Observation

The college where I teach my evening class is due to be inspected by Ofsted (The Office of Standards in Education) sometime this term, so they hired a consultant to perform mock inspections this week.

We were all given a briefing before half-term on making sure that we have detailed lesson plans and have all our paperwork up to date for this week. My Monday class started at 6:45pm and I had just got the students settled down when the consultant knocked on the door. She apologised and said that she thought the class started at 7:00. I said it was no problem, ushered her to a seat and talked her quickly through my paperwork.

She read through my plan, looked at her notes and looked puzzled. She had been directed to the wrong class. I was a bit concerned. Once I was geared up to be observed I would rather get it over with than put it off until Wednesday. Luckily she decided to change her plan and observe my class instead.

The observation went well enough, with some areas for me to focus on, but she was generally pleased with the way the students participated.

I can now look forward to my official observation from the head of department in two weeks, and then the Ofsted inspectors some time after that.

Note to my teaching friends in Prague, your administrative burden is light!