The worst PE lesson of my career

In 2012, I was attempting to move from being a Head of PE to being an SLT member. At the college I was working at, this meant the role of Director of Faculty (DoF). It was February and two of the then DoFs had announced they were moving on. This meant that opportunity was pending and I believed I would have the chance to apply for my then dream role in the months to come.

 The context 

February was also the period when my college implemented its assessed lesson observation protocols. Every teacher was observed by observers trained by the College and every teacher accrued a grade for that year. As I look back on a model like this, it seems very antiquated but this was the culture of education at that time. I was one of the trained observers and during the cycle of 2012, I observed four lessons taught by others and I awarded the following grade profile:

• 2 x grade 2
• 1 x grade 3
• 1 x grade 4

I had never delivered an assessment of a 4 before. Whilst this blog is not about that experience, it would be fair to say that things hit the fan as a result of that lesson and the feedback I provided.

 My turn 

So, by late February, it was my turn to be observed and assessed. Here are the details:

So, all the usual protocols were applied. I diligently made my lesson plan, ensured it was balanced and moved towards the day confidently. Little did I know, it was going to be a total disaster.

In those days, I cycled to work every day. It wasn’t a long cycle. Approximately four miles. On the day of my assessed lesson, I left my house at something like 07:30 and I would normally have been at work by about 07:50. I got one mile from home and my tire was punctured. I could have gone home but my partner Marta had the car that day. So, instead, I ran through my home town pushing my bike as I went and arrived at college at about 08:25, sweaty and out of breath.

I quickly got changed and started setting up my classroom. A few moments later a student knocked on my door and wanted to talk about their work on the old OCR A-level oral coursework called the E&A. As you would expect, I rushed this conversation and asked them to come back another time but, by the time they left, it was 08:50 and I was very flustered.

I managed to get prepped just in time for students to arrive at 09:00 but internally I was all over the place. Barry arrived and my anxiety levels shot up. The next 30 minutes are a blur. I honestly cannot remember what happened in the first part of the lesson. Barry later fed back to me that I did not share my lesson objectives, that I did not appropriately use a starter activity, that I did not challenge latecomers and so on. I was a mess. Barry even told me that I used an inappropriate description of a race walker performer within my teaching. I cannot remember doing this and it is deeply out of character for me to use unbalanced language.

The second half of the lesson was better. I taught my leadership lesson. I got the students engaged in tasks and we answered some past-paper questions and peer marked them together before working through the mark scheme together on the board and annotating notes to ensure that accurate language was recorded.

But the horse had bolted. My lesson was very mediocre. At very best, this was going to be a grade two lesson and possibly a three and, in the context of my pending desire to acquire the DoF role, I was not feeling good.

During the lesson, Barry had been circulating the students asking questions, etc. This was totally normal in the context of our lesson observation training. I did this too. But, as the lesson ended, Barry left the classroom without communicating with me at all. When I did lesson observations, I always made a point of having a short conversation with the teacher, never giving detailed feedback but always thanking them and letting them know a rough timescale in which I would request to meet them for feedback. Barry didn’t do this. He left without a word.

During break time I was a combination of anxious, upset and, to be honest, angry. I was annoyed with myself and with Barry too and I vented to my colleagues. To me, not communicating with a teacher at the end of a lesson observation was not right. But I made the worst decision of my career later that day. My anxiety had been rising all day and I rang Barry after the final lesson and I asked him what he thought of the lesson. This was a mistake on my part. Barry thought I was asking for my feedback. I wasn’t. I just wanted to have communication and to know where we were in the cycle and when we might meet. But I let my emotions get the better of me and I referred to lesson observation protocols (which categorically stated it was good practice to have a brief word of thanks at the end of a lesson. You see? I’m still not completely over this…) and I told him I thought it was rude. I should not have done this.

Three days later, I met and Barry awarded me a grade two lesson. It was generous, to be honest, and the feedback he provided was fair. I didn’t respond well to the feedback because I was upset.

Then, two months later, I was interviewed for the DoF job. The panel was the principal and the two vice principals, one of whom was Barry. The second question I was asked was by Barry and it was: “James, what happened during the lesson observation? It seemed really odd.” I tried to talk my way around it but the damage was done. Later that day, I was told the disappointing news that I hadn’t been appointed. My feedback was “James, you’re a complicated guy sometimes and we need someone that we can trust.” It was devastating.

10 months later, I left the college for a new job on SLT in a local school.

 Reflection time 

I want to pause at this point and consider what I should have done differently. I cannot control the actions of other people but I could have done any of these things:

• Call Barry as early as possible that morning and tell him that things have gone wrongly. I could have asked whether he would consider a rearrangement.
• Not to engage with the student that visited and politely insist they come back later.
• Rearrange the start of the lesson so that the most passive activity for me could have been the first experience.
• After the lesson, take time to move around, such as go for a walk to try and ease my tension. I needed to wind myself down. Instead, I went straight to the office and vented. In other words, I wound myself up.
• Manage my emotions by realising that there were certain things within my control and others that were not, such as the observer’s conduct.

If I had done any of these things, the lesson and its impact would not have been the disaster it was.

Working at the college is still the highlight of my career. It was right for me to move on when I did and things worked out for me but that lesson and my response to it cost me a great deal. Whilst I can reflect on the nature of one-off assessed lessons and their appropriateness, I have to be honest and state that I taught (in my mind) poorly and that I let my emotions get the better of me when I was experienced enough to not let this happen.

As a subplot, I wanted to let you know that I taught the very same lesson at the same college in the following year’s ALO cycle. It was the week before I left. Within that lesson I took a gigantic risk. And I mean gigantic! I may choose to blog about that next week if there is enough interest out there.

Thank you for reading my blog.