I am a very reflective teacher. I reflect in the moment about what I can do to help my students by becoming clearer in my instruction and also, making on-the-fly changes to help support my students. I reflect each Sunday night while I am creating plans for the next week on instruction. I reflect when I do any type of professional development from- reading professional books, to engaging in Twitter chats. I do my most when attending a professional conference.
But...
For some reason, during my evaluation week where my administrators come in and rate me on so many different little elements of my instruction and life as an educator...my reflections become cloudy. They become clouded with doubt and even apathy. Even though evaluations have moved beyond administrators only looking at a 40-minute snapshot and deciding if I am a worthwhile educator, with the 2-year look into my teaching, the actual formal visit to rate me makes my attitude change. I get frustrated.
I get frustrated because my administrators know my teaching, my relationships with students, and my results in the case of data and growth outcomes.
For me, I truly believe that this visit if more of a formality, but it still frustrates me. I guess it always will.
So...
Is there a remedy?
Not really, but I can be intentional in my attitude and approach. I can make sure that I show up with a positive attitude and simply be me...have fun...enjoy my students...and just do what I do to get my regular results with my students.
In reviewing what I am thinking, and wrote above, I see that this is clearly a mindset that I allow myself to fall into when I allow myself to leave my intentional self.
Being who I am...on purpose...makes me the BEST me!
Be Mindful.
Peace.
Mark Levine
#Mindfulliteracy
@LevineWrites
Like you, I found evaluation time frustrating. It always seemed like another hoop to jump through. The process improved the longer I taught, but it still seemed a bit ridiculous. I like it much better when admins pop in a visit and see what happens on a real day :)
ReplyDeleteThe thing I find frustrating about evals is that no matter how objective they try to make them (and my district has done a great job of doing that) there is still so much room for subjectivity. Ours are all unannounced, so we always pray they don't walk in on an off day! I'm sure yours was fabulous!
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