It was no doubt nerve-racking to have a peer observe my teaching, especially online. To be honest I think the feedback I received from Alice was a little harsh; especially about connection and timing issues.
I will take her feedback on board but when you physically get online 15 minutes prior to the start of teaching is sometimes impossible when you have 18-month-old needs attention when his mother is getting ready for the day to help with childcare. Also sometimes sound and internet issues are beyond my control depending on the day. To contribute a good block of paragraphs to this issue seems unjust.
Perhaps some of my approaches are unconventional and at times not clear so I suppose ‘sticking’ to the rules is best? It feels like big experimentation to me when it comes to teaching, what works with one group doesn’t necessarily mean it works for another. I will definitely look into creating documents for accessible for students to read. Nevertheless, through previous years of solely teaching online, I have found a balance of condensing as much info as possible so then if students need to catch up after the session, they are still able to understand the structure of the workshops.
I was also trying the cold-calling method after Santanu’s comments, it may work better in person teaching than online. It is nothing more demotivating than asking a screen full of dark squares to contribute but then met with nothing but silence.
Overall lots of really constructive feedback here which I am willing to take on board. These one-ff observations are microscopic snapshots of how teachers engage with students. I wonder if there are ways in which to observe each other over a slightly longer period of time?
I guess that won’t work as there is so much to cope with already on this unit, teaching, and life itself…hmmm food for thought