Today my teacher was being observed for a maths lesson in reception/ yr 1 class. The children started playing up by talking and figeting . one partical girl started to roll around and crawl along under the tables, I tried to get her to come out but she would not come. So decided to leave her as was told last week to ignore her if she started to play up. another child started to play up to by saying this is boring, I told him to try and listen and to behave. In the mean time I was getting bad vibes from the teacher bad looks . They were sat for about 35 mins after lunch. the lesson ended and they all went off to play and I thought everything was alright. The observation was over and the people went. Then the teacher came up to me in a rather ratty way 'he was here to teach and I must really learn how to control the class'. I was really upset by this as I was trying my best and did not want to disrupt the lesson too much by telling all the children off all the time. What would you have done????

i think you did the right thing as if you were told to ignore her if she plays up then thats what you should do. its the teachers job to control the children as well not just yours!

I agree, I imagine the CT was full of nerves at being watched a maybe a bit embarressed by the childrens behaviour. Not all classes have TAs and the teachers have to cope then!

no it is her job to control the behaviour of the class with you following any instructions you may have discussed or been asked to implement

The trouble I find is that he likes everything to go smoothly which we all do?? but if you work with children this does not always happen. When he is going to be observed I sure the children can fill this and play up on this and I do not really blame them.

I was horrified to read that the teacher had blamed you for not keeping control!!! That was downright unprofessional. You were following instructions and had attempted to restore order... I don't see what else you could have done.

what an absolute cheek, surely it's the teacher's responsibility to keep order

I'm not surprised that the kids were playing up, keeping children on the carpet for that length of time at that age is asking for trouble.
Surely if she had dealt with the behaviour positively it would have been beneficial to her observation.
You did the right thing if you were acting on previous advice given on dealing with this behaviour.

I think you did your best to maintain order in the classroom without disturbing the teacher while they were delivering the lesson. The teacher should have had the good sense to see the class were becoming unsettled, either stopped to do some 'brain gym' or told the children that they wouldn't be continuing until everyone was listening nicely. Its not up to you to control the whole class so don't feel bad about it, the one in the wrong is the teacher who is probably feeling sore that they looked incompetent in controlling the class while being observed.

Try and forget about it, you did your job fine from what I've read.

Our job title says it all really - we are the Teachers ASSISTANT!! Therefore we assist the teacher, which is exactly what you did. Sounds like you did the best you could, some kids need to be ignored, sometimes they behave negatively to get attention!

Further I think it probably look bad on him because by what you say he made no attempt to deal with the behaviour.

He was probably stressed out because of the obs, and unware of how rude he came accross.

Dot
xxx

Sorry, never thought of it like that ............. pehaps because all the staff I have worked with have never treated me like their 'assistant' but someone to assist their teaching!!

But I think you understood where I came from!

Bet the assessors wrote down needs to improve behaviour strategies! He should have planned it with you the day before and explained what he wanted you to do. Our SMT tell us not to discipline the children during an assessment unless a child endangers themselves or others. Part of the assessment is to manage behaviour. He was probably upset but needs to learn to be professional you don't blame others. I would be inclined to have a word with him.It was not your fault.