franceslievens | Inspected!

Right after my first break of the day I spotted a familiar face in the hallway: my advisor doing her rounds between the morality teachers she supervises. Being the only morality teacher present, I knew what that meant: inspection!
Bugger that! My written lesson prep is almost non-existent. I make do with the work-sheets I typ out for the kids, and some lines on paper. I have always said that if she would show up unexpected, I'd be thoroughly screwed.
A quick calculation on my part made me decide it was better to wisk her away from the arms of my headmistress, who was already offering coffee. There was no time for chatting, because that would mean she'd end up in my sixth grade, with whom I'd planned a test. A test equals no teaching for at least half an hour, and usualy the complete hour is wasted. Much better were the forth grade, where I had planned a lesson on toys in the past and toys today.
My forth grade are nice kids, who love the morality classes. And with the advisor present, they did that little extra effort they do when kids know something is important. The lesson went smooth and I had fun – even did that tiny bit of extra effort one does when she knows it's important. We had some nice conversations, all the kids piped in, and I jokingly reprimanded my advisor and the kid she was talking with for disturbing the others who were trying to listen.
I thought it went okay. It wasn't this tremendously great lesson, but it was fun, and the kids behaved themselves so I didn't have to be angry with them.

My advisor on the other hand was blown away. She liked it all: the lesson structure, the ideas, the neat work-sheets I make for the kids, the way I explain difficult words. I got a compliment for explaining everything so good to the kids, even though I'm qualified to teach 16 to 18 year olds. She only asked to try to give the kids a bit more activating things to do – especially since this was such a nice class to work with. Another thing she advised was to bring examples along of the old toys we were talking about, or maybe even play those games outside one time. I had thought of doing that, but I'm extra lazy when it comes to lesson prep, and usually am too late to look for old toys to take along to class and play with.

My headmistress was thrilled I got a positive report, and so am I. Finally I have the feeling I'm really trying to achieve something with the kids, and am doing it in a good way. This would never have been the case with my advisor in secondary school.