Training to be a teacher, and so anxious

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I feel like I'm drowning. I'm training to be a teacher, at my first placement school. The school is lovely, but I am finding my mentor hard. (They use to term mentor for the teacher who is supposed to be supporting you in your placement. It's not the same connotation I have with the word).

On one level she is really supportive, so I feel really bad complaining. But when I get feedback on my lessons (and I only get it when my lessons go badly) she will state absolutely everything that's wrong with it, with no indication of what she wants me to work on. It's overwhelming. But we never have that chat when things go well to say this is why it went well.

When she does set me targets, it's ones I can't reach.
'Use your initiative'
Well, whenever I do I get told off for it. So then she says 'its about knowing when to.'

Or
'You need to remember the kids names'
What, all of them? I've only been there a few weeks and I have over 100 names to remember.

I have always wanted to be a teacher, and all the people who know me well say I will be an amazing teacher. I just don't feel it right now.

Oh yeah, and she expressed concern about my ability to get on with staff in the staffroom. I talk too much.

Any advice? She does know about the aspergers.

I think you might need to be a bit more pro-active with her about setting specific goals. "Use your initiative" is pretty vague and could mean a number of things. So I would come up with a list of ways in which you could take more initiative and run them by your mentor.

I don't know much about teaching, so I'm not sure what specifically could be using your initiative in that context. I'm thinking it could be something like taking the initiative to reward kids for good work and behavior (like giving them stickers), finding creative ways to explain concepts to kids, and finding ways to start fun educational games with the kids. So you could make a list of a number of potential ways you could use your initiative. Then discuss these ideas with your mentor so she can offer input as well.

When you have lesson reviews with her, bring a pen and paper and make notes of the main things you need to be working on. Then, next to each one, write some strategies for improving. Your mentor might not directly offer you these strategies. Try coming up with some during the meeting and discussing them with her. You can also ask her what would be good ways to improve. When you have a list of strategies next to the problems you're having, the problems will seem less overwhelming-you will have a plan of action and things to implement for the next time.

In terms of learning all the names, could you see if you could get the kids to wear name tags, or decorate name tags to hang on their desks? A class list might also be helpful.

Good luck-I hope this was helpful.

Edit: I think it would be okay to re-address things your mentor has brought up in previous meetings as well. Something like "last time we talked about taking initiative. Here are some ideas I've thought of to implement my initiative a bit more in the class-is this the sort of thing you were thinking of?"