teacher educators. Each of these teacher educators attempted to support a pre-service teacher who struggled to achieve satisfactory outcomes on their professional placement. The current article is concerned with the bases for strong emotional experiences. The article also raises questions in relation to how we can support teachers make sense of discourses that shape their lives and their emotions, particularly with respect to site-based teacher educators' expectations of their pre-service teacher.