This week in the midst of trying to plan and teach and coach, I received an email telling me to request a sub so I could go to SLO training. First, I thought, wow, I am so far behind they are sending me to training for being SLOW?! Does anyone know the feeling? Then, I do what I always do to avoid looking dense, I asked my wife what SLO stood for. She explained the Student Learning Objectives and how they fit into the Teacher Keys Evaluation System or TKES. Realizing that I am going to be evaluated (50%) on student growth could be a scary thought, but then I realized that this is what teaching is all about. It is about getting a group of students at the beginning of the year and teaching them. When I give my pretest, I will see what they know or don't know, then I do what I have wanted to do all along, teach. Then, at the end of the year with the post test, I assess what they have learned. If I have done my job, then I will see student growth. The great thing about it is the SLO's are individualized, it isn't that all students have to make a 70 or above to pass, they have to raise their score from the pretest from the post test by a certain percentage. To me, this is far better than using a meets or exceeds for all students, because they come to us with all different types of backgrounds and knowledge. So, I felt like this process will help me grow as a teacher--granted they could have used a better acronym than SLO.
JT
I love your sense of humor in your post! Keeping humor in your life as a teacher helps keep everything in perspective. I am glad your wife could tell you what this is all about. I, too, am learning about this new evaluation process for teachers and will need to introduce it in NTI next summer I think :)
ReplyDelete