Module 6, Unit 4, Activity 3
As my Teach Now cohort and I get ready to enter the phase of our program which includes student teaching, emphasis will begin to be placed on assessment and mentoring. I have been teaching for a number of years now so am of course used to my school’s evaluation system already, but it’s also nice to be able to think about getting new, more regular feedback.
The subject of teacher evaluations has been running through my mind since Module 6 when we looked at high-stakes assessment and teacher evaluations. For this assignment I interviewed others on teacher assessments and learned that teacher assessments in the Netherlands can vary greatly from those in the US, for example. At my school, we typically have one teacher evaluation per year consisting of an in-class evaluation. It is treated as more of a formality - we know well in advance when the observation will be; there is a relatively short letter given at some point afterwards (in my experience it has been either satisfactory or praise for my work - I imagine that a teacher needing more improvement may well have more feedback sessions but that hasn’t been in my experience so far).
Two other methods of evaluation were discussed in class as well. The first is Ohio State’s new teacher evaluation system (http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Teaching/Educator-Evaluation-System/Ohio-s-Teacher-Evaluation-System). The Ohio system puts equal weight on in-class teacher observations, as well as on student results. In their old system, these were the only two criteria. In the new system they are able to incorporate one more method such as peer review or student review into the evaluation for feedback. Unfortunately, this last item counts for little of the whole evaluation (15%), but I am glad it is in there. There are many teachers who may achieve more in “soft” skills and value to students than hard academic results, such as those who really connect personally with students, provide very positive faculty and student energy, etc. These teachers are valuable but can be overlooked when assessing numbers alone.
The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) strives to do this, in that the goal of the system is to look at the value the teacher adds to the student body as a whole without basing this on state standards (http://tn.gov/education/topic/tvaas). I believe this type of system is one where I would prefer to be evaluated as a teacher, given that my school (and most schools, for that matter) have special circumstances that make it unique and I would like to be evaluated with my skills and attributes in mind rather than test scores.
For the current module we watched a film about Teacher Evaluation preparation (http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Teaching/Educator-Evaluation-System/Ohio-s-Teacher-Evaluation-System). This helped shed light on the way evaluations happen at other schools. There are a few things I like about the method in this video:
- The post observation meeting is done on the same day as the evaluation. This is great, because it allows an engaged discussion on the actual lesson and specific points.
- Feedback sessions happen four times per year. Granted, this may actually be a little too frequent - but what I like is that they happen more than once per year so you can show improvement or at least have more than one chance to show your stuff.
For the next months of mentoring I will also try to adapt the pre-evaluation system that I watched in the film, but would like to do so more openly. I found that the film’s pre-meeting was like a precursor to a test; what I feel will be more effective is to discuss my plans and really allow for experimentation in my lesson - to tell my evaluator what I would like to experiment in doing and ask her specific observation questions, including those related to specific students, learning challenges, classroom management issues, and anything else challenging me. In other words, I would like to help direct my evaluations with challenges I know I am facing, so there is constructive help and mentoring in my work, not just “testing.” More of the stuff we hope to implement for our students, too!
