In ESOL we often get our students to work on intonation, but I'm beginning to wonder whether mine needs some work as well.
Occasionally, when I am talking students through a particular activity, I ask them a question and they genuinely don't realise I'm asking, not telling, them something. Is it to do with tone of voice or is there another reason?

The peer observation I carried out yesterday was both inspiring and depressing. At the risk of a value judgement, which I of course will not use in the assignment write-up, I must say that the teacher I observed had much better classroom management than me. I suspect that if I tried right now to change the way I manage my classes I would have little success. However, I do have a golden opportunity presented by my leave of absence, which begins next week. My hope is that the students will, by the time I return in the new year, forget how I taught them completely, and so when I come back, I will have a clean slate- or a cleaner slate- to change the way I manage the classes and hopefully make some headway in the constant battle against shouting out.

I suspect that I will be pulled up in the feedback session from my college observation for using sarcasm. But I've been reading a book by a man called Frank Chalk, who says it is one of the "PGCE No-No's That Work". According to him, the secret is to "practice until you can sound absolutely sincere, as in "My word...that's a lovely tattoo you have on your neck. I might get one done myself."" (From 'It's Your Time You're Wasting' by Frank Chalk). Of course, he teaches at a rough, tough inner city school. My classes are somewhat different. That said, the shouting out and poor behaviour does occasionally present itself. Hopefully my time away will give me a chance to read more on classroom discipline, and to ruminate on the lessons I've learned from observing my peer.