Our teachers are asked to be 'on' each and every school day. Even more, they are asked to be 'on' each and every hour of the school day.
There are no 'off' days.
There are no 'off' hours.
Teachers are open and susceptible to being observed at all times during the day and on all days during the week. If kids are at school and kids are in a class, then it's not unreasonable to expect them to be in an environment that's focused on learning.
Sure, the walk-through form that administrators use during their observations is known by the teachers and there aren't any surprises in regard to the administrator 'look fors.'
Transparency is of the utmost importance when it comes to this process.
And, make no mistake, we all have high expectations for our teachers and we expect to see intentionality, purpose, and foresight into the learning opportunities they design and create for their students.
It's a level of commitment to excellence that our kids deserve...
But, what if the same walk-through form that is used by administrators to evaluate teachers was used by teachers to evaluate administrators when they lead faculty meetings and when they lead building and/or district-wide professional development?
We all remember our education classes in college when the instructor said to never lecture for more than 15 minutes and then proceeded to lecture for two hours straight. Don't do as I do, but rather as I say...
I mean, shouldn't we expect our administrators to model appropriate learning methods and learning strategies for teachers just like we expect our teachers to do for our students?
If administrators are responsible for evaluating and growing an entire building's worth of teachers, then surely they shouldn't have any trouble modeling and showing first-hand different instructional methods that could positively affect classrooms in their building...
So, back to my original question... if teachers evaluated their administrators using the same walk-through form that's used on them when administrators conducted faculty meetings and led professional development, would administrators perform at the same high levels we ask of our teachers on a daily basis?
Would our administrators demonstrate the same intentionality, purpose, and foresight when designing and creating learning opportunities for their teachers?
Isn't that a level of commitment to excellence that our teachers deserve...?
Maybe it's not the same... but then again, maybe it is.
There are no 'off' days.
There are no 'off' hours.
Teachers are open and susceptible to being observed at all times during the day and on all days during the week. If kids are at school and kids are in a class, then it's not unreasonable to expect them to be in an environment that's focused on learning.
Sure, the walk-through form that administrators use during their observations is known by the teachers and there aren't any surprises in regard to the administrator 'look fors.'
Transparency is of the utmost importance when it comes to this process.
And, make no mistake, we all have high expectations for our teachers and we expect to see intentionality, purpose, and foresight into the learning opportunities they design and create for their students.
It's a level of commitment to excellence that our kids deserve...
But, what if the same walk-through form that is used by administrators to evaluate teachers was used by teachers to evaluate administrators when they lead faculty meetings and when they lead building and/or district-wide professional development?
We all remember our education classes in college when the instructor said to never lecture for more than 15 minutes and then proceeded to lecture for two hours straight. Don't do as I do, but rather as I say...
I mean, shouldn't we expect our administrators to model appropriate learning methods and learning strategies for teachers just like we expect our teachers to do for our students?
If administrators are responsible for evaluating and growing an entire building's worth of teachers, then surely they shouldn't have any trouble modeling and showing first-hand different instructional methods that could positively affect classrooms in their building...
So, back to my original question... if teachers evaluated their administrators using the same walk-through form that's used on them when administrators conducted faculty meetings and led professional development, would administrators perform at the same high levels we ask of our teachers on a daily basis?
Would our administrators demonstrate the same intentionality, purpose, and foresight when designing and creating learning opportunities for their teachers?
Isn't that a level of commitment to excellence that our teachers deserve...?
Maybe it's not the same... but then again, maybe it is.