Interviews

For the first time in my teaching career, I got to watch a prospective teacher deliver their interview lesson. It was horrible. The person observed was a PGCE student and it all just felt a little awkward because, essentially, he looked terribly under-trained. I don't know where he was studying (I don't really want to) as I wasn't heading up the interview, but it was a little bit embarrassing. The candidates were asked to teach something in English that they are passionate about. I took running internal monologue notes. I will repeat these, now.

• Passionate about persuasive writing? Really?
• Underpitched and nervous.
• Cross-curricular (tick.)
• Seemed to go off task early
• Tone almost too pushy. 
• Am I bored? I think I'm bored. 
• Pace slow
• Overtalks
• By the book. 
• Developed confidence
• Class very quiet (not sure if this is a good thing)
• Some explanations very vague. 
• Not a worksheet. Please not a worksheet. 
• Oh shit; it's a worksheet. 
• Good classroom prescence
• Students on task (note to self: Do they like worksheets?)
• What have they learned at this point?
• Feedback a touch weak and underdeveloped.
• Is task too easy here?
• Could be trained into a good teacher
• Would have liked to see evidence of subject knowledge. 
• Keywords? Spelling? Modelling?
• Questions from class? Have they been taught any developed techniques?
• Resource heavy. No individuality until 30mins in. Why? (Bad PGCE teaching maybe?)
• Is this better than my interview lesson as an NQT?
• Lacks confidence in own skill.
• Potential but trained badly. 
• With confidence, shows personality
• Missing unpicking of learning
• Plenary is quite nice but inherently rubbish. 

It's a roller coaster eh? I don't know what it is this year but it seems impossible to find good teachers to hire. Seems like everyone is leaving and there is a substantial lack of quality in the new students, in this case, seemingly, because they are badly trained and don't take risks. No life. I dunno, maybe something is putting people off...