Hello again,

Here’s the next installment in my Less-Stressful Evaluation Series. In this post, I talk about the second state standard for teachers: Creating & Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning.

 

I know these posts are long, and I’m not covering the standards well enough, I know. I just hope that these posts will help new teachers or prospective teachers be more successful when it comes time to get that evaluation.

 

I wish I had something like this when I started back 23 years ago.

 

Ready? Here we go….

 

 

Standard 2.1 Promoting social development and responsibility within a caring community where each student is treated fairly and respectfully

 

Standard 2.1 has to do with the safety of the class. You as the teacher are the person responsible for making your classroom a place where students are free to express themselves and to take risks. For example, I like having my students present in front of the class whenever we have a project due. One of the things I make sure to start each presentation session with is a short lecture on respect. I tell my students that there will be no inappropriate laughing, no negative comments, and if I have to interrupt the presenter to tell someone to be quiet, then it’s an automatic detention. Also, even if the presentation is garbage, I always compliment the student when he/she is finished. I never use sarcasm or in any way belittle the student. Neither do I allow other students to disrespect my presenters. Eighth graders are notorious for their cruelty to each other. I do not allow that in my class.

 

 

Standard 2.2 Creating physical or virtual learning environments that promote student learning, reflect diversity, and encourage constructive and productive interactions among students

 

Standard 2.2 is again one of those standards where you consciously evaluate your classroom’s environment. Although you may have students with different ability levels, you can’t make that obvious in your classroom design. For example, you can’t have the Honors students on one side of the room and the students with learning disabilities on the other side. You can’t have your groups arranged by ability levels either. What happens is that the students will identify themselves as either smart or dumb. They won’t see your good intentions. They’ll only see that they are different, and that will inhibit their ability to learn. Mixing the different groups in  your class may make it more difficult for you, but the point is to do what is best for the students.

 

 

Standard 2.3 Establishing and maintaining learning environments that are physically, intellectually, and emotionally safe

 

Standard 2.3 is again restating what you’re trying to do with the first two standards. You want to make your classroom a place where the student is not going to be treated poorly or without care and concern. We have to remember, some of our students come from home lives where mom and dad are not caring. We need to make sure that our classroom is a place where that child will feel safe and cared for. It may his/her only true escape.

 

 

 

Standard 2.4 Creating a rigorous learning environment with high expectations and appropriate support for all students

 

Standard 2.4 just reminds us to make sure that our work is not just busy work. We have to make sure that our students are going to be stretched to higher levels. Having said that, it would be easy just to give really hard work, but that second part tells me that I need to make sure that the student will have the support to successfully complete that work. I can’t rely on the parents to help the student at home. Many parents don’t have the education required to help the student or they don’t speak the language or they just aren’t there. I have to make sure that the work is challenging, yet complete-able. (I think I just made up that word.)

 

 

Standard 2.5 Developing, communicating, and maintaining high standards for individual and group behavior

 

Behavior is a big issue in 8th grade. Basically, this standard is telling the teacher to make sure that poor behavior is addressed and not encouraged. It would be nice to be able to eliminate poor behavior, but that’s not going to happen. You can, however, make each event a learning experience, by handing out appropriate consequences. You can’t let poor behavior continue. Many of my student teachers will just ignore it, and then what happens? Yup, it gets worse. How do you deal with poor behavior? Well, that’s for another post. That’s for like a hundred other posts.

 

 

Standard 2.6 Employing classroom routines, procedures, norms, and supports for positive behavior to ensure a climate in which all students can learn

 

Standard 2.6 asks the teacher to have structure to the class. Students need to know what to expect when they come into your room. I put an agenda on the board, an objective for the day’s lesson, and I always start the class the same way: Today in American History. This is like a sponge activity where I go over historic events that happened on that particular day. It’s also a place where I celebrate students’ birthdays. Your opening routine sets the mood for the rest of the period. I suggest to my student teachers to come up with a 10 minute class starter that stays the same throughout the year. Students need structure, especially in 8^th grade. The other part is having some way to reward students when they do something good. It can be an early to lunch pass, class money, pieces of candy, etc. Let the kids know that there are rewards for good behavior in your class.

 

 

Standard 2.7 Using instructional time to optimize learning

 

Standard 2.7 is basically telling the teachers to not waste minutes in the period. Sometimes, a teacher will finish the lesson before the period ends, and will tell the class, “Do something quietly for the next 10 minutes.” Don’t do this. Always plan extra. I have to admit, I sometimes have extra minutes left, but I always have a mini lesson in my back pocket, just in case. This comes with experience. Eventually, you’ll be able to gauge your lessons to the minutes in the period.

 

Again, I didn’t cover everything. There is so much more I could have added, but that would make for a really long post.

 

I would love to hear your comments, questions, even complaints.

 

Next time I’ll talk about the third standard: Understanding and Organizing Subject Matter for Student Learning.

 

Until then,

 

Thanks,

 

Sam

Hello again,

 

This post is part of my The Less Stressful Evaluation series. As I stated in my last post, I just had my post-observation meeting with my principal, and it went fine. She had no complaints or concerns about the lesson that she observed. Whew!

 

Even though I’ve been through a million of these observations, it’s still a little stressful to have to sit down with your superior and talk about your job performance.

 

In the beginning of my career, most of the focus was on keeping my class engaged and on task. Now that I’m in my 23rd year of teaching, however, I’m focusing  on fine tuning my teaching skills, and although I’m at that point in my career where I’m confident with my abilities, there is always room for improvement.

 

This year, the evaluation process has become a little more detailed. Administrators are required to evaluate teachers based on some state standards that have been created.

 

In the following posts, I want to take these standards and discuss how you as a new teacher can find more success in meeting these goals. I would appreciate any help from other experienced teachers who would like to weigh in with their suggestions. I am the first to admit that I don’t know all the answers.

 

So here we go…

 

State Standard for Teachers #1: Engaging and supporting all students in learning

 

Under this standard, there are six subcategories:

1.1 Using knowledge of students to engage them in learning

1.2 Connecting learning to students’ prior knowledge, backgrounds, life experiences, and interests

1.3 Connecting subject matter to meaningful, real-life contexts

1.4 Using a variety of instructional strategies, resources, and technologies to meet students’ diverse learning needs.

1.5 Promoting critical thinking through inquiry, problem solving, and reflection, and

1.6 ​Monitoring student learning and adjusting instruction while teaching

 

In each of these subcategories, I was given a score of U- Unsatisfactory, E – Emerging, P – Proficient, or A – Advanced.

 

Thankfully, I was given either a P or an A in each of them.

 

The whole point of this standard is to encourage the teacher to get to know their students, and use this knowledge to make the information more relevant and engaging. I’ve said it before, anyone can teach from the textbook. It’s easy to teach from the textbook. The only problem with teaching from the textbook is that you’re not taking the students’ prior knowledge, background, life experiences or interest into account to make that information interesting for the student. Why? Because the textbook doesn’t know your students. It’s written for the typical student, and you probably don’t have any “typical” students in your classroom.

 

What I tell all my student teachers is to read the textbook to find out what the kids have to know. Then, use the students’ experiences to make that information relevant.

 

For example, when I teach about the American Revolution, I tell my students that the colonies and England were once one country, but then the colonies declared their independence, and after a war, they won the right to be their own country. The students have to know this, but explaining how this happened isn’t really relevant to 8th graders until I compare it to something that they can understand.

 

I tell them that it’s like when a boy and a girl start dating. Now I have their attention.

 

In the beginning, things are beautiful. He calls her every evening. They spend all day at school together. At the end of each call, she tells him, “You hang up first.” Then he says, “No you hang up first.” They’ll spend the next 30 minutes not hanging up first.

 

Then little things start happening that begin to strain the relationship. He’ll stop calling every night. She’ll start talking to other boys. He’ll hang up first.

 

Eventually, the relationship will end in a break up.

 

That’s when I connect it with the “break up” of England and the colonies. Little events (The Stamp Act, The Tea Act, The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, The Coercive Acts, The Battle of Lexington and Concord) eventually led up to American Independence.

 

This is how you engage your students – connecting the content with their personal lives.

This will satisfy standards 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3.

 

I make sure to remind them that dating in the 8^th grade is a bad idea.

 

Standard 1.4 can be met by including PowerPoint, the LCD projector or an overhead projector, streaming videos, etc. to your lessons. Again, your goal is to engage students. It’s difficult to do this with just the textbook.

 

Standard 1.5 can be met by adding a question and answer element to your lesson. This should be part of any quality lesson plan, but as the teacher, you need to make sure that some of the questions are the kind that force students to think a little. Asking guessing questions or yes/no questions is good too, because you can get more students involved. It’s easy to guess. Your goal, however, should be to stretch their minds a little with higher-level thinking questions.

 

Standard 1.6 can be met by just listening to the students. If there a lot of questions or blank stares, it’s probably because your lesson was beyond their level of understanding. You have to be willing to stop and start from the beginning. I’ve seen too many of my student teachers rush through a lesson just so they can finish it before the period ends, without even checking to see if the students were getting it.

 

This first set of standards is basically asking the question: Is my lesson connecting the content with the students’ lives?

 

If you center your lessons around what’s important to the students, then you’ll have more of their attention and they’ll be more engaged.

 

I heard someone once say, “Students who are engaged in the lesson are students who are learning.”

 

I agree.

 

Come back tomorrow (or the next day), and I’ll discuss Standard #2: Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning.

 

Until then, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

 

Thanks,

 

Sam

 

 

I just received my official evaluation this year. This is where I sit down with my principal and go over what she saw when she came into my class and observed me as I gave a lesson.

In my school, I am officially evaluated every other year. I used to get all nervous when the administrator would walk in to conduct the evaluation, but not anymore.

Well, maybe a little. At least I don’t get tongue-tied or start sweating like I used to.

For those of you new to teaching or preparing to become a teacher, you’re going to have to deal with the official evaluations. These are what administrators use to either recommend that you continue working at that school or to document why you won’t be asked to return next year.

 

As of now, once you’ve completed two years as a probationary teacher, you become tenured. That is, you can’t be fired without a long drawn our process which most administrators aren’t willing to go through.

 

There is a movement, however,  to eliminate tenure for teachers, making them have to earn their position every year. They’re trying to get rid of lousy teachers more easily. I have my opinions about this, but that’s for another post.

 

As part of the evaluation process, I had to come up with two professional growth goals that I turned in to my principal at the beginning of the year in our pre-observation meeting.

 

Here are the goals that I submitted this year:

 

 

1. To use email to make more positive student recognition more consistently.

 

and

 

2. To become more proficient with the new computerized student records program to better monitor and assess the progress of my students.

 

These are two goals that I’ve noticed that I’m a little weak in. I’m pretty good at contacting parents, but most of the time, if not all of the time, it’s because the student is being  a knucklehead in my class. What I’ve always wanted to do is make more positive contacts, but up until recently, it’s been something that I’ve always put off. Now that most parents have email, I can send off small messages to recognize those kids who are doing well. We all like to have our work appreciated. Our good students need a little pat on the back sometimes too. I love it when I get a note from my son’s teacher telling me that he’s did something good. It’s a reflection on me. That is why I’ve decided to focus on this year. I’m still working on it. I’m improving, but I can do better.

 

The other goal is to learn this new computerized program we have. I started teaching back before they had computers in the classroom. Now everything is computerized, so we are doing our attendance, posting grades, compiling test data, all on this new computer program. I want to become an expert on it. I’m almost there too. Teachers come to me when they have questions. Most of the time, I know the answer.

 

So, if you’re a new teacher, what are some goals that you would include in your pre-observation meeting?

 

Here are some goals that I would have put down when I started. (By the way, when I started, there was no accountability for teachers. I was given a classroom, a textbook, and left alone. Times are a lot different now.)

 

1. Collaborate more with experienced teachers to come up with different ways to deliver the content.

2. Better meet the needs of my students with learning disabilities, students who are English learners, etc.

3. Take an online course to improve my knowledge of my subject matter.

4. Make more parent contact.

5. Create a journal of my experiences in the class, documenting what worked and what didn’t. This could be in a form of an online blog.

6. Improve my use of technology in the classroom, incorporating PowerPoint, streaming video, Internet, email, etc.

 

What other professional goals would you add to this list?

 

What I’d like to do in the next few posts is dissect my evaluation, and explain what you can expect when you go through the process. In the beginning, it can be a little intimidating. Basically, you’re being graded. It can be kind of stressful when the principal walks in your room with a clipboard and sits in the back of the room. I’ll try and share what I’ve learned over the years, and hopefully give you some tips to make it not so scary.

 

Talk to you soon,

 

Sam

 

 

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