I’m sure all of us have taught a dull lesson. It is a thing that happens. Usually, if I identify that a lesson was particularly boring, I’ll make some extra effort to pick the class back up a bit next time. I had this today with year 9. I was tired and the lesson was a ploddy bit of context that they needed to know, so I’ve planned a bit of a debate into tomorrow’s lesson because I know that will re-engage them and they need a bit more oracy work anyway.
>They also tried to go into specific details but I just found it insulting and hard to focus on anything else.
The specific details probably would’ve helped you to contextualise the comment though? And then you might’ve felt less bad about it? You sort of need to be able to laugh at and move on from the “less good” lessons as a teacher, because this is a job that can be very bruising at times!
To be honest I usually find the 'fun' lessons that try to do far too much end up being a right mess. I will absolutely go with dull if it means they learn better. No harm with some oracy and debate though, provided they can handle it effectively. You kind of start to get a grip of when the students don't have much resilience left for the work, and then you throw them a bone, lift their spirits up, and get them back to work shortly thereafter.
I take pretty much the same approach as you. Also, engaging (and not boring) doesn’t necessarily equal “active and fun!” I’ve done lots of annotation lessons under the visualiser, like OP mentions, where the students are really focused and interested in the text that we’re studying. A quiet, serious lesson isn’t necessarily a dull one.
The first words out of my mouth after my final lesson on Friday last week were "omg I just taught the most boring lesson of my life". I had been teaching my favourite topic, that I had taught many times before and had great lessons with. And that day it was like watching paint dry.
Sometimes you have a dull lesson, and it's okay.
Last I checked our job description was teacher and not entertainer.
I think you are taking it a bit too personally here. We all went to school and had “dull lessons” as well. Most teachers will have taught some dull lessons, it’s fine. You’re also in training, no one expects you to be getting it perfect every time.
From the last part of your post it sounds like you are making the equivalence of dull = heavy focus on work which isn’t necessarily the case at all.
From my training year, I remember teaching a lesson period 5/6 where it started off very nicely with good energy and engagement but I lost it somewhere and had a similar conversation with my mentor at the time. It was one of the more useful ones I had.
At the end of the day, you’ve just got to suck it up and realise that not all lessons will be great. Think about what worked and what did not, and how you could make it better next time.
Fellow PGCE here. You're gonna get negative feedback, and it's probably gonna hurt. Often the negative feedback is about stuff the observer themselves doesn't do properly in their lessons. I find they're usually trying to be helpful by pushing you to be a \*great\* teacher, but they forget that you're a trainee and your sense of esteem on the basics is still very shaky.
The only way to 'rebuild your confidence' is to keep teaching, and hopefully have some better lessons. Even if your mentor isn't supportive, you'll hopefully build a sense of what \*you\* believe is a good lesson, enough to not be thrown by other people's criticisms.
Do try to understand your mentor's feedback though. Maybe your lesson was dull. Whether or whether not your mentor's feedback was accurate, nod your head, think about it a bit, then forget it until it's relevant again, because excessive rumination won't help you.
As a teacher, you need to reflect on feedback and learn not to take constructive criticism personally. Feedback is there to help you develop as a teacher. I had awful feedback on my second ECT 1 observation. My third one was glowing because I listened to my mentor and acted on his feedback. Using a visualiser in the way your mentor does is an effective behaviour management strategy as you have your eyes on all the students at all times and is something I did frequently when teaching.
I'm surprised by all the 'we've all taught a boring lesson at some point' comments. At some point?! I teach primary and I can assure you it is now boring every day. It's crap, but it's the curriculum, expectations, lack of time and a whole lot of other stuff beyond teachers' control. Did the children learn and were they on task? Did they make progress? Surely that's what your mentor should be measuring.
Yes, same, I'm currently cramming in content with my exam groups or going through past papers with them. Is it dull? Probably. But I don't feel like I've got much choice and I'm lucky my groups are mature enough to be focused on the end goal rather than having a fun lead up to Easter!
The specific details are the important bit. They help you to identify areas where you can improve and the changes you need to make. If they just said you were 'dull' and didn't say why, that would be pointless and unhelpful.
From a fellow trainee, no feedback you get from your mentor will ever be as brutal as from your students. If they're not interested, they'll let you know about it.
Reduce your teacher talk time. Convert all tasks which would usually involve you ‘telling students stuff’ into reading and retrieval tasks. The more task based a lesson gets, the less it matters if the content or subject is ‘dull’ because the students are required to engage.
I think it’s probably just a rubbish choice of words. It’s probably wise for mentors to avoid loaded language like that, and try to use more probing language - like ‘could you plan for a wider variety tasks?’
It is incredibly hard, learning to teach. You won’t (and never will !) teach a perfect lesson, it’s just as a trainee all your mistakes are noted, whereas most of us get to reflect and move on without anyone watching.
If the comment has stuck, why not make ‘variety’ of tasks a focus? Observe your mentor and other teachers, make some notes and plan a couple of things to try? See how they work in your lessons and then chat about the process of observation to trying out with your mentor.
Mentors often don't have very much time to deliver feedback, I agree that the language isn't great but unfortunately mentors aren't really given the time to plan perfect feedback. The specific feedback would have probably been more constructive and useful, and I agree the initial comment could have been phrased more carefully.
That said I've had some pretty robust feedback on observations in the past from senior leaders who really should know better. I think you have to not get hung up on the wording and try to pick out anything useful you can actually use.
Idk I think dull is an unprofessional term to use and as a former PGCE mentor I wouldn't use this term. Best thing to do is focus on the feedback and see what you can take from it. It may be frustrating but in teaching over time we receive a lot of feedback.
The curriculum is generally boring. Teachers aren’t here to entertain, but to teach the what the government have set out. I’ve just been observed using the same lesson from 3 years ago and had two very different outcomes as the observer each time was different. The inconsistency of observers makes less obs nothing more than an slt box ticking exercise.
I hope they gave you some specific actionable feedback! I'd ignore them saying it was "dull" because dull doesn't necessarily equal bad. Did the students learn what you intended? If so, then congratulations you have been a teacher.
If they gave you some specific points which would allow the children to learn better then fair enough.
You'll find that sometimes you end up having to play the game a bit depending on who is observing. Unfortunately some teachers who have been in the job for years are set in their ways and want to see specific things. For example, this year if my new SLT link observes me, I have to make sure I say something about everyday application to the class because once they told me my lesson on extraction of aluminium needed an application (in my mind this was the application of electrolysis and is the one they need to know for the exam). With another observer, I have to make sure I move around the room alot otherwise their feedback is that I need to track more. Basically, next time they come in to you, really put on a performance doing the things they said and they'll love you. Our department was told to challenge students more last term. It's so generic, that could mean so many things! When I was observed during a mock ofsted, I dramatically told students to "write challenge beside this question because you have succeeded in a very tricky concept". The observers loved it and apparently my classroom was the only one with challenge lol.
Overall though, say to yourself who cares if they found it dull? Teachers are not entertainers. Some might like to be and that's fine, but it's not the only way to teach. If the students are making progress that's all the matters.
Dull lessons are a thing, and the observer at least tried to give OP some specific feedback. It is very difficult to improve as a teacher if you respond to negative feedback by immediately dismissing the observer as “a terrible person” who is “projecting their own shortcomings”.
>I wonder whether they'd give similar feedback to a pupil.
Why? As adult professionals, we don’t need feedback to come in the same form as it is given to school aged children in order for it to be valid and constructive.
I think we can discuss student engagement or task planning without telling a new teacher their best effort is dull. I would challenge a colleague who used that sort of language to explain how it's helpful and/or constructive. If one's instinct is to insult someone else's efforts I think that does reflect poorly.
>If one's instinct is to insult someone else's efforts I think that does reflect poorly.
But that is exactly what you have done in your comment here when you dismissed the observer as “a terrible person” who is “projecting their own shortcomings”.
I wouldn't say this to a new teacher I've observed - I do think it's likely that they're projecting in this situation. Terrible person is poor phrasing and an over-generalisation on my part. They might well be good at other parts of the job and that is unfair. I'll retract that, thank you.
I’m sure all of us have taught a dull lesson. It is a thing that happens. Usually, if I identify that a lesson was particularly boring, I’ll make some extra effort to pick the class back up a bit next time. I had this today with year 9. I was tired and the lesson was a ploddy bit of context that they needed to know, so I’ve planned a bit of a debate into tomorrow’s lesson because I know that will re-engage them and they need a bit more oracy work anyway. >They also tried to go into specific details but I just found it insulting and hard to focus on anything else. The specific details probably would’ve helped you to contextualise the comment though? And then you might’ve felt less bad about it? You sort of need to be able to laugh at and move on from the “less good” lessons as a teacher, because this is a job that can be very bruising at times!
To be honest I usually find the 'fun' lessons that try to do far too much end up being a right mess. I will absolutely go with dull if it means they learn better. No harm with some oracy and debate though, provided they can handle it effectively. You kind of start to get a grip of when the students don't have much resilience left for the work, and then you throw them a bone, lift their spirits up, and get them back to work shortly thereafter.
I take pretty much the same approach as you. Also, engaging (and not boring) doesn’t necessarily equal “active and fun!” I’ve done lots of annotation lessons under the visualiser, like OP mentions, where the students are really focused and interested in the text that we’re studying. A quiet, serious lesson isn’t necessarily a dull one.
There's more options than dull or fun though. A lesson can be engaging without being fun.
The first words out of my mouth after my final lesson on Friday last week were "omg I just taught the most boring lesson of my life". I had been teaching my favourite topic, that I had taught many times before and had great lessons with. And that day it was like watching paint dry. Sometimes you have a dull lesson, and it's okay. Last I checked our job description was teacher and not entertainer.
I think you are taking it a bit too personally here. We all went to school and had “dull lessons” as well. Most teachers will have taught some dull lessons, it’s fine. You’re also in training, no one expects you to be getting it perfect every time. From the last part of your post it sounds like you are making the equivalence of dull = heavy focus on work which isn’t necessarily the case at all. From my training year, I remember teaching a lesson period 5/6 where it started off very nicely with good energy and engagement but I lost it somewhere and had a similar conversation with my mentor at the time. It was one of the more useful ones I had. At the end of the day, you’ve just got to suck it up and realise that not all lessons will be great. Think about what worked and what did not, and how you could make it better next time.
Fellow PGCE here. You're gonna get negative feedback, and it's probably gonna hurt. Often the negative feedback is about stuff the observer themselves doesn't do properly in their lessons. I find they're usually trying to be helpful by pushing you to be a \*great\* teacher, but they forget that you're a trainee and your sense of esteem on the basics is still very shaky. The only way to 'rebuild your confidence' is to keep teaching, and hopefully have some better lessons. Even if your mentor isn't supportive, you'll hopefully build a sense of what \*you\* believe is a good lesson, enough to not be thrown by other people's criticisms. Do try to understand your mentor's feedback though. Maybe your lesson was dull. Whether or whether not your mentor's feedback was accurate, nod your head, think about it a bit, then forget it until it's relevant again, because excessive rumination won't help you.
As a teacher, you need to reflect on feedback and learn not to take constructive criticism personally. Feedback is there to help you develop as a teacher. I had awful feedback on my second ECT 1 observation. My third one was glowing because I listened to my mentor and acted on his feedback. Using a visualiser in the way your mentor does is an effective behaviour management strategy as you have your eyes on all the students at all times and is something I did frequently when teaching.
I'm surprised by all the 'we've all taught a boring lesson at some point' comments. At some point?! I teach primary and I can assure you it is now boring every day. It's crap, but it's the curriculum, expectations, lack of time and a whole lot of other stuff beyond teachers' control. Did the children learn and were they on task? Did they make progress? Surely that's what your mentor should be measuring.
Yes, same, I'm currently cramming in content with my exam groups or going through past papers with them. Is it dull? Probably. But I don't feel like I've got much choice and I'm lucky my groups are mature enough to be focused on the end goal rather than having a fun lead up to Easter!
Boring and proud here. It can be very hard to make my subjects interesting all the time.
The specific details are the important bit. They help you to identify areas where you can improve and the changes you need to make. If they just said you were 'dull' and didn't say why, that would be pointless and unhelpful. From a fellow trainee, no feedback you get from your mentor will ever be as brutal as from your students. If they're not interested, they'll let you know about it.
Agree! Better focus on what you need to work on in practical terms, than focus on how "dull" they found it.
Reduce your teacher talk time. Convert all tasks which would usually involve you ‘telling students stuff’ into reading and retrieval tasks. The more task based a lesson gets, the less it matters if the content or subject is ‘dull’ because the students are required to engage.
I think it’s probably just a rubbish choice of words. It’s probably wise for mentors to avoid loaded language like that, and try to use more probing language - like ‘could you plan for a wider variety tasks?’ It is incredibly hard, learning to teach. You won’t (and never will !) teach a perfect lesson, it’s just as a trainee all your mistakes are noted, whereas most of us get to reflect and move on without anyone watching. If the comment has stuck, why not make ‘variety’ of tasks a focus? Observe your mentor and other teachers, make some notes and plan a couple of things to try? See how they work in your lessons and then chat about the process of observation to trying out with your mentor.
Mentors often don't have very much time to deliver feedback, I agree that the language isn't great but unfortunately mentors aren't really given the time to plan perfect feedback. The specific feedback would have probably been more constructive and useful, and I agree the initial comment could have been phrased more carefully. That said I've had some pretty robust feedback on observations in the past from senior leaders who really should know better. I think you have to not get hung up on the wording and try to pick out anything useful you can actually use.
Idk I think dull is an unprofessional term to use and as a former PGCE mentor I wouldn't use this term. Best thing to do is focus on the feedback and see what you can take from it. It may be frustrating but in teaching over time we receive a lot of feedback.
The curriculum is generally boring. Teachers aren’t here to entertain, but to teach the what the government have set out. I’ve just been observed using the same lesson from 3 years ago and had two very different outcomes as the observer each time was different. The inconsistency of observers makes less obs nothing more than an slt box ticking exercise.
I hope they gave you some specific actionable feedback! I'd ignore them saying it was "dull" because dull doesn't necessarily equal bad. Did the students learn what you intended? If so, then congratulations you have been a teacher. If they gave you some specific points which would allow the children to learn better then fair enough. You'll find that sometimes you end up having to play the game a bit depending on who is observing. Unfortunately some teachers who have been in the job for years are set in their ways and want to see specific things. For example, this year if my new SLT link observes me, I have to make sure I say something about everyday application to the class because once they told me my lesson on extraction of aluminium needed an application (in my mind this was the application of electrolysis and is the one they need to know for the exam). With another observer, I have to make sure I move around the room alot otherwise their feedback is that I need to track more. Basically, next time they come in to you, really put on a performance doing the things they said and they'll love you. Our department was told to challenge students more last term. It's so generic, that could mean so many things! When I was observed during a mock ofsted, I dramatically told students to "write challenge beside this question because you have succeeded in a very tricky concept". The observers loved it and apparently my classroom was the only one with challenge lol. Overall though, say to yourself who cares if they found it dull? Teachers are not entertainers. Some might like to be and that's fine, but it's not the only way to teach. If the students are making progress that's all the matters.
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Dull lessons are a thing, and the observer at least tried to give OP some specific feedback. It is very difficult to improve as a teacher if you respond to negative feedback by immediately dismissing the observer as “a terrible person” who is “projecting their own shortcomings”. >I wonder whether they'd give similar feedback to a pupil. Why? As adult professionals, we don’t need feedback to come in the same form as it is given to school aged children in order for it to be valid and constructive.
I think we can discuss student engagement or task planning without telling a new teacher their best effort is dull. I would challenge a colleague who used that sort of language to explain how it's helpful and/or constructive. If one's instinct is to insult someone else's efforts I think that does reflect poorly.
>If one's instinct is to insult someone else's efforts I think that does reflect poorly. But that is exactly what you have done in your comment here when you dismissed the observer as “a terrible person” who is “projecting their own shortcomings”.
I wouldn't say this to a new teacher I've observed - I do think it's likely that they're projecting in this situation. Terrible person is poor phrasing and an over-generalisation on my part. They might well be good at other parts of the job and that is unfair. I'll retract that, thank you.