Teachers: come and talk to me about your lesson observations

[ZeroMinusZero]

I have had a lot of observations this year - many more than I am supposed to have had. I don't mind that much if it means I get useful feedback, although I am beginning to feel that I am not getting much help. I tend to get either satisfactory, usually with good elements, or the occasional good. But when I ask for advice on how to improve, I don't get very much. My feedback is usually that my teaching was good but that because a few children, maybe 2-3, mucked around a bit, I can't get a better grade for my observation.

How normal is this? What do you usually get for your observations (if you don't mind me asking)? What kind of advice for improvements do you get? How much would your observer care if you taught a fairly good lesson that was let down by a small minority of children not listening?

I can see your frustrations. Do your observations have set criteria? We have a standard form that the observer uses with criteria. This is divided into sections so you can see the exact strengths and areas for development. We also have OFSTED style definitions on what a satisfactory, good and outstanding lesson probably looks like. You don't mention what KS you teach, but a google of "OFSTED lesson observation criteria key stage X" might throw something useful up???

Just a couple of thoughts:

I think with the new Ofsted guidelines coming in from Sept 2012 the focus has changed and those 2-3 kids will have a dramatic effect on your grading. Perhaps you need to really focus on those children - think carefully about differentiating the task specifically for them (are they HA or LA perhaps?)

Also, have you had the chance to observe other people teaching? Who is observing you - are they a teacher with a class responsibility who can demonstrate a good/outstanding lesson and discuss it with you afterwards?

FWIW, I have a fairly challenging Y6 class this year (6/29 on SA; 5/29 on SA+; 2 statements; 1 statement application ongoing and 2 EAL) and we have a system of Learning Detectives whereby the children apply for the role and then observe in lessons looking for LEARNING. They then feedback TO THE CHILDREN although no names are used! This has had a dramatic impact on the behaviour of my 2-3 children!

Also, I have only had one formal obs this year (since Sept) which was carried our by 3 members of SLT and the lesson was 'outstanding' - focus as to why (off top of head): use of additional (2) adults to really enable ALL children to make AT LEAST good progress including HA; using previous learning to inform planning effectively; ALL children reflecting on own learning and considering individual/group targets.

Not sure how helpful this all is but hope some of it is of use to you.
Good luck.

The emphasis now is on learning not teaching. We have been told that if a student arrives late then we can't have a good lesson as the whole class isn't learning.
I tend to get good. OFSTED want to see progress in one lesson.
Yes to lots more observations in recent years.

Also, it can all depend on who is observing you and their skills in assessing the quality of teaching and learning (and on giving feedback to staff!). I may be totally wrong, but it sounds like who ever observed youhad more limited skills themselves?

Interesting replies already. I teach all through secondary, from ages 11-18 but the vast majority of my observations tend to be either Y9 or Y10. Everyone who observes me teaches in some shape or form but I don't think all would be capable of demonstrating an outstanding lesson - the observer who was the harshest is known for having bad discipline problems and would struggle to get outstanding, I would think. In fact, I'd go as far to say that their presence in my classroom caused the pupils to become more disruptive because of their lack of respect for that teacher. I know that sounds like a massive excuse, but there you go. Others who have observed me, though, are good teachers.

I have observed some of the good teachers we have and have taken tips from them. One issue is that my subject is very specific and some techniques used in other subjects don't work for mine. For example, I have observed English and RE lessons where the students have sat around discussing their opinions for the entire lesson and have had fun doing so. There are hardly any opinions to be discussed in my subject.

wolfiefan I think the person who said that you can't have good if a student is late is wrong and has misunderstood the guidelines. In fact, I'd say they're an idiot.

The incident with the three boys has made me think that I should split up groups like that earlier, but I didn't think they were that much of a problem because they did make progress, could answer my questions and generally hit their targets. I tried to concentrate on the ones missing their targets but I should have probably concentrated harder on discipline.

Are you in a union? NUT guidelines on observations here...

We work in the only profession where 'satisfactory' is 'unsatisfactory', it's ridiculous. To not be getting feedback renders the observation pointless, so some clarification from SLT about the purpose of the observations would be useful.

What is your subject out of interest?

I am in a union but am terrified of kicking up a fuss. I don't want to out myself too much but it's a science subject.

Ok- have a look at the NUT guidance and perhaps have a quiet word with your school rep.

I am observed about twice a year and in the past have been given notice.

Due to Ofsted starting no notice/ drop in inspections we are now told a period of time in which we will be observed but not the specific lesson or time.

The beef I have had in the past is that the person (either the DHT or the HT) observing me has no understanding or knowledge of the area of special needs that I teach.

Any suggestions for improvement I have had seems to bang on about not jumping onto the bandwaggon policies used in our main school our DHT is keen on (and there are many many of them!) many of which simply don't work for pupils with this particular area of SN. (Strange thing is- they don't work for many of the mainstream kids either...)

Thankfully our HT has now changed this and we are now being assessed by him and colleague with the same speciality- (as should happen in an ofsted inspection.)

Since becoming an academy we get done observed all the time. For the first time ever I got a satisfactory last term. I usually get good and sometimes outstanding. I hate this new ofsted framework. My husband got
done observed by ofsted last week and he got a good. Apparently he would have got an outstanding if he had used his starter activity to assess the pupils' knowledge of the lesson objectives and then he should have had individual learning pathways depending on their knowledge of the objectives, lol.