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On Being Judged in Our Classrooms – 1
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5 thoughts on “On Being Judged in Our Classrooms – 1”
I always freak out when I’m being observed, especially because I know that whoever comes in “doesn’t get it”.
Then I had the incredible luck of being “observed” by the one and only Laurie two weeks ago. Granted, I was incredibly nervous but I knew that she was there, like Ben says, “for the right reasons”.
We had a debriefing afterwards about every last detail of what happened during the lesson. There was so much honesty, truth and value in everything that Laurie said. But best of all, I have felt energized ever since!!! I can only imagine how much better I could be if I had a Laurie among my supervisors/observers.
I wish you all could have been there!! You probably could have guessed, but Brigitte is an amazing teacher and her students were…mind-blowing!! So much German!! And affection, and humor, and fun. I wish I could have stayed longer….
with love,
Laurie
It’s like a “peeping Tom” without the nudity. I can’t shake the feeling that underneath all of this paper work, I’ll eventually find my class waiting for me! wondering where I’ve been….
As you keep teaching, over the years they will tend to leave you alone and you will be able to hand in stuff that you know they won’t read and you will be able to reach the kids and focus more on them and less on paperwork. The only problem is when new administrators are hired and then you have to restrain them through retraining. It’s part of what we do. So let’s accept that and maybe get aggressive with them by stopping them in the hallway to talk about CI, like I said here in a comment yesterday. Make them hide when they see you coming. The best defense is a good offense. Annick Chen does an amazing thing across the hallway from me. She teaches her kids first. Last year she didn’t hand in a single lesson plan. The principal sought her out about that. I listened in on the conversation, which took place in the hallway between classes. Annick calmly said that her kids are more important than handing in lesson plans and that she knows what she is doing. The principal couldn’t respond to that. That conversation happened in about March and I think Annick may have handed in one or two lesson plans the rest of the year to placate the principal, who in our building is ferocious about such things. I know I know. Annick is a respected expert in DPS and not too many people can give her a hard time. Still, she shows character in how she does that. My point Jennifer is that if you keep teaching you will gain the respect of others in spite of any self doubts (that has been my own experience) because this approach is just so powerful, and as the years to by, there is a point you reach where you could hand in a copy of jGR as a lesson plan and they wouldn’t know. They don’t have time. They largely read lesson plans of new people. Unless they’re jerks.
” . . . get aggressive with them by stopping them in the hallway to talk about CI, like I said here in a comment yesterday. Make them hide when they see you coming. The best defense is a good offense.”
Yessss! I do this! I can’t help it! TCI is like a BIG secret that I just can’t keep to myself. I find it very hard to hold back info about CI, especially with other FL teachers in my district. But I know the true way of change is to get those FL teachers to think change was their idea (inception-style!), so I have to offer a demo and then patiently wait for them to come asking for more! In fact, I send links to my principal of any of my new FL-related accomplishments (published articles or videos). This quote has inspired me to create a document of “Praise Evidence.” With the new evaluation system in MA, they are constantly talking about evidence. So, I’m going to keep an ongoing document where I cut and paste all comments I receive from students, teachers, and parents that praise my class and methods. I already have quite a few entries and we have been teaching for less than 1 month!