This week’s article really caught my attention. Actually, I like being observed and receiving support and comments from observers. In my opinion there is a cultural negative assumption about observations. In our country (Costa Rica, Central America or at least in the schools I’ve had the opportunity to work for) is not exactly common to have co-workers observing the way you develop the class or how you handle difficult situations with students and giving suggestions on what you supposed to do. This task normally falls to administrators or coordinators of the school. On the other hand, I consider this as an important and totally necessary tool to acquire new perspectives and points of view.
In his article, Michael Israel states the importance of making the “teachers observing teachers” strategy a culture in schools as a way of professional growing.
I would like to read your comments about the following.
What happens when teachers of a school are not being observed?
Can administrators or coordinators require excellent academic performance by the students if they have not taken the time to observe teachers?
Good material !
Shantany ,
ResponderEliminarI was a principal K-12 and I observed a lot of teachers year after year, with different evaluation tools and my conclusion was that effective teachers continued to effective and poor unmotivated continue to be a poor examples of teacher.
I started seeing change in teachers when the school implimented the walk- throughs that model was discussed briefly in Isreal´s article. Every teacher was schedule to oberve not only one classroom but a few teachers in teams and give feedback. I felt teachers started to change and enjoyed oberving classes , giving feedback and getting feedback.
There is a need in every organization not only in education for accountablity.Teachers need to be accountable using a scientific based tasts that shows students are receiving what they need to process the content given to them.
I talked to the principal of a public school today, and he said to me: "I give the teacher 30 or 40 students, and I want the teacher to educate them. If he can't do it then he should quit, otherwise why did he go through university?"
ResponderEliminarThis kind of attitudes illustrate the point that in order to have an effective and positive peer observation, a lot of things have to change in the system, starting at the top.
When teacher are not being observed in a school, they are missing some input from others.
ResponderEliminarI also think that observing is just another tool for teachers. In fact, it really helps a lot.
But it does not mean that a teacher can educate or teach students without being observed.
The ideal model in a school is that a supervisor or coordinator has to observe our lessons, so that if we are missing something or doing something in the way we should not, he or she would tells us and in addition require us the excellence he wishes.
It is true that as professional teachers we should know how to teach but it is also true that from the theory to the practice, there is a long way.
Professional growing it is one of the key words in order to be successful in our job. I strongly believe we have to be open minded in order to be able to receive feedback from our coworkers, since they might have different points of view. What better way to improve our work that helping each other?
ResponderEliminar