I was recently asked to video myself teaching and given a deadline to send an entire lesson to a member of staff- all teaching staff were. We weren’t given any objective for the “observation” but were told to write our reflections and email these to said member of staff before they would then review and at some point in the future they would get back to us. We weren’t given any proper equipment to do this, so I desperately tried to find a way to fit myself and the class within the frame of an iPad. When I couldn’t, I was told it was vital I was in the frame. I personally felt it would have been far more useful to see the children if I could only have me or them. I managed this (just about, for the input - where so was stood at the front) but only 2 children were captured in the frame. You can’t hear or see me for most of the lesson. Reading this is so refreshing, as I found writing my reflections difficult and reviewing my own teaching when I couldn’t see/hear myself (or more importantly, the children) for a large portion of the lesson mostly a massive waste of time and quite deflating having been so on-edge about doing this in the first place! I now have a framework where I can forge ahead independently with the hypotheses I have about my class and their learning, which I can do independently! I have never seen the point in broad-brush observations which end up scattergun and hard to improve upon without a narrow focus. I also think that the relationship between observer and observed is vitally important to enable someone to trust enough to really grow, teachers really do appreciate some time spent clarifying the area that is to be improved upon. Thank you so much. I really hope my experience is in the minority!
Absolutely loved this clear explanation of the model in practice, and the vivid (and very familiar) examples. I sometimes have had much of this in my head while coaching, but there is great value in making it more explicit — both to have clear language to support our own thinking and decision-making as coaches, and to be able to share this better with the teacher (and anyone else involved).
I think you discussed this with Adam, but what if a teacher does not agree with your hypothesis & critical evidence? What does the story tree look like after that? During Ollie Lovell & Goodrich's coaching session, Ollie disagreed with some of Goodrich's initial pitches, but I don't remember how Goodrich reacted. I think he had another hypothesis that he presented to Ollie.
I was recently asked to video myself teaching and given a deadline to send an entire lesson to a member of staff- all teaching staff were. We weren’t given any objective for the “observation” but were told to write our reflections and email these to said member of staff before they would then review and at some point in the future they would get back to us. We weren’t given any proper equipment to do this, so I desperately tried to find a way to fit myself and the class within the frame of an iPad. When I couldn’t, I was told it was vital I was in the frame. I personally felt it would have been far more useful to see the children if I could only have me or them. I managed this (just about, for the input - where so was stood at the front) but only 2 children were captured in the frame. You can’t hear or see me for most of the lesson. Reading this is so refreshing, as I found writing my reflections difficult and reviewing my own teaching when I couldn’t see/hear myself (or more importantly, the children) for a large portion of the lesson mostly a massive waste of time and quite deflating having been so on-edge about doing this in the first place! I now have a framework where I can forge ahead independently with the hypotheses I have about my class and their learning, which I can do independently! I have never seen the point in broad-brush observations which end up scattergun and hard to improve upon without a narrow focus. I also think that the relationship between observer and observed is vitally important to enable someone to trust enough to really grow, teachers really do appreciate some time spent clarifying the area that is to be improved upon. Thank you so much. I really hope my experience is in the minority!
Absolutely loved this clear explanation of the model in practice, and the vivid (and very familiar) examples. I sometimes have had much of this in my head while coaching, but there is great value in making it more explicit — both to have clear language to support our own thinking and decision-making as coaches, and to be able to share this better with the teacher (and anyone else involved).
I think you discussed this with Adam, but what if a teacher does not agree with your hypothesis & critical evidence? What does the story tree look like after that? During Ollie Lovell & Goodrich's coaching session, Ollie disagreed with some of Goodrich's initial pitches, but I don't remember how Goodrich reacted. I think he had another hypothesis that he presented to Ollie.