Understanding the transformations of the pre-service teachers during the practicum and how they position themselves as teachers is a complex task yet a crucial one in order to fully understand how they develop their professional identities. The aim of this study was to understand and to describe the main characteristics of 4 pre-service teachers during their practicum. The data collection resulted from a participant observation made between September 2012 and June 2013 in a secondary public school of Porto, Portugal. During the observation period, field notes was taken and we also have done informal interviews. The concept of metaphors was used o present each pre-service teacher and whom they were as beginning teachers. The duality between agency and structure seems to be important during the practicum. The 4 pre-service teachers rely, mostly, in the structure and they tend to apply exactly what they think that the cooperating teacher expect from them. Although they all work within the practicum group, the pre-service teachers tend to expose different characteristics, which are related to their personal beliefs, values and perspectives related to teaching.