Job Discussion Forums

[revilo]

When I got to this place in Northern China, I was observed constantly by the owner's assistant, Chinese teachers, the no. 1 Chinese teacher, and the usual lowly assistant who was referred to as the "snitch" by my colleague.

I would see them writing in their notebooks and the dept. chairman told me that the documentation was for their use, not for mine. Not once have I seen what they wrote about me or had a review of my teaching. Well, maybe they told me to "speak louder" or was it "rouder?"

Eventually, all the observations stopped. Even the lowly "snitch" stopped coming in to observe-- I think it was at about the time she berated the students for being extra sluggish.

I'm glad the observations are over, but I would like to know if anyone else had similar experience?

[Shroob]

I think it will depend on what type of institution you work at.

Private jobs tend to be more 'interested' with what their employees do. Public places are happy enough just to to have a body in the room. This is only from my limited experience.

I used to think I was being evaluated all the time, until I found out the people coming to my classes were just there on their own accord.

[Toast]

You can usually chase pesky observers away. Just treat them as another student. Ask them the same weird questions you'd direct at the kindy kids, such as who they'd rather eat, their mother or their father, and how many bottles of baijiu they drank for breakfast. they'll excuse themselves after 5 or 10 minutes. Shroob's also right - often they're just curious. The same way as people always gawk into your shopping cart and comment and discuss in Chinese about why you've bought 8 cartons of UHT milk. If they're another teacher ask if you can sit in on their class sometimes to "get some ideas". If their English sucks ask them a lot of really fast questions in the office in front of everyone and watch their face redden when they say "Ting bu dong" They likely will leave you alone. I don't mind if people want to observe my shit - I've put up with it for years, but it tends to make the older students nervous and even more lobotomized than usual which bothers me. Can be a godsend with the rowdier younger kids, though.

[litterascriptor]

[mw182006]

[choudoufu]

[Bud Powell]

If your class is interesting and out-of-the-ordinary, your observers may very well be students and teachers who come to learn something. That has occurred in my American History class as well as in my oral English classes. My freshman oral English classes are intended to help the students lose their inhibition to speak, so things get a little wild after two or three weeks.

At most public schools, the administration will send observers into the class room. At one school, my class room location was changed so often that the administration didn't even know where I was, so there was no observation!

[doogsville]

Maybe their working on building a robot FT, and they've chosen you as the model, so they're taking notes to pass on to the engineers. Maybe you should pass this on to the CFTU, sounds like a case for the big boys to tackle!

[happeningthang]

If they're your supervisors - then it'll just be part of their job to monitor your work performance.

If they're not there 'officially' then it's probably just some random people and their curiosity. Maybe they're parents you want to be sure the teacher is up to standard?

[Markness]

I've been at this school for a few months and have had a handful of Chinese teachers observe my class. I think they are just curious as to how you run the show. Most of the time they just tell me at the end of the class that they found it very interesting and like my teaching style. I teach at a primary school so its a war zone in the classroom a good chunk of the time, I think sometimes they're just here to help with the chaos.

[msinglynx]

Pretty much every where I teach sends an observer in from time to time. I usually maintain 5 part time jobs (3-5 hours each) during the average week. I have had every thing from formal watchers, videos made of the class, photos, to random people just walking in.
My suggestion is dont take it personally. Some people, like TAs are still students and want to learn from you. Some are potential clients who are being casually charmed into signing with the school. Some are control freak bosses who like to nitpick and mess up your planned class. Those are easy to get rid of, just have them participate. The shocking thing is sometimes they are not there to be annoying, they just really love teaching and sincerely are trying to help. bringing them into the experience helps them to realize the problems and have more realistic expectations of what shoud happen in class.

For example I teach an adult class. originally it was supposed to be intermediate level but expect for 1 man every one was a beginner & hadnt taken english in years. There were also 2 middle school students who were happily doing everything easily. In this class everyone was shy. Keep in mind they are in their first english class as adults in their 30s and almost all have kids with better english skills. So I got them acting, talking, making friends, playing games, telling stories and jokes, etc. But there were these 2 women who simply would not listen. it's not that they couldnt understand, they just thought they couldnt and stopped trying as soon as I opened my mouth. Instead of recognizing their behaviour they constantly complained to my boss that I was going to fast, that they hadnt learned anything, etc. these women are good friends of the boss. After taking her requests into consideration several times I finally told her I wouldnt because it was unfair to slow down the class for the rest of the students just because these 2 didnt want to work as hard. She was upset about it so I invited her into the classroom to observe. Immediately one of her friends starts whining about how the class topic is too difficult and suddenly developed a head ache and disappeared. The other woman was left alone (the best possible outcome! because she couldnt turn to the other and say tingbudong!! shenmeyisiii??? every 5 minutes instead of listening). My boss jumped up to help but I stopped her from translating and slowly repeated the sentence several times while the woman figured out what I was saying. Lo and behold! She did it! All it took was some effort. After that both that student and my boss have been very happy. My boss feels that I am actually making sure my students are happy and my student now feels like she is able to learn, so she is allowing herself to learn.

So, point being, ignore the newbies or drag them into participating. The only reason to fear them is if you suck and if thats the case, ask them for constructive criticism and maybe you will learn a few helpful tips.