My Fulbright Year in Taiwan

The purpose of classroom observations is for us on the advisory panel to give constructive feedback to the teachers. However, even though I am doing that, I have also noticed that it’s an incredibly instructive experience for me. I get to be a fly on the wall in other teachers’ classrooms, and see exactly how they teach. In addition, because I’m a third-party observer, I get to watch both the instruction, and the reactions by the students. During the process, I get to see what works.

This is especially useful when I see activities and techniques that are new to me. Sometimes, when I look at the lesson plan beforehand, I think to myself that this or that activity will fall flat on its face. Sometimes I’m right, but sometimes I’m wrong, and those times are the biggest learning experiences for me.

The Chinese have a saying that both student and student learn from each other 教學相長. I have to say that the same is true of teacher and observer. I’m learning a lot from watching the LETs and ETAs in action. After just a half-dozen observations, my eyes have already been opened to many new ways of leading activities.

And I’m getting paid to do this! 😀