Think about your teaching this past week and then answer the following question: "What was the event that most took me by surprise - an event where I saw or did something that shook me up, caught me off guard, gave me a jolt, or made me unexpectedly happy?"
I have a story that I just have to share with the group. I was involved in a situation on 11/3/14 that totally shook me up as a teacher and changed my whole perspective on this job. I would like to preface this story by sharing the fact that I spend approximately 60 hours a week at my school with various duties that I have been assigned to do in addition to teaching. Anyway, on 11/3 I was observed during a 3 minute walk through by my reporting administrator. Long story short, I was given a very poor evaluation. Now, I am the kind of person that can handle criticism and appreciate feedback on what I can approve on. Unfortunately, I was never talked to about the evaluation, just that it had taken place and that it was "poor". I was told, however, that my extra duties were obviously taking away from my ability to perform at my best "instruction-ally". With this information, I immediately requested the removal of my extra duties so that my performance in the classroom could improve. It has become very clear to me that I am not successful when trying to wear too many hats in the workplace. Spreading myself too thin has done nothing but stress me out and affected my ability to teach successfully. Though I enjoy the additional roles that I was given, I am a teacher first and foremost, and I have to know my limits. The system will take advantage of anyone willing to step up and help, but will not help you decide when you are in over your head. For me, it took a bad 3 minute walk-through evaluation, that will forever be connected to my employment record, to wake up and realize that I simply cannot do it all.
Wow! I am so glad you shared this on our blog. I think others in our group have taken on too much as well and could very likely have the same experience. However, unless your class was in the process of burning down the school I don't see how 3 minutes could be that bad. I don't know that I could make any statements to anyone about their performance in just 3 minutes. We should talk about this as I am wondering if there are other underlying factors we could "flesh out" for you.
ReplyDeleteErin...I agree with Dr. Burns. How bad could your class be in 3 minutes? I hope that you, with the help of Dr. Burns, can get to the root of the review. I think that you have taken the right step in letting go of some of your other duties. Your first priority is your classroom. hang in there,I hope you take this Thanksgiving break to relax and come back refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the semester.
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