My first observation was with an ESOL level 2 class, and the target learning area was future forms. Overall, I found it a positive experience, although one which highlighted a few areas that I need to work on. I was initially worried about the lesson being videoed, but having the opportunity to watch the experience again has been extremely helpful me in letting me reflect on what my strengths and weaknesses are.

I should say that despite having lessons videoed on occasion in the past, this is the first time I have ever actually watched myself teaching. Although, surprisingly, I didn’t feel self-conscious during the observed lesson, seeing myself on the screen inevitably caused me to cringe a little. I was slightly amused to watch myself with my glasses. I’ve only recently had to wear them more often but was completely unaware how often I remove them, put them back on again, perched them on the end of my nose and waved them around. On a positive note, it was nice seeing how relaxed I looked both at the front of the class and amongst the students.

Having listened to my hot feedback, there were two things that I said that I wanted to be aware of when watching the video of my lesson. The first was that I thought it was a ‘normal’ lesson rather than an all-singing and dancing observation style lesson. The second was that I said that my main goal was to try and get the target language from the students rather than standing at the front, presenting it. Having watched the lesson again and had time to reflect, I think both of these points are important discussion points when reflecting on my teaching.

With regards to my assertion that the lesson was just a ‘normal’ lesson and not something I had made to impress the observer, I think in hindsight, this may not have been the best idea. Looking back, I was surprised that in my hot feedback after the lesson I had been happy with the thought of the lesson just being ‘OK’. On reflection, I could have attempted more and maybe tried to showcase my skills a bit better.

With regards to my goal of trying to get the students to work out the target language structures rather than me explicitly explaining them, I feel this was only partially achieved. Watching the video, I noticed times when I didn’t wait for the students to explain the form or meaning and jumped in and explained it myself. I would like to use this as an action point to work on in future lessons and observations.

Another thing that I became aware of whilst watching the video was that the stage of the lesson where then students looked at sentences 4-10 didn’t really work as I had planned. I think the first part where students worked together to highlight the future forms was OK, but the bit with me at the board trying to elicit or explain the forms seemed somewhat laboured. I had planned to give the learners more example sentences and to give them an opportunity to produce some sentences using the forms, and to try and personalise the language, but I think the mixture of time pressure and the fact I was being observed led to me to forget these things. My second action point is to remember to let students personalise the language and to make sure I give them more opportunities for practice.

I think a better way of approaching the sentences would have been after modelling questions 1-3, to give each pair a sentence using a future form and then given them five more examples and instruct them to work out the form and function, which they could then present to the class. That way, it would minimise the time I was at the front of the class ‘teaching’ and actively involve the students more. A third future action point could be to focus more on the planning stage on student involvement during tasks.

All in all, I was pleased with how I kept the students engaged and focused, and I felt for the most part that they were all actively involved in the lesson. I think the whole observation process, especially being able to watch the video, has been extremely valuable and will hopefully lead me to explore more fully the areas of my teaching that I can improve upon.