My first year teaching, I used to get the same feedback on every observation my principal did: "Where's the teach?" Like other first year teachers, I had NO IDEA what this meant. She put this on several of our observations and all of us together could not figure out what this meant. When we'd do peer evaluations we'd put that on our comments we'd leave, mostly as a joke, and would laugh about it later.
Here's the thing, the feedback we got that was in plain language was extremely helpful, but this "where's the teach" comment was so distracting, that it got in the way of my implementing some of the other more obvious suggestions because, in my head, I decided all of the feedback made no sense.
Finally, I decided to stop being confused and went to talk to my principal. We had one on one conferences after every observation, so I'm not sure why I took so long to ask. Maybe I was too shy about admitting I didn't understand something? Who knows, but once I asked she explained. The real question was "what are you teaching today and how is your instruction leading yoru students toward that objective?" Why didn't she just say that?!
The crazy thing is that now I do that to my students and am trying to stop.
When I was growing up, teachers would return essays with all kinds of symbols and codes that I needed a special book to decode. That's not an exaggeration, there was a required book that we all had that had a glossary of symbols in the back. I'm not that cryptic, but I do put words like "weak" or "Needs Work" or random question marks all over the place.
It's no wonder the revisions comeback with few of the changes I want to see. How am I fixing it? Doing what my principal did, having one on one conferences. I'm putting "come see me" if I have so many comments that I can't just write it on the paper.
How did I get this way? Since when did I become a person that replicates the things I didn't like that other people did to me? Why did I decide to do EXACTLY what I didn't think was helpful as a student and a new teacher? Sometimes I amaze myself in a bad way.
Step 1 to high quality feedback is clear precise language. That goes for teachers, administrators, and students.
Related Articles:
Dallas Students Demand Feedback
Evaluating Dallas Teachers
Strong Observation and Feedback - Feeling appreciated
Long Spot Observation - Dallas Teacher Evaluations
Friend and colleagues in Dallas Education
Why Evaluation Systems Fail
Here's the thing, the feedback we got that was in plain language was extremely helpful, but this "where's the teach" comment was so distracting, that it got in the way of my implementing some of the other more obvious suggestions because, in my head, I decided all of the feedback made no sense.
Finally, I decided to stop being confused and went to talk to my principal. We had one on one conferences after every observation, so I'm not sure why I took so long to ask. Maybe I was too shy about admitting I didn't understand something? Who knows, but once I asked she explained. The real question was "what are you teaching today and how is your instruction leading yoru students toward that objective?" Why didn't she just say that?!
The crazy thing is that now I do that to my students and am trying to stop.
When I was growing up, teachers would return essays with all kinds of symbols and codes that I needed a special book to decode. That's not an exaggeration, there was a required book that we all had that had a glossary of symbols in the back. I'm not that cryptic, but I do put words like "weak" or "Needs Work" or random question marks all over the place.
It's no wonder the revisions comeback with few of the changes I want to see. How am I fixing it? Doing what my principal did, having one on one conferences. I'm putting "come see me" if I have so many comments that I can't just write it on the paper.
How did I get this way? Since when did I become a person that replicates the things I didn't like that other people did to me? Why did I decide to do EXACTLY what I didn't think was helpful as a student and a new teacher? Sometimes I amaze myself in a bad way.
Step 1 to high quality feedback is clear precise language. That goes for teachers, administrators, and students.
Related Articles:
Dallas Students Demand Feedback
Evaluating Dallas Teachers
Strong Observation and Feedback - Feeling appreciated
Long Spot Observation - Dallas Teacher Evaluations
Friend and colleagues in Dallas Education
Why Evaluation Systems Fail
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