What not to do during an observed lesson...

Ahem...where do I start?

Clearly, the first requirement would be to have the class that you were actually meant to have up to a week before said observation, and for which you have structured a whole 2500-word essay, devised a complete 60-minute lesson plan,including a cover sheet with problems, assumptions, class profile, language analysis, and you have also created the materials from scratch...yes, that would be ideal.
If, however, three days before going back to work you find out that what you are going to have is two classes of German teenagers, on a forced study holiday, on a forced business English syllabus, well, then...maybe this is a good time for that talk with God that you have always put off for lack of time or will.
However, said God is kind of angry for being put aside while you were too busy working, preparing, running, and generally trying to survive on no salary whatsoever and another 800 quid to pay for your diploma, therefore He is going to have a lie-in on the morning of your observation. You expected that, so once more it's a rolling up of sleeves and breathe deeply before starting the lesson with an unknown class.
Once you realise that your material is too optimistic for this class, and that they require a bit more help, forget your assessor and just go with the flow: play the clip one more time, stopping at the important bits so they understand properly; write down a couple of useful words in no particular order, do a bit of CCQ, then move on to the grammar noticing part. Now, this is where you may need to actually help them out at the beginning, but they are quite good, and it seems that slowly, very slowly, they are coming out of their teacher-is-god mindset, and are cooperating to finish the task. Breathe in, breathe out, keep going.
Now, it's time for the guided practice: it should have started a minimum of 7 to 10 minutes ago, but as you will dutifully point out in your evaluation form, you have been responding to your students' needs, not messing around wasting time, so, breather in, breathe out, let's begin the practice, and go around the classroom checking, monitoring, chatting with the students. It seems to be working, very slowly, and at this point the assessor leaves the room, and you can finally collapse in a heap on the floor, before resuming your smiling self and moving on with the practice, and a casual chat with your class...

Feedback to come on Monday, and forecast says it's not going to be positive, unfortunately. No matter the fact that I was teaching an unknown class, that I was so stressed I could barely breathe, that I positively responded to the students' needs and ultimately they used the language appropriately, the assessor will see my messy boardwork (which I had to restructure while the students were working in pairs), my casual instructions (although clearer than usual, I must say), and my running overtime, so that all she could see was the beginning of the guided practice - although I did point out that the students were able to use the target language appropriately by the end of the real lesson, i.e. 90 minutes, because come on, in real life a lesson is not bloody 60 minutes, it's a whole hour and a half, so why messing us around?
Anyway. As I said, I don't expect a positive feedback, in fact I expect to have failed this one. How annoying, especially because it was not (entirely) my fault: if I had had my class as expected, things would have gone fine, because I know those guys and I know that they wouldn't have had problems with that lesson. But clearly, the Delta people are not going to consider that...

So, for now, let's go back to EAP and how to begin the assignment: considering how every book on EAP about writing skills puts writer's block for an introduction as one of the most common problems, perhaps this is not a good idea?

All work and no play...no, the other way around...

Well, after a very relaxing time filled with snow, food, friends, lazy walks and shopping...back to work, back to reality.

And back to the fantastic world of EFL, specifically EAP, the subject of my extended assignment! Well, I've got lots to read about it, and no idea of how to structure the essay, so...good!
At the same time, I should really start with my LSA2, and so far, having been back for a few days, all I've done is..the skeleton. At least I'm not working at school, so I can actually say that I can write the whole thing in a week because I've got nothing else to do!

In other news, there is a lot on my mind. So much that I can barely express it here. In the end, the solution is a class of body balance (tomorrow: dance jam!), a walk to town, a couple of emails, and lots of music. It usually works.

Happy new year, then. May it be a successful one.