Observation of my teaching by the principal

All teachers had observations completed on their teaching as part of the appraisal process.
I asked James to come and observe me teach maths. This is what I asked him to observe me on.

James came to observe me teaching a lesson to a group while my class worked on their create a city project in groups.

Here are his brief notes on what he saw.

I was teaching some students how to construct a net for a cylinder. The main thing was that in order to do this, you need to make the circumference of your circle the same length as the rectangle. Therefore, how do you find the circumference of the circle? I let kids come up with their own way to measure and then we got into pi and what pi is.

After the lesson, James gave me some questions to reflect on. Then we met together to discuss my reflection on his coaching questions and he recorded some brief notes on the side.

James observed my lesson and together we discussed it. In addition to that, he recorded some evidence against the professional standards based on what he observed in the brief time that he was in my room.

Overall I enjoyed the observation process. It was a great way to validate what I am doing in my class whilst still reflecting on what I can improve on.

The most beneficial part of my development actually came from the observation I did on my team member. I found it a great way to build my leadership and enhance my own learning. I observed her based on her area of focus. I gave her feedback based on what she was interested in and then we met to reflect on some coaching questions. Designing the questions was great learning for me as they were designed to encourage her to reflect on her own practice and identify her areas of development herself rather than me telling her. There was no competency issue so it was merely just an opportunity for her to continue to grow as a teacher. It was such a privilege to be a part of that process with her.

I enjoyed sharing some ideas with her on how I think she could develop further, based on these identified areas. I hope that she will take some of these on board and let me know how whether or not they were successful for her to achieve her desired outcomes.