Formal Evaluation

I was so scared that I wasn't teaching right. You know first year insecurities. My administration has had either my department head or the administration staff themselves come observe my classes at least 5 times. Finally my vocational administrator came in for the formal evaluation.

She sent me an email stating "Please see me Wednesday at 9:00 am to discuss your evaluation". Nothing else - this was sent to me on a Monday so I had two days to worry.

I am proud to say that I had nothing but satisfactory and great comments listed on my evaluation. Now I can relax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I always knew how to teach adult learners, but had to adjust and am still adjusting to teaching teenagers. Thanks goes out to Dr. B, Jesse and all the rest of the staff for teaching me how to manage a class full of crazy and hormone driving teenagers.

Steven Vinsant

Eval

Had my eval today. Just plan on the unexpected to happen. I had more outside class interruptions in one 90 minute class than I normally have in a semester. Mrs Greene was very understanding and had some good ideas for my class. For those of you that have not have eval's done yet don't sweat them. Just do your job and you will be fine.

Week 3 Blog - Went Good!

I can say that this week ended pretty good. Cynthia G. came for my review on Tuesday, during 2 period, and it went good.......................surprise! I prepared for the worst, expected the worst and I guess I covered all of the bases not really knowing it and it worked out. My students were not all angels but I was able to counter act most situations, even removed one from the classroom for behavioral issues, and went on with the class. I had a good surprise at the end of the week. We had to finish up a storage shed for a student from last year by Friday for his parents to pick up. It's a long story and not a good one. The principal made a promise to the parents that it would be finished by Friday. It wasn't finished and 2 advanced students offered to stay with me and help finish it after school. They stayed with me working outside in 40 degree weather till 5:30 to finish it. They were cold when they left, but had smilies on their faces and we had some good conversations while we were doing the work. There are some good kids out there and as teachers we need to not miss those moments when they stand out and recognize them.

I've read some of the other blogs in regards to our professions being a dumping ground for poor or behavioral problem students. It's true...............I have it happen in all of my classes. The majority of them are there because they have been assigned and not by choice. And yes, I have more than my fair share of behavioral issues. I have some of them that they think all they have to do is to cut and hammer in my class and that is all they want to do. My solution now is to keep them busy, keep raising the learning bar in what is being required of them in the class. I let them know that my constructions classes are educational classes, that they are going to have homework, tests, and projects required of them to pass the class. And if they don't do the work, they are going to fail! Their grade is the grade they earn, not what I decide to give them. It's their responsibility to pass, not mine. These are my thoughts right now, and I know it's going to take time, even years for the administration and student body to realize that the Construction Program is not a slough-off program but an education program with high standards that the students are going to have to work and study at to pass. I also realize that the caliber of students who want to take my classes are not going to be at the level of the college bound students. I need to watch and be aware of those students that I raise the educational bar only to the level that is obtainable for them so that they can have success and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Mike M.

The Night Before Evaluations and All Through the House...

Hello out there! It's the night before my 1st spring semester evaluation. I have been a VERY good girl today! I printed all of my paperwork before leaving school today. I set up some equipment and made sure everything would play on cue. I have to provide documentation that I have whined about the safety hazzards (cables, wires,etc.) in my room. I am looking forward to this evaluation- just to have one down and one to go! No, seriously Ms. G always has some good info to share with me. She is very resourceful.

I hope that all goes well for me tomorrow. My class started a lab earlier this week and we'll complete it tomorrow during my consulting session with Ms. G. I used to forget to "say" what the objective for the day was. Now I remember to state the objective to the class. You would think I could remember it since I'm the one who wrote it on the board! HA! Well, until next time BLOGGER NATION...blog on dude!!! Peace!!!

Teacher Evalutions -Whew!

Talk about irony, when I saw teacher evaluations as a possible blog topic late Sunday evening, I said to myself, this might be an interesting topic. The next day I had an unannounced evaluation from one of my administrators. Talk about dejaveau, it was my third evaluation for the 2006-07 school year. Fortunately, everything went well with the evaluation. Whew! I try my best to be prepared daily (Multiple lesson plans for multiple courses), but sometimes my planning falls short. Usually, that is the day somebody comes in to observe. If it does not go well, the perception can be disheartening. One negative experience can change a new teacher’s promising career, depending on the evaluator.
Teacher evaluations can sometimes be intimidating, especially for new teachers. I have been teaching for three years and have had roughly ten to fifteen evaluations, excluding peer reviews and NTI observations. Some were formal while others informal. For me, evaluations are similar to taking standardized tests. Both definitely raise my anxiety level. There are many variables that influence instruction and all should be considered during evaluations. Even with classroom management procedures in place, behavioral issues continue raise concerns for teachers.
Mr. AB made some interesting points discussing the song and dance evaluation routine. I say plan everyday as though you are going to be evaluated even if you are not. It will only make you a better teacher.

Henryl

An "Ooie Gooie" Day.....

For the past two weeks I get sick on my stomach thinking about that Observation Day. And this is not because I have had a previous bad experience. Mrs. M has been so encouraging and always hightlights the positive things. I guess I just want to have that "perfect class" when she comes. So I tried out my lesson on a different class period this week. Can I just say that students love "ooie gooie". While teaching them to don and remove gloves I had them contaminate their gloves with an "ooie gooie" concoction. After they got over the initial "you've got to be kidding me" look, they moved into the "oooo this is so much fun" phase but quickly focused on the real issue at hand: remove these yucky gloves without getting it all over me and everything else. And focus they did. For some it was an easy task but for others it took some time to master. The joy for me was that they never gave up. There were a lot of "high 5'ves" that day and rightly so. Now I look forward to that observation day, not so much for the observation but for seeing those students have fun learning............

Site Visits/Teacher Evaluation

As we all gear up for our scheduled site visits, I thought you might be interested in reading what some other edubloggers have to say about their teacher evaluation experiences. Mr. AB, the author of the blog from the t.f.a. trenches, expresses his opinion on the matter of teacher evaluations in a post on his blog entitled "evaluation song and dance".

Mr AB is a former Teach for America teacher currently teaching in California. If you're interested in reading this post on his blog, click on "evaluation song and dance". Then, perhaps you'd like to weigh in on the matter of teacher evaluations on our blog. I only offer this as a suggestion. You may post to the Blog about anything you like this week.