More observations on observations

Blimey! One per post per month

That's not much of a reflective batting average. I really need to make a point of dedicating some time each week to the blog. It's one thing allowing a certain amount of time to pass while you form your reflections. Quite another to have to trawl your memory banks for them.

Anyway, the major event of the last couple of weeks has been the completion of my observations.

Logistics and the distance between Stockport and Blackpool dictated we do the remaining two observed lessons on the same day - one in the morning, one in the afternoon. It saves Margaret having to make that arduous trip twice, and it gets round the problem I'm facing of rapidly diminishing class sizes.

Given a couple of weeks more, I don't think I would have had a requisite amount of students to stage a lesson adequate for observation anyway, even if I combined the two groups. As it was, I had to 'borrow' a couple of bodies to make up the numbers

The problem is they're all going off on their industrial placements, meaning I can't start any serious projects - certainly none that contribute to their year mark - because three quarters of them will be missing at any given time.

It's frustrating, but college rules dictate they have to complete ALL their modules, including work experience, within the given term dates. Much better the way we used to have it, when placements went on over the summer...

Anyway, I was being observed in the delivery of radio advertising project, during which I was hoping to open students' eyes and ears to the power of the 'Theatre of the Mind.'

I like this project. It's a challenge for me as well as them, but when they 'get it' - the idea that you can create visual images in an audio medium, that is - it's really rewarding to see them exploring the possibilities.

It's also a good one to be observed on, because it involves a lot of different resources including audio examples, group work and plenty of learning checks.

In addition, it's an opportunity for me to be observed at the other end of the scale from my previous observation , in as much as I was back in the classroom teaching and interacting with a small group rather than delivering a lecture to roomful of 60 or 70 people. A chance then to practice a different 'voice'.

I was a little worried about being observed delivering the same lesson twice - once in the morning, once in the afternoon - but I was assured this wasn't against the rules. And anyway, whether by accident or design, my lessons seldom unfold the same way twice over!

In the event, having two observed sessions so close together put me in a position of some advantage. How so? Normally, you have to wait at least a week or two to act on feedback you receive from an observation. Inevitably, some of that feedback is forgotten and some of the momentum from the first session lost. But this time, I was able to deliver a lesson in the morning, sit down and discuss it with a trained observer, form my own reflections and then incorporate improvements for that afternoon's session.

I felt like a real difference too; simply by rejigging the running order to 'topload' the lesson with most interesting content, students became more involved and animated and, I hope, got more out of their two hours.

Certainly the feedback following the second lesson bore that out. Margaret remarked I had 'worked a lot harder' and I have to admit I did feel washed out afterwards, but not in an unpleasant way.

The only major downside was the 'Sod's Law' presence of a group of third years at the back of the room. As it's a utlity room I teach in, I'm happy enough to have students working on the computers while I take a lesson, as long as they're quiet. Which they normally are.

But this lot - whether they'd been to the pub or had too much sugar at lunchtime - were making a real racket. I had to tell them a couple of times to keep it down, which worked for a minute or two before the noise level rose again.

In the end, and on top of the pressure at being observed, it began to get to me. What should I do? I hadn't planned for it and I wasn't sure whether technically it counted as a problem in my lesson anyway. On the other hand, at its worse the din was preventing me form being heard.

Thankfully, the worst culprits dispersed and left us in peace, but on reflection it's something I should have taken them to task over promptly and decisively.

And the overall feedback form the observations? Generally good. I was pleased with the comments I received in the tutorial a couple of weeks later and, by and large, fairly happy with how I've managed to act on what I've learned after each observed session to improve the next.

Which, at the end of the day, is the whole point of the exercise...