The beauty of our lives is the phenomenon of survival. Fight or flight. Wheat from the chaff. Survival of the fittest.
Week three of the new role brought the biggest baptism of fire yet. The demands on my time in these past few weeks has been much higher than expected and until a few days ago I was relishing all it brought: challenge, stimulation and a sense of purpose.
And so times change. And quickly, at that. It's one thing that a lot more is asked of me as part of my new role and responsibility. But despite my capabilities, I still have my limits. Just like any other human being (as opposed to robot) that forms a part of the education sector, I need time to acquaint myself with new classes, get my head around new schemes of work and establish how to best integrate myself into an ever-changing educational landscape in order to survive it.
This week was the first where I felt that my union's "work to rule" instruction had a valid purpose. My previous school, whilst I was deeply unhappy there, didn't really impose such regimes as my new one has planned. As a result, I hardly had to adjust the way I was working in order to follow the instruction. However, at my new school, I have a horrible feeling that this isn't going to be the case. The way things are going, the new instruction that I am to be observed a maximum three times in this academic year shall be exhausted by October half term. Whether I choose to refuse to be observed after those three observations remains to be seen.
My issue isn't with the amount of observation being proposed. It's more with my experience of being observed in the past, and the anticipation that this shall remain the same for the foreseeable future. In my experience, observations have been used merely to judge my teaching, with weaknesses being a focus, strengths being an afterthought and ways of actually improving being that last minute "oh and by the way" moment as the feedback comes to a close.
Observations in teaching can be the most positive and constructive method by which to improve our practice. But without proper constructive feedback and tailored training and professional development opportunities made available, how are us mere mortal beings supposed to reach the far-reaching standards being imposed upon us? The bar continues to be raised long before most in the service come anywhere near to reaching it, and I honestly believe this is partly down to observations not being used as a constructive developmental tool.
The amount we are observed is irrelevant. How those observations are used to help us improve further is much more important. Because how we develop our practice impacts on how the students we teach develop their learning.
And those students are the reason we started doing this in the first place, isn't it?
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