Job Discussion Forums

[dmb]

[Niste]

Frequent, constructive observations are very helpful things. Sadly, here at my UK FE college, we get far less observation and development time than at a certain one of the language schools I was with in Istanbul. As dmb rightly pointed out, provided the observer him/herself is qualified to observe and applies his/her training in doing so constructively, the experience is really valuable. We had the pleasure of Ofsted, the UK state mob, last year -they can be savage, they mark the teacher down for being in rooms that are the wrong size, keeping a less-than-legible register, having the wrong kind of poster on the walls, etc. In terms of teaching repertoire, most of my ertwhile colleagues from that school in Istanbul knocked spots off the part-time jobbing housewife types I work with nowadays....

[whynotme]

i believe any kind of observation is good and so useful in the classroom . We are all professionals and know that there are lots of teachers who just come to class open the book, chose a student to read the passage and ask them to answer the questions. How are these people going to be controlled ? i am open to any kind of observation and love to observe other people and give them feedback +learn something new.

[ash]

While on prac I observed 5 regular teachers and 2 supply teachers. They all had different styles and reacted differently to students. It was very useful in my professional development to observe these teachers. 3 of them were teaching via immersion, and those classes were my favourite because they were really fun, communicative, and language was much more in focus.

All of the teachers I observed were slightly nervous because they were aware of my presence in the class, and most hadn't been observed for a while. Most of them introduced me and included me in the lesson, which alleviated the tension quite a bit for everyone. All of them had difficulties dealing with behaviour management, even those who'd been teaching for 20+ years. Some of them were closer to my goals in this area, others weren't. Some modelled what not to do.

I considered asking for a 2nd opinion/observer while on prac, because I was in need of some constructive criticism and clearer feedback than I was getting. The immersion teacher in the class next door ended up confessing that he'd been listening in, and he was very constructive. The last time I observed one of his classes, he was using materials I'd developed for my grade 8s and shared with him. That made me feel great.

I've been listening back to my own recordings of lessons, so I can self-evaluate. I can hear definite improvement and development from my first sessions to my last ones, and this is helping me suss out the things I need to work on. I really like Saloma's approach: asking the observee how they thought the lesson went. I was required to write reflections after each lesson, but I must admit at times they were edited because they involved my own 'constructive' criticisms of my supervisor's teaching, and I didn't want to antagonise/challenge/threaten/upset him. That is not the role of a prac teacher, especially one who wants to pass.

My friend said the other day that in state schools, most staff don't offer support to prac teachers because they feel that it is like a big test. They all went through it, and when your turn comes you have to grin and bear it, sink or swim

[PAULH]

[ZIA!]

Good to hear that.....Nice to see some balanced moderating

[ash]