Thanks for the emails and sharing a few of your experiences with me. I’ve been asked to share a reflection here, and I have reflected! Yesterday when presenting a short talk to a group of principals, I had an attack of nerves. Something that I hadn’t experienced for a long time. I worked through it and ‘got going’, but was perplexed as to why and then? After talking to my sister who does a lot of speaking, she informed me that some people would rather die than speak publicly. Comforting – not really!
She then said, ‘was the stuff you were talking about important to you’. Yes! That was it… Instructional Rounds is important. The Instructional Rounds ning is important.
Why? My motivation is that classroom teachers will be involved in Instructional Rounds. Having been involved as a classroom teacher has been a steep learning curve and probably the best professional development I’ve had, and by that I mean, it has had a direct impact on my teaching.
Yesterday, I shared with a group of principals that the by-product of Instructional Rounds for me is, that it has given me the observation skills to be my own non-judgemental critical friend. As a result, my teaching practice has changed and improved significantly. . . and this will continue.
For me it has also been around the following: If a student did everything I asked them to, what would they know? Good question!
Cheers Nina
Nina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia 