We didn’t get a discussion going on Michael’s blog post from Friday. However, we need to step up on the follow-up email below from Michael. I don’t mean to demand responses here, but this is a serious situation. We just need to know that there are no “leaders” or “experts” here who can answer questions, nor is there a right way to do things. So that means we all have to work together like a tribe. Let’s help Michael here.
Here is the 1st post:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/12/04/studyspanish-com/
Here is the second follow-up post from today:
Hey Ben,
Thanks for posting that article on the blog. I’m surprised that nobody has commented on it yet. Anyways, I just had my post formal evaluation meeting with my Principal. He’s a pretty good guy and he’s on board with us and likes TPRS/CI, but evaluated my performance as “unsatisfactory” in 5 different sub-categories. I was wondering if I could send you a scanned copy of my evaluation and his notes and the lesson plan for that day and have you look it over. My principal always says he’s open to listen to anything that I disagree with, and is willing to take that into consideration in the evaluation, but as I am still so new to TPRS/CI, and especially since this is my first year teaching at the middle school level, I don’t know enough about what good TPRS/CI instruction looks like to really disagree. I’d like to have someone experienced look my evaluation over and help me make the changes I need to make and also let me know the areas I need to employ a bit of “diplomacy” so I can get a fair evaluation. Anyway, let me know what you think.
Michael
Here is my initial response to this. This may be at least in part due to the system this principal has to use in evaluating you. There may be a disconnect there, between what you did and the instrument used to evaluate you. Often, admininstrators are forced to evaluate things that they don’t understand. Would a hospital administrator be the one to comment on a doctor’s treatment of a patient? On the other hand, the critique could be 100% valid, especially since this is your first middle school year. Please send us the stuff and I will put it up here,then we can read it and respond quickly and efficiently with our own comments and maybe you can get the insights you need to not be crushed by this and to make the changes you need to make but not feel like an incompetent shit, which may be one of the intentions of the entire process of being observed. A shitty observation can give birth to a week of mental suffering. Like one of my favorite saints (Francis) said: “Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”