#lesson observation

Life’s been good, so far.

Just finished 2 big events in my career this year: A school concert and a lesson observation (which sorta determine the future of my employment).

The concert was fun. I did the publicity ~ setting promotion schedule, making content for the instagram, and collaborating with the media partner, infobdgcom. Those showbiz stuffs that I have always wanted.

I felt a little bit lost on the D-day of the concert, tho. In the end I ended up being the gate keeper, lol.

It’s still nice, tho.

And a week after that, I had the LO.

I wasn’t really worried about the result, as I had signed the contract for next year in this school (and I landed the status of permanent teacher, Alhamdulillah), but I still wanted to give my best. I tempered a lot with the lesson plan, did lots of adjustment with it, and on the D-day, I believe I put my best mask on the class. LOL.

Yet, I kinda felt unsatisfied with the lesson. The kids were kind of all over the place. Some were singing, some were confused in some parts, and it sucked. I hated it.

In the end of the day, my principal and HoD called me for Post Conference (where they evaluated my lesson). To my surprise, the principal praised me for giving engaging activities in the lesson, just when I thought I screwed it up. It’s a really nice talk; they gave me some tips to improve my teaching.

I gained some insights:

1. All activities that we did were fun. All students were engaged in the activities, and seemed to enjoy all the movements though we had the lesson in the last two periods. However, as a teacher, I did not really pay attention to the depth of their individual learning. Did they really understand the materials? Did they learn something new?

2. I did manage to finish 6 different activities in a lesson - but probably it’s too much for the kids, and maybe for me too. It went well, but I knew that I could do better.

“When I saw those activities on the lesson plan, I wasn’t really sure you could do that, at first. But you did. I don’t know how you did it, but you did. But the question here is did you enjoy your teaching?” - The Principal.

3. Be firm. Well, I don’t need to do the strict teacher mode all day, but there will be times when I need to do that. Noted. Been working on this one for quite some time.

I loved the session, also the school for making it happen. It is really nice to get feedback from your peers.

And I still have 4 papers to make.

Frequent readers of this blog will know that a major part of my new role is to coach teachers and work with them to improve practice. I am not arrogant enough to think I know everything about teaching1, but I do believe watching others teach is a sure fire way to improve what you do. The easiest place to be in any classroom is the rear of the room, watching what’s going on. Only then do we…

Big day on Wednesday, my first observed lesson. As in observed by my visiting tutor from university. Now, seeing as he’s supposedly on my team and he is in fact a lovely, genuine, down to earth person that is actually quite charming, I am still massively intimidated.

I’m not sure if that’s because if I have a dreadful lesson my reputation will be forever tarnished in the teaching world, I will…

By Cazzypot.

There is a song that my Dad used to sing to me, the lyrics of which went something like this:

‘Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky. Little boxes on the hillside and they all look just the same…’

I enjoyed this song as a child, but in more recent years, I have found myself humming it to myself quite often in a symbolic, secretive way.

Those lyrics have…