#nobservation

[noblegiraffe]

If you haven't seen the nobservation hashtag on Twitter yet, you should check it out. Teachers sharing their truly crap observation feedback. My favourite so far:
"#nobservation. A lesson on Gandhi adjudged to be insufficiently Welsh. Suggestion: call Mahatma "Geraint" instead."

I seem to have blocked out years of observation feedback but I do remember being told years ago my lesson would have been better if I'd got 34 year 8s out of their seats and moving around the tiny classroom. Pretty sure it would have been chaos! That was back when kinaesthetic was a thing.

I can't decide if they are hilarious or a sad state of affairs altogether!

Chuckled at "Y4 Maths lesson on fractions a couple of years ago - HT: Why didn’t you use puppets? 😬"

Also- “I’m going to have to not pass this one unfortunately, as you didn’t deploy the TA effectively enough” said my PGCE mentor, in a class with no TA 🙂 #nobservation"

You laugh or you cry!

#nobservation "you should get the a level students to do the key words tests in pairs:. I replied "why? They don't sit the exam in pairs". They couldn't answer me.

My school doesn't bother with observations really but I'm sure if they did this kind of nob feedback would pop up. So sorry for all of you who've had to endure it! These did make me laugh.

So funny! Thanks for the heads up

All were learning and engaged but it was very gender stereotyped. Next time try a male in the tower.
Following a year 6 lesson based on The lady of Shallot.

Is that tweet about the lesson on Gandhi a joke, or did that actually happen? If the latter, I'm sure the Mahatma would be thrilled to know he's being colonised even after death.

Feedback from the same lesson "it was clear the students made progress" "lack of colour in the exercise books made it hard to see whether the students made progress"
Thanks for that. Very useful and will totally transform my teaching.

"You didn't give me your differentiated handouts so I have to put down that you didn't differentiate."

"The handouts were on the table in front of you. Plus you can see my differentiation in the box on the lesson plan marked 'differentiaton'. "

"Yes but you're supposed to actually give them to me."

I’ve shared this on here before (don’t do Twitter) but I’ve had - good lesson, but Dracula seems inappropriate on a sunny day. Guess I forgot to check the forecast before planning my lesson! Obviously, I should choose the texts we study based on the weather...

If I ever give feedback like this I hope to god my faculty tell me where to go!! It's the obsessive need to constantly improve...sometimes it is ok to just say 'that was great'.

When I was a NQT the observing member of SLT spent a long time explaining how I should have taped rubbish bags on the end of each pair of desks and then put them in the bin myself after the lesson. I teach a subject where I move rooms throughout the day so simply do not have time to be sellotaping 20 carrier bags to desks! It took the class about 1 minute to clear up...

My mentor was truly shit and use to advise to never be consistent with behaviour. Keeps them on their toes apparently!

Here's a link to the actual Geraint Ghandi tweet. Author says it definitely happened! twitter.com/ian_bec/status/961306980261482497

My next favourite is:

"My favourite #nobservation was a colleague teaching RE - 5 pillars of Islam. The feedback was "could you have differentiated by only giving the lowers the 3 pillars of Islam""

My pgce mentor criticised me for using vocabulary they hadn’t been taught when she’d seen me teach it the lesson before!

A colleague was asked repeatedly after a maths observation 'why did you call them arrow cards?' They replied 'that's the name of the cards.'
Lesson observations became a way of bullying teachers.

I got told I had made things too difficult by referring to 'auxiliary verbs' and 'past participles' when teaching the perfect tense in French. The students successfully used the perfect tense and need to know the different parts of it in order to do that... but thanks for asking me to aim low!

I got told there was too much reading and not enough "actual drama" in a lesson with Year 7 where they were working with a script.

Also, had an internal ob with the HT once where she left after about 5 minutes because it was "very noisy" Again, practical drama lesson. Not sure what she was expecting...

I jumped before I was managed out. My last observation (A2 class) had the comment, "Just because your students massively exceed expectation (when comparing their A level grades to their GCSE grades on entry to the course) and just because they attend every lesson on time and say they think you're brilliant, it does not mean you are a good teacher."

Oh fuck off!

I got told not to refer to the class as "guys". They weren't concerned about anything to do with gender - apparently it was too informal and I should say "folks" instead.

I was once given a 4 for a lesson because the task (and ongoing project) wasn't challenging enough. Which was exactly what I'd told the HoD when he gave me the scheme of work that term. Apparently my teaching was 1 or 2 but the task meant progress was 4, so 4 it was.

*an ongoing project

Thanks for the link noblegiraffe

I love the idea of Gandhi's salt march taking him to Barry Island!

A heavily pregnant colleague with a mobility issue was criticised for 'not moving about enough'.

I had one.
A level lesson. Students on track to achieve above their targets (which were stupid because the school had no sense or knowledge of statistics). It was close to the exam, the students were preparing an exam question and i got the best feedback ever:
The students were on task, they could talk about progress, they were working well, their books were outstanding, you demonstrated high levels of subject knowledge, there was support for students which is why they were doibg so well... but do you not think it would have been better to have something for kinaethetic learners? And you should have had additional worksheets for the students targeted a C.

I asked why I would have to cater for learning styles when they don't exist - no response other than it would make the lesson seem a bit more buzzy.
I also asked why i would need to give studebts targeted Cs extra sheets when they were already working at Bs - answer, we designed our targets to be challenging largely unmanageable for staff to achieve so are you sure they are really Bs.
Yes. We moderate as a department.
Oh. Right. Well it's still probably best to have a support sheet to show you can support their learning.
Support their learning?! They are a gradr above your stupid target

Then again, this came from someone who used to waste a CPD session getting us to personality profile ourselves as an animal which will give us insight into how we interact with students