The Observasion Situation

It’s a special time of year for teachers all over England at the moment. The dreaded observation season. After a month of teaching it is time for formal observations and assessments of our own teaching practices to be scrutinized by the administration of the school. Obviously it’s a common practice and not exclusive to England but it’s still as nerve racking for a new teacher as it is for someone who has been performing the job for a decade. It has its uses, mainly to ensure that teachers are following good practice and students are gaining a worthy learning experience. I have my observation on Friday of this week.

Although I probably should be…I’m surprisingly not that nervous. I’ve seen so many people running around making sure this and that is completed and I’m not stressing out a bit. This is a little disconcerting, however; I think the reason behind it is in my confidence. Although I am a little stressed about making sure all of the proper paperwork is in order (lesson plans, learning objectives, differentiation, and the like) the actual teaching itself does not throw me for a loop. I know my observation is on Friday but I do not know which class they will be coming into. Side note: “they” refers to the Assistant Headteacher who oversees Drama and the Head of Drama. I am at a bit of an advantage because of the five classes I teach that day, one of them is a team taught exam class (not an option to observe) and another is cancelled because of a charity event. Therefore I can confidently narrow it down and only prepare for one of three potential classes: a Year 9, Year 7, or Year 8.

I am very confident in my abilities to teach Key Stage 3 and Year 9 so I think that’s why I’m not too worried. Once I get the lesson up and running I pretty much just lose myself in the material and have as much fun as possible and ensure that the students do to. Enough that I tend to even forget that I am being observed. Luckily too, the students tend to behave better when they see two members of the administration sitting in the room just watching.

Either way you look at it, it is a stressful situation…but a necessary one. I’m looking forward to getting it over and done with and signalling the beginning of the week-end. One that sees the run of Merchant finishing and one (I hope) epic cast party to wrap it all up.

Wish me luck!