Peer Observation!

So, as planned, Russell John from FADA came to my adult learning class in Soho last night to do my peer assessment. It is an 8 week course and this was the first week. There are 12 students, mainly between the age of 25 - 40, and the have all optionally signed up to the course which makes it a lot more fun as they all arrive with a great willingness to lean, unlike some students on university courses that are only there because they absolutely have to be. 

I have ran this course a number of times before so I felt prepared and fairly confident about the way the session was going to run. As I mentioned in an earlier blog it was actually the first time that I'd ever filled out a session plan, and this certainly helped to strengthen the way I felt about the class. This session plan and the PowerPoint presentation can be found in my previous blog post.

The class ran fairly smoothly and the students were great - extremely chatty and enthusiastic, as well as respectful. After the first 5 minutes I forgot that Russell was watching me. I won't go in to the entirety of the session, mainly because Russell has summed it up so well himself, and I will post his peer observation form in a future blog. 

We had a long chat and feedback immediately after the session, and this was extremely beneficial to me. Russell was the first person (besides my students) who has ever actually observed me teach, and given me any feedback. I have been teaching on and off for 2 years now, and never really known whether I was teaching in a 'correct' way. On the whole Russell enjoyed my lesson, but also gave me some excellent points to brush up on and some ideas on how to make the lesson more interactive. A couple of these things I had thought of before but can't easily implement due to technicial limitations. For example, I talk for 30 minutes on different methods and rules of photographic composition. If I could somehow have a digital camera connected to the projection screen at the front that immediately posted up live shots, that would be a great way to illustrate my points. I will look in to this further...!

Jane just made a good point in an email about my blog, and how I have referred to Russell's attendance as peer 'assessment', rather than peer 'observation.' What does this mean? I think it means that I feel like I am indeed being assessed, whether that be true or not. I think this is partly due to the fact that the activity MUST be carried out to complete the PGCert, and partly down to feeling fairly under-pressure whilst being observed..!

Due to a constant stream of students with problems this blog has taken the entire day to write so I'm just going to finish and publish now!