The topic of teacher evaluations often stirs a mix of anxiety and debate among educators. I feel the stress and anxiety in classrooms all around the country. While these assessments aim to measure teaching effectiveness, they tend to (more often than we’d all like to admit) promote a culture of “performance” lessons—special classes designed to impress school leaders. This raises … Read More
Lessons Learned From Learning Walks
TL;DR: A learning walk can be a fly-by, informal observation, look for and ask about, peer observation, or video observation. You can even do learning walks in other schools. Problems with learning walks can include the purpose, timing, data collection, feedback, and closure. Steven shares 5 planning questions and next steps for learning walks. Lessons Learned from Learning Walks Yogi … Read More
In Defense of the Dog and Pony Show
TL;DR: Evaluators can use teacher observations as an opportunity for growth. They can explore what is right about their teaching and where their talents lie. Evaluators can take the excellent skills demonstrated in the best foot forward lessons and channel the discussions to help them hit that high bar more often. Let’s use our imperfect system to benefit our teachers … Read More
Transparency
TL;DR: Using the resources around you when a lesson isn’t going as planned can help you overcome the obstacle. This post shares a story of the importance being able to adapt when a lesson plan doesn’t go your way and the transparency that helped Jesse understand he was in the right place he needed to be. March 1995 My 4th … Read More