Today Femi and Matt are speaking about lesson observations and related activities such as lesson visits, coaching and feedback. 

They talk about being clear on why the observation is happening; good and less good reasons for doing lesson observations and some of the issues around lesson observations as part of the performance management process.

On lesson visits i.e. ‘walking the shop floor’, they discuss culture, feedback and follow up and then get into coaching observations and feedback:  3 common mistakes, models for structuring feedback, initial identification of the big ticket items and subsequent follow up staying with that focus. Jim Knight’s ‘Impact cycle’, teaching strategies, modelling and feedback.

The attitude of the person being observed.  Trust.  How potential typically outweighs competence and the implications for ‘attitude’ when recruiting teachers.

What makes for effective teams.

What Matt has been working on to be trust-worthy on his end of the relationship, and how one’s behaviour can reveal underlying motivations and insecurities. 

What is a necessary professional conversation, and what isn’t, and what can be learnt from those encounters, and lesson observation etiquette, among other things!