The blizzard rages outside, but I am here, warm, by the fire, thinking about the last time I was observed by an administrator in my district. First of all, the administrator observed my class the last twenty minutes of the day, one day before holiday vacation. I was not perturbed, even though this person also knew that the aid that is ALWAYS in the classroom for two students who need support, had left for the day because he had an appointment he couldn't miss. In fact, shock of all shocks, students were involved, engaged, able to answer all his questions, and were all doing what they were expected to do. The learning targets were on the board, the agenda was also on the board, the students were working at their own pace, and they were all progressing well, even if they had not had a lot of experience with composition or piano playing. They were articulate about the differences between 3/4 and 4/4 time, and they were enthusiastic about their knowledge and the project and activities at hand. We had been listening and singing "Farewell to Tarwathie" and had been conducting in 3/4 time, and everything connected to everything else.
Somehow, the administrator managed to find EVERYTHING wrong with the observation, but the problems he found had absolutely NOTHING to do with anything he observed. For the third time since this person began at our school, I felt unsafe, guarded, and defeated by this experience. Frankly, we have been told that this new supervision and evaluation program is supposed to be more helpful for me and them, but all it did was make me feel defeated. Nothing positive was reported, although all of the kids were working well and learning. He wrote in tbe feedback he didn't approve of the way I set up my classroom, but in our discussion, he never mentioned this issue. If he had, I would have explained to him why I set up my classroom in a flexible way, so we can sing, and dance, and act, and move things in many different ways. I have discussed the reasons why I do what I do with my former principal, and he was a stickler, but even he agreed with my reasoning when we discussed it before.
The worst part was that he wrote about things he never observed, and that is not right. He wrote about my writing operas, but he wasn't observing that project. I had already talked to the principal about that a few weeks before, and had agreed to limit my writing from now on, as there is so much emphasis now on writing, it was getting to be too much. I understood that, and shared with this administrator my plans for next year, but he never talked about that- he only criticized what I had done before with writing. He said I needed to talk to the teams about my plans for writing, and I had already told him that I had discussed at great length my plans, and how I used the RACE model and the hamburger model in fifth grade, and how I used a plot development model from the language arts teacher in sixth grade.
I would never say that my teaching is impeccable, I can always use ways to improve. I would only like the observers to be sharing what they SEE, not what they choose to interject from some random complaint by a student. I would rather have them be supportive FIRST and critical second, just as I try to be in my evaluation of my students. If this person treated his students this way, I can only imagine how they would end up feeling at the end of a quarter. I am all for supervision and evaluation, I am all for trying to get better as a teacher, but please allow us to be human, please acknowledge that there is good going on in our classrooms, before you rip us to shreds, please realize how wonderful you might really have it, if you just did a little bit of research before you criticized everything you imagine is happening when you "walk by".
Finally, this person also spoke about how I sit at my desk when he is walking by, does he realize when he walks by it has always been during targeted learning time? Students are working independently on subjects that are not related to music, so they are sitting in different places in the room, and I am at my desk, so I can write them passes to the library or to other teachers they need to see. Did he do his research on this at all? I am sorry to say, he just no longer has a leg to stand on. He needs to find better ways to do his supervision and evaluations, and he needs to be a supportive administrator who you can count on, instead of someone who a teacher might try to avoid at all costs. I doubt anything will come from this blog, but it made me feel much better to write about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment