In light of a thread about teachers struggling and a couple of incidents at work I wondered if any trainees/NQTs actually found it helpful to observe someone else? I've frequently had people watching me, and I'm not sure how useful it is, TBH, as I suspect that I'm not much help with behaviour management (which is generally what they are having difficulty with). I've taught for a lot of years, and the problem is that if you are struggling with bottom set Y9 who are throwing pens around, calling out, chatting, refusing to stay in their seats then it's not much help to come watch me (where they will file in quietly and sit and work like angels).
We've got a couple of GTP students at the moment on placement who are really struggling with a couple of classes (y9 and y10) and both of them have come and watched me teach these same groups. Whilst I'm happy for them to do so I do wonder whether I am being any help at all - or if it's making things worse for them by seeing that these classes aren't any trouble at all for me. I suspect it's frustrating to sit and think 'Why doesn't she have to deal with the kind of behaviour that I do?' without being able to see what it is I'm doing to prevent it. Unless you watched me teach the class for the first time ever, you probably can't see how I've set out the expectations, stamped on anyone who raised their head immediately and made it totally clear that poor behaviour won't ever be tolerated and the consequences will not be worth dealing with. By this point in the year classes are well aware of my expectations and equally well aware that it would be a really, really bad idea to even think about kicking off.
I know my reputation with pupils is something along the lines of, 'Mrs So's a really good laugh - but you don't ever want to play her up, or she's really scary'. I've taught for over 20 years and am more than willing to offer constructive/helpful advice if I can - just wondering if these student teachers are going home feeling worse that they are struggling to cope when someone else isn't?
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Trainee Teachers - Is it helpful to watch a more experienced colleague teach?
32 replies
deleted203 · 14/02/2013 20:27
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