My lesson flopped

[Warmday]

I feel like I might be a bit of a weak trainee compared to others. I’ve taught quite a few lessons so far at my placement. I’ve been fine with them nothing i can’t handle. But today was an A level lesson and it flopped IMO.

My mentor who was observing said she didn’t think that was the case. I basically lost the pace a bit mid way and she was instructing me to change it up to fit everything in. There was 2 observers in the room so it was intimidating and there was an online observation by the HOD so I was under so much pressure I felt like it flopped.

They reassured me it didn’t but tbh I felt it did. I won’t lie I did get a bit tearful about it. not for sympathy but because I worked SO hard on the lesson and it didn’t go to plan. Not to mention I’m severely dyslexic so anything I was spelling was of course going wrong.

Was it bad that I got a bit tearful. Should I toughen up and deal with it next time?

I cried at least once a week when I was a trainee (and in my nqt year). It's completely normal. It's also completely normal to have lessons that flop sometimes. Even experienced teachers can find a lesson they thought was going to fly completely flops. It's all part of the learning process. 'Try again, fail again, fail better'

My mentor who was observing said she didn’t think that was the case. I basically lost the pace a bit mid way and she was instructing me to change it up to fit everything in

Instructing you whilst observing? Can you expand on that a bit?

Sometimes lessons go badly. What you learn with experience is how to extricate yourself from it. Even then, lessons sometimes go badly. There are many, many variables beyond your control.

If your reflection is that you lost pace, look at how and why that happened, learn anything you need to from it then move on.

Was this online? If so, I wouldn’t ever think about it again. It’s virtually impossible to nail every online lesson.

I’m a trainee and I often have a soggy middle!!! It really helped me to do 3 things:

1. Think of pace as efficiency.
2. Write out exactly the q I will ask when; write little mini speeches so I can make my expos as efficient a MF purposeful as possible.
3. Use linking phrases to join the bits of the lesson so they lead on from one bit to the next cleanly.

Sounds simple, but focussing on this as a target for a week brought me on leaps and bounds!
And I’ve cried too. And taken things too personally. And hated my PST for criticising me. It’s emotional - but if you try to find practical solutions it becomes less about you and more about the skills you are building.

I’ve been teaching over 15 years and still have lessons that don’t go to plan!

The important thing is you can reflect and adapt next time. The weaker trainees aren’t the ones that have off lessons- it’s the ones that think everything is fine and refuse to change or respond to feedback.

Sounds like you’re doing ok to me!

You're a trainee - lessons will go badly, that's how you learn. Lessons go badly for experienced teachers too sometimes, you reflect and learn each time.
I've noticed op that you need quite a lot of reassurance on this board - not that you shouldn't, but do you have a mentor in school and at your university? You should be able to talk to them about all the worries you have and they will help reassure and guide you. It is important that you are being supported in your teaching in real life.

Loads of lessons will, go badly in your career. That's ok, most won't. Imagine if people in other professions judged themselves or dwelled on a bad hour.

I see quite a lot of posts on here from trainees along the lines of "some minor thing went wrong with my lesson & so I must be crap/need to leave etc".

I just sit here thinking "Jeez, that happens to me all the time & I've been teaching for 15 years"!

In teaching, you need to accept that things won't go to plan every lesson - in fact I'd say most lessons. There's literally about a thousand unknowns going on in every lesson, that are completely out of your control.

Completely normal to be tearful - you worked hard on it and you care about it, and it’s frustrating and upsetting when it doesn’t go to plan. I cried a lot during my PGCE last year, and have cried several times this year as an NQT! However, I bet it wasn’t as bad as it felt to you - have you had the feedback?

Also worth remembering that teaching whilst being observed by someone who knows your lesson plan is completely different to “normal” teaching - if things don’t go to plan any other time, and that is often the case, no one knows it but you, and you can easily just adapt things to suit without it being a big deal. So put it down to experience, learn from it and keep on plodding

Sorry, just reread - see, your mentor even said it wasn’t as bad as you thought - trust her, and don’t give yourself a hard time

Completely agree with comments on here - I’ve been teaching 23 years and they don’t always go to plan! My biggest lessons as a trainee were the ones that didn’t quite work - and I know it’s boring and oft repeated but reflection on why that might be and what you will change next time is what will keep refining you as a teacher.. keep going!

Sorry 13 years not 23!