Evaluations are always a difficult task as the individual
being evaluated. It is difficult because sometimes we don’t like to be judged,
especially when it is by a stranger and not a close acquaintance. It is
extremely difficult when it is for your profession, this is something teachers
must go through. I looked at two different examples of teacher evaluations. One
was a video on the teaching channel in East Williston, NY and I looked at the
process that teachers in the state of Washington go through.
There were some similarities and differences in each
approach. The one in New York had 3 processes that they must go through. They
do a pre-evaluation, the evaluation, and a post evaluation. The process was to
make sure the teacher and person evaluating knew what was going to be going on before
the class, and evaluate that process during and review it after. I really
enjoyed that because I believe it got a clear understanding of where the
teacher was going for the lesson. They could also talk about what the person evaluating was expecting so you knew how to prepare. Specifically in the video one of the examples
didn’t turn out the way the teacher would have liked, however she had a backup
plan and the administrator evaluating could see that she was prepared. The person evaluating knew
where the teacher was going with this and was able to understand the adjustment.
I also really enjoyed the post evaluation because the teacher was able to see
what she was doing right and explain some of this mishaps.
The other evaluation process I looked at was Washington’s
process. They have a four-tiered system with eight criteria points. The
criteria is; development and implementation, frameworks and rubrics, training
modules, rater agreement, student growth, professional learning, eVAL. I think
that moving to a four-tier system from a two-tier system gives more opportunity
to be adequately evaluated. They also tie the teacher and principal criteria
together through this system. Another key aspect that seems to stick out to me
that the previous did not was focusing on student growth specifically. The evaluation
highlights legislation, rubrics, and resources so the educators have the knowledge
of the importance in terms of student growth.
Now overall for my personal belief I believe that teachers
should be judged on student development. Now when I say this I don’t mean the
scores that they receive for standardized testing. I don’t think this an
efficient way to judge a teachers worth. Instead I mean directly speaking to
students from the class. This was something that seemed to be lacking in both
evaluations. I would like the person evaluating to talk to some of my students, to ask
them if they feel like they are developing from my teaching. That seems to be
the most important aspect. I also think we should be judged on creativity in
the classroom. Students don’t always learn from standard textbook learning, I
certainly didn’t. The ability to add variation to your learning should be
taking into context. Overall I understand the importance of evaluation and am
excited to have them done when I start teaching.
