This paper explores conversations between beginning English teachers about their experiences during their first year of teaching. These teachers are all located at the same school, and in their conversations they share their thoughts and feelings about their common struggle to make sense of the English curriculum they found at this school. As a beginning teacher myself (I am in my third year of teaching), I discuss my own experiences, positioning myself within the paper as part of this ?novice? teaching community, and interpreting their conversations from this perspective. The paper seeks to draw out their feelings about their emerging professional identity as English teachers, and the challenges they have faced in their first year of teaching.