[MissButterfly]

Not stressed about being watched, because I know I'm a good teacher, but stressed about the lesson content...

A little background - this year I don't have a class, I cover other people's half the week (following their planning) and do small group intervention the rest of the week.
All the teachers in the school are being observed by the principle to measure the level of challenge in our math lessons.

I'm being observed in a First Grade class that I have only taught 6 times, and have just got the planning from the 1st grade teacher to look at... My objective is "use vocabulary related to time" and my activity is to have the children list what things they do in the morning/afternoon/evening and put them in chronological order.

Where on earth is the challenge in that???? These kids already know morning/afternoon/evening, and if I was planning it, it would be 10 minute recap during a lesson on time (which is how I taught it when I was in 1st last year).

I cannot change the planning, and I just do not know what to do. I've been talking to my kindergarten colleague whose exact words were "what? That's a math lesson? For my observation I'm just doing a normal number and calculating objective!"

So stressed out about this right now, because if I try to explain to the principal that I don't feel the planning allowed me to challenge the children, I know he'll say that I'm not being a "team player" ( I HATE that phrase!) and will think I'm criticising the teacher that did the planning...

UGH! Just needed to vent. Thank you for listening

[TeachNut]

It seems very unfair to me that you are being evaluated on a lesson you haven't planned for. What is the evaluator seeing? How you can present a lesson ~ oh boy, any sub can do that! I would think a true evaluation would give the opportunity to see all of your talents, the planning and delivery of an effective lesson.

Good luck to you and hope all goes well.

[collteach]

That is definitely unfair....you should be judged on a lesson that YOU planned for, not someone else.

I don't believe that just anyone can present a good lesson, but I know I would feel much more comfortable teaching a lesson that I "created". I made the mistake this year, for my first observation, of creating a lesson that relied heavily on the basal (we are required to use it as much as possible). I am not comfortable using a basal, as I have not used them in previous schools. My lesson did not flow smoothly and I just felt weird through the whole thing (also didn't help that a kid threw up within the first 5 minutes of my observation...haha!).

[MandyTeaches]

Just make sure the P has a copy of the lesson printed out and waiting for them so they will see what you were left with. Maybe you can verbally ask questions relating to the plan, but that go further in depth/challenge (make a sample schedule yourself and say things like 'If it is lunchtime at noon, how many hours away is dismissal at 3pm?' Just things to make it more interesting). You will be fine, hopefully the principal will understand you are doing your best.

[MissButterfly]

Thank you for your support, I'm glad it's not just me that thinks its a strange situation!


I made sure he had a copy of the planning first thing in the morning, a couple of hours before the lesson, and hopefully he'll see that there wasn't much I could do with the planning!

The lesson itself went alright, I think, but we won't be getting individual feedback until all the teachers have been observed. I'll let you know what he says