The November CLIC session with principals and central office administrative team were engaged in an activity viewing 2 teaching clips and observing them in the context of teacher as planner, teacher as coach, and teacher as judge.

the focus is on student learning.

Please comment on your experience with the Classroom Observation Form. What were the positives of the process? What were the negatives of the process?

What questions do you have about the process? What comments do you have about the process?

In your opinion, what are our next steps?

From a David DeCoste SAPDC math session, a teacher taught a great way to help students use their fingers in a new and exciting way to learn multiplication facts from 6-9.

good experience     i added a couple of check boxes to the formfile:///Users/georgetoone/Desktop/Teacher%20Observation%20Nov%20CLIC.doc

I am impressed by our principals' involvement in the teacher supervision process and the understanding of how teahing performance will improve because of supervisory practices

The form was a useful tool to engage the staff into the conversation of the 3 different roles -- as some were confused when it was initially shared with them and my intent to use it when visiting their classes. I found that adding information to each part of the form (including sample data) reduced their stress level -- I think they feared that the form was directed more toward evaluative practices, as opposed supervisory practice.

I am currently not comfortable with the observation form that was provided. I feel like there should be more descriptors than just planner, coach, and judge. I believe that there should be more training provided to ensure that all of the administrators are able to see similar things when supervising.

“As thousands of faculty committees have found out, ‘teacher evaluation’ is a hopeless business. There is, thank (goodness), no teacher-meter, and there never is going to be one. A teacher’s major contribution may pop out anonymously in the life of some ex-student’s grandchild. A teacher, finally, has nothing to go on but faith, a student nothing to offer in return but testimony.”  --Wendell Berry, What Are People For?, p.54

I thought the exercise was very beneficial mainly because we moved beyond talking about the skills and processes to experimenting with it and sharing our perspectives with one another.

Good stuff.

I think this is a very valuable experience in introducing us to the ease with which we can communicate and share information.

I am happy to see the beginning of a collaborative effort to develop a policy on supervision that encompasses everything that happens. The members of the policy committee need everyone's input before attempting to edit the existing policy.