#7 Scrambling for Voice, Choice, and Agency
7th release of the serial email story; less than 3 minutes of reading
From: Chance
My thoughts on teacher evaluation
To: Kerry sent - Gmail at 5:02 PM
Hi Kerry—
The teacher evaluation process that you developed with the teachers at your school is brilliant. Its brilliance is in its simplicity. The whole staff figures out the values at the school, and then each teacher goes to work and rate the values twice……first, to determine how important that value is to them as a teacher and next to figure out their personal competence in the area.
The next step after doing a self-evaluation on school values is the truly brilliant part. The evaluation writes itself when the teacher figures out personal goals for professional development based on school values and personal competence. I love that each teacher figures out their own plan for personal, professional improvement in areas that need strengthening.
I hope that Wanda lets you do teacher evaluations the way you designed, even if she insists on also doing that horrible standardized district evaluation based on student test scores.
The bad news for me on the teacher evaluation front is that Stan is coming by to watch me teach the day after tomorrow. Wish me luck….
Chance
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From: Kerry
Re: My thoughts on teacher evaluation
To: Chance sent - Gmail 10:03 PM
Chance—
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, teacher evaluations based on values and professional development is far superior to evaluations based on a few minutes in a classroom and a ridiculous check list that includes student test scores.
Let me know how it goes with Stan.
Kerry
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From: Chance
Stan
To: Kerry sent - Gmail at 9:19 PM
Hi Kerry—
You aren’t going to believe this, but this really, really happened when Stan was in my classroom today….
I am still teaching the SS unit on territorial expansion. I wanted him to see the kids working in their small groups as they were preparing for their ‘trip’ West on the Oregon Trail. It was the second day of OT small group work.
While Stan was in the room, I moved from group to group to answer questions and help keep them on track. They were responding to my prompts. Everyone was learning. Everyone was engaged and energized with the material.
I thought that Stan would love it. I thought he would tell me that kids learning complicated material in an experiential way was great to watch. No, that is not what happened.
Stan told me that he did not see me teach, so he would need to return next week. He told me that I better be in front of the classroom teaching a proper lesson……and with that, he left.
I still can’t believe it.
Is he a dinosaur or what???
Chance
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From: Kerry
Re: Stan
To: Chance sent - Gmail 10:47 PM
Chance—
He is a dinosaur for sure!
Keep your chin up…I have heard about that kind of thing happening before…It is horrible!
Let me know if you want my help in preparing a ‘sage on the stage’ type of lesson for next week.
Kerry