It's great to see others teach

I saw a colleague teach today - it was brilliant.  I really do consider observing colleagues as a real honour - it is a great learning experience and fantastic in the quest to promote the sharing of ideas.  I listen to lots of teachers, who talk about how examination technique lets some students down across a very wide range of subjects.  If they were all taught in lessons in which the activities and the processes involved required the students to think about things in an 'in an exam' situation - even without this being explicit - then, I am sure that this would not be such a regular feature.  Did this structure ruin the lesson?  No!  Did it turn the students off?  No!  A completely mixed ability class was wholheartedly engaged with the learning, with the materials, and most importantly, with the language - the children wanted to succeed.  This was clearly not a 'special' lesson, but was part of the group's ordinary routine.  They were engaged, motivated, encouraged and supported in an expert manner, which was, in turn, designed to help the children not only to use the langauge, but also to be able to answer examination-style question.