P for Parents Observations

W for Where-does-the-apostrophe-go? Parent's? Good job I'm not teaching high school English! This week is indeed the week when the parents come in to school and watch you perform a lesson. Nerve-wracking doesn't quite describe it. I'm still shaking. They have blue Forms Of Death where they write down exactly what they think of the lessons. I only had one lesson observed yesterday- which I thought went well- the children all understood and joined in. However, according to the parents, that wasn't the case. So this morning Cat greeted me with "We need to change your lesson." My lesson yesterday consisted of me revising the family (again), and then playing a game where they pull a card out of a bag and it has a word or picture on. They then match the word or picture to the right letter. Today instead of cards I used props like a toy dog, a balloon, a box with dolls in. So hopefully the parents will have enjoyed that lesson better than yesterday's. After Cat had basically told me my lesson was rubbish, Ms. Man was really encouraging and said she thought my lesson was fine. She said she gets annoyed because no one tells you if you're doing something wrong, and if they do they leave it until the last minute like when you have a parent's observation. There is a lack of communication. I'm not saying Cat didn't have a point, in some ways she did, but she could have told me before this morning. Anyway, with any luck, they won't be able to criticize this lesson as much.