Teacher Evaluation in Education
Ah, yes! It’s that time of year once again. Time for some constructive criticism from your immediate superior and/or students as it relates to your job performance. The annual teacher evaluation! This little ordeal supposedly determines what you’re worth to the field of education in general and the school district which employed you in particular.
I never really looked forward to this process. I’ve had some good evaluators and evaluations and some extremely lousy ones. And I’ve always said, “I’m not as good as the favorable evaluations and I’m definitely not as bad as the less favorable ones.” I’m in the middle somewhere. But I’ve had more than a few lousy evaluators in my time and have learned basically to ignore them. For the most part their views concerning my job performance carry little, if any, significant feedback about what I do or don’t do. It’s just a process that I’m pretty much over by now.
I don’t need an individual that sold out of the classroom years ago telling me where I stand as a teacher. And that’s always the individual doing most of the evaluating, you know, the administrator who long ago gave up on working with kids in the classroom setting to “move up the latter” for an administration role. If moving up the latter means becoming an administrator then, well… I’m sorry but I just can’t be that hypocritical.
Most, but not all, of the administrators I’ve dealt with through the years were poor teachers and/or coaches in the first place that are now making a significantly larger paycheck to tell all of us folks in the trenches how to improve our teaching, coaching, or athletic training skills. I’ve often kidded some of these administrators to not bore us real educators with any more “doing it for the kids” speeches. I remind them how they “switched over to the dark side!” when they became administrators. They have no say in the real development of kids anymore. If they did they’d still be in the classroom.
With administration it’s not about the students. Make no mistake what the emphasis is really on. That’s right! It’s about the check! Unfortunately, the real educators who are committed to making a difference in young people’s lives are often at the mercy of those who long ago sold out to the almighty dollar. And now these individuals are responsible for my teacher evaluation? My job performance is defined by these people? I wonder who’s best interest they have in mind?
Good teachers show passion about their subject in the class room and coaching assignments. I’ve heard coaches many times describe how “coaching is teaching”. I agree! Good coaching is nothing more than good teaching! I’m not sure though how some good teachers feel and about certain aspects of good coaching. Many coaches are great classroom teachers. Of course some coaches aren’t they just blow louder whistles and scream a lot.
Dick Vitale has genuine passion for the sport of basketball but, I think, more so for kids. Some people don’t like Dick Vitale because all they see is his ranting, raving, hand waving and use of abbreviations to describe the game and athletic types. What I see is his PASSION! And I’d bet my house that he is an excellent classroom teacher, not just in the subject of basketball either.
In my view of things a good teacher evaluation should be based, in part, on the following criteria:
- They have well defined expectations for student achievement and behavior.
- They say what they mean and mean what they say. They are not tyrants they simply have conviction with fairness.
- They are well organized and show respect for the schedules of students and staff alike. A teacher or coach that can’t “schedule a schedule” and follow it greatly limits their effectiveness as an educator.
- They have passion for their subject matter. Whether or not you like the subject is irrelevant.
- They still have an appreciation for academic standards and will not compromise them. That doesn’t mean they have no flexibility in their daily interaction with kids.
Student evaluation of educators has taken on greater influence in the last 7-8 years particularly in higher education. And don’t think students haven’t figured that one out. Demanding teacher? Watch this! Where’s the evaluation sheet?
And to think that of the thousands of education evaluations done annually in this country most of them are performed by individuals that couldn’t hack it in the classroom and now are relegated to professional critiques. Combine that with an increasingly whinny student and parent population lacking in overall self accountability and you have a system with some serious flaws that won’t be resolved anytime soon.
No wonder many good educators get out of this profession. Such a shame! Our dedicated teachers and students deserve better. Sounds like an administrator said that!
Help a kid smile today! It’s a Win, Win!
Ike
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