Observations

As a trainee teacher you're going to be under much closer scrutiny than you care to imagine. It's reasonable to say that anything you say or do, whether in or out of the classroom, could be used by the school to form a judgement about you.

One of the biggest stresses of my training was having lessons officially observed. In my first placement this happened virtually every lesson, with no discernible benefit to me because they couldn't be bothered to give me any written feedback. I literally had to fight for every observation report and piece of evidence for my standards book.

Thankfully my second school took its teacher training responsibilities seriously and only observed me twice a week and at a mutually agreed time. In any scheme of work there are lessons that don't lend themselves to being observed - the lessons where you sit the pupils down to a half hour test, have them tidy up their exercise books/folders or set them a revision task.

Observations will vary from school to school but the good practice in my second school involved the following:

• The generic mentor would come to me on a Friday afternoon and we'd negotiate the following week's observations. I always plan a couple of lessons ahead, so I'd know which lessons were best to observe. Two observations would be planned. The generic mentor would conduct one of the observations and the subject mentor the other.
• By this stage I would have already booked the equipment for the following week and the technician would check everything for me.
  
• I'd spend the weekend preparing my lessons for the following week (certainly Monday and Tuesday's lessons anyway). I'd make sure all the lesson plans were written and run through the sequence in my mind a few times. I would also prepare any presentations and worksheets that I needed.
• On the morning of the observation I'd make doubly sure that all of the equipment was in working order and where I wanted it. I'd also ensure I had two copies of my lesson plan and all the paper resources I needed (worksheet, textbooks etc).
• On arrival at the observed lesson I would hand the teacher observing me a copy of the lesson plan and paper resources. They'd scrutinise the plan at the same time as my lesson was in progress. They'd make notes throughout the lesson, which they'd usually write up neatly later on.
  
• I'd try my best to work to the plan, but you've got to accept that lessons don't always go to plan. I sometimes have to change things as I work because it takes the pupils longer to do something than anticipated. When you're new to a class you occasionally pitch the work at too high a level, so it takes you longer to explain things. If you have a good mentor they will appreciate the reasons why you've deviated from the plan and they won't hold it against you.
• At the end of the observed lesson the teacher observing me would disappear to their own lesson. They would find the time to write up their observation report and come and see me later that day. Sometimes they would discuss aspects of the lesson with me before writing up the observation.
• Your school should be giving you regular written feedback. If they think you're in danger of failing the placement they need to recognise it early and produce evidence to support their opinion. If they never gave you a written observation report and then decided to fail you late in the placement then you'd have genuine cause for complaint.

That's the way observed lessons should be.