" To improve the team, you don't study the scoreboard; you go out and practice. (Bambrick-Santoyo, 2012)."
For too many years we have tried to rate teachers without coaching them how to achieve the goals. The article gives us a glimpse of a weekly debriefing between a first year teacher and her principal. The teacher is praised for what she is doing but together they find one area that the teacher could improve upon. A concrete goal is then set and the principal explicitly guides the teacher on how to meet it. The principal will then return the following week to see the objective being carried. out. Now my first reaction to a weekly meeting was something like this: Feasible -0, Unlikey-50... Not to mention the difficulty of hearing on regular basis that you are lacking in one area. But I read on. The author continued his sports analogy by saying he has coached hundreds of teachers and pointed out that: "The best coaches don't spend their efforts parsing the most accurate way to 'steal' a ball, they spend it training players how to improve their footwork so they can avoid an opposing player stealing the ball in the first place ( Bambrick-Santoyo, 2012)." If the summative evaluation is the championship game; there has to be some practice sessions along the way. The author believes that if the focus remains on coaching, the weekly scheduled debriefings will shift from find what's "wrong" with the teacher, but rather how the teacher is continuing to grow and develop! Still, once a week? Well if you look at Marzano's well researched model of evaluation, there are 41 strategies to measure teacher effectiveness. There is no doubt he and his professional team have put together a comprehensive list of what is going to "work". But how realistic is it to believe that all 41 could be observed in one class period? How realistic is it to think we could master ALL of them? I know if and when I become an evaluator myself, I want my hard working employees to know how wonderful and appreciated their efforts are. Aside from verbal praise the most recognized form of that would come in the documentation of a yearly evaluation. Everyone likes and needs to hear and know they are approved of by their superiors. We all undoubtedly give it all we've got on observation day and that is admirable. But the simple truth is we must humble ourselves and know that to truly be effective and have our students improve on performance, we must improve ourselves. We get caught up in the pressing matters of the day, grading period, impending high-stakes testing, etc. We often lose sight of best practices and treat each day like a drill: survive it without injury ( be it physical or mental!). Should we not approach each experience, semester, year as sweat-drenching training session? We may leave exhausted, but know what we still have to work on. Another reason to support frequently being observed? Amabile and Kramer have researched and found that, “...when workers-teachers included-sense they are making steady, measurable progress , their workplace satisfaction soars and their performance greatly improves (Amabile and Kramer, 2011). Research has shown that shorter, frequent observations permit observers to see a much bigger sample of teaching; five to ten minutes is long enough time to sense the nature of learning that is going on. The more observations the better, the more conversation the better ( Danielson, 2002). So if we want to win, are we willing to take the time to coach our players? How can we afford not to? The more skilled the players, the stronger the team?
References
Amabile, T. & Kramer, S. (2011). The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement, and creativity at work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review.
Amabile, T. & Kramer, S. (2011). The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement, and creativity at work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review.
Bambrick-Sanotoyo, Paul. (2012). Beyond the scoreboard. Educational Leadership, Volume 7 (Number 3), 27-30.
Danielson, C. (2002). Enhancing student achiemement: A framework for school improvement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD
Marzano, R., Frontier, T., & Livingston, D. (2011). Effective supervision: Supporting the art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD
One professional evaluating another has always been tough. Could argue the teachers see the principal perform more often than principal sees teacher. Why the author (not you, Santoyo) chose a competitive model is beyond me. The real growth takes place in a collobarative setting. And, to be honest, I think teachers coaching teachers makes more sense than principals coaching teachers. Each of us who is an administrator comes at each classromm through our own eyes, our own experience, no matter how much training they have had. I have had training in evaluating teachers every year since 1983. You'd think I was an expert. This year its Marzano, last year English, years ago it was Hilda Taba and Madelin Hunter. They come, they go, because no one can nail it down. And I think that is profound. Teaching is an art and a science. It is not subject to assessment based on widgets, or how the widgets perform on tests. More and more of it is about the teacher creating and supporting a climate of learning that is not dysfunctional. Familial. You do that, Sarah. you do that with your peers. You are awesome, and I have never observed you, I just know what exits your room. Thank you.
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