Who am I?

I'm a passionate teacher who is constantly looking for better ways to connect my students to content and concepts. These are some of the best resources and ideas I've found and how I use them with students.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Evaluations- Harness the Power!

 When I started teaching, I was observed and evaluated at the most once a year and at the least every four years.  There were only two markings, meeting standards and not meeting standards, and no matter how ineffective a teacher was there were always ways for the principal to mark the teacher as meeting standards. While I did have some principals that put the time in to make me better, mostly because I wasn't great, I also had some that didn't even show up in my class and just asked me to sign the report.  I did become a better teacher during this time, but it had nothing to do with evaluation and feedback, I simply wanted to be better.  This is all changing now.  Rigorous and frequent teacher evaluations are here to stay because every research point out there says that better teachers have better student outcomes.

All of this may be true but that doesn't change some of the other outcomes of teacher evaluations.  They feel bad.  They feel scary.  They put barriers between teachers and principals that hurt relationships. They can vault a teacher into better practice, but they can also push a teacher into a spiraling funk of depression and fear.  Evaluations can offer an outside glimpse of internal practice, but only if the evaluator is well trained and experienced.  And yet, deep reflective feedback is invaluable to helping guide teacher practice.  Parents and communities are demanding a higher amount of accountability in teachers and growth in students.  In other words, regardless of the problems, rigorous evaluation is here to stay.

There are as many systems of evaluations out there as there are school systems and education books, While I'm sure that there is "best practice" somewhere out there in the muck, I'm certainly not qualified to say what it is!    In the system I am in now, I am formally observed three times a year and have multiple opportunities for informal observations as well.  Here are some suggestions on how to use evaluations, regardless of system, personale, or philosophy. 

1. Don't perseverate on feedback being completely fair.  Evaluations will never be completely fair, just like there is no perfect reffing in an NFL game.  Observations are based on perception and grounded in philosophy.  Teachers can spend a lot of time and soul energy by concentrating on aspects that seem unfair, but that won't help anyone.  

2.  Think in terms of deepening.  Maybe you don't agree with a "ranking" or a number, maybe you think that the comments were inaccurate, but stop yourself and say, "OK, I don't need to believe this statement 100% to deepen my practice."

3. Always ask the evaluators for clarification.  The principals and peer evaluators I work with are doing this job to help teachers build understanding   They WANT to help you.  When faced with a statement I'm not sure about, I try to paraphrase and ask a question to make sure I get it.  I'm also never afraid to ask questions like; what would this look like, can you give me an example, do you have any resources you can suggest.  

4.  Before leaving the table, make a list of a few things to concentrate on.  Tape the list to your computer and make that the focus of your lesson planning each day.  Over a couple of months you will start to see that the items on the list are now entrenched in your daily practice.  

5.  Get help from peers.  There are a wealth of strategies and techniques to be learned in your building.  Take one planning period a week and use it to visit different classes.  You may see things you want to steal, you may see things you hate, you may see things you don't understand, but, you will always see things that help you reflect on your own practice.  

There are going to be good and bad systems of teacher evaluation.  There are going to be fair and unfair ways that the evaluations are used.  Teachers can address these through unions or teacher leadership organizations.  However, no matter what the system is, teachers can make the choice to grow through the evaluation process, improving student learning and their own craftsmanship.

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