Resentment: noun - 1. bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly

Okay, so treated unfairly is maybe a bit extreme, but do I resent having to do TPEP? You're damn right I do. Skip down to the last paragraph that begins with EVIDENCE if you don't have a lot of time or a huge interest in TPEP.

I have spent approximately ten hours so far jumping through the hoops that comprise the Comprehensive TPEP. First was taking the Self Assessment which covers the 8 essential criteria of teaching and ranking myself. Here I can also upload and link to evidence as to why I believe I meet the criteria (proficiency) or exceed it (distinguished). Of all the time spent on TPEP so far, this was actually the most useful as it provides a report that gives a decent breakdown of where I am on the continuum. And it seems to confirm what I already suspected about myself as a teacher, although that really shouldn't come as a surprise since it's a self-assessment. I didn't keep close track of how much time I spent self evaluating, but it isn't really something you can honestly do in one sitting.

Next came entering my Goals. There are two areas: one for evaluator assigned goals, and one for self-assigned. And to be perfectly honest, this is not what I did next, because as a computer electives teacher my goals are pretty much the same every year, so I waited quite a while to complete this section in eVAL. And since computer electives aren't tested by any standardized test,  I am sort of a free agent as far as setting the goals for my students. One day, which I have been told is coming, computer skills will be part of mandatory testing and the fun will stop. That is not to say that I approach teaching computer skills to my students all willy nilly. Over the years my Professional Learning Community (PLC) has gone over the NETS and STEM standards (here I would provide a link, but there are no official STEM standards. Google for yourself and see) and we have aligned our curriculum and projects with these standards to provide what we believe to be an educationally sound introduction to computing for middle school students. But as this is a Comprehensive TPEP and my initial goal of 6th graders demonstrating growth in keyboarding speed and accuracy wasn't enough, I also must show student growth with some sort of test. (The speed and accuracy test in keyboarding not being enough for some reason). So, I have assigned self-growth goals to my 8th graders and can show their pre & post test scores via Edmodo posts. This I suppose would come under evaluator assigned goals, but my evaluator has informed me that she is not using the eVAL system for a variety of reasons not least of which she believes I am the only teacher in the building (about 60 teachers) who is using eVAL and that she is retiring at the end of this school year. And who can blame her? I would be retiring if I were in her shoes as well and had to manage 20+ TPEPs from throughout the year. Entering my goals into eVAL did not take long at all.

Observations are next in eVAL, but since my evaluator isn't participating electronically, I guess I will have to scan her notes and upload them. The observation went fine as they always do. My classroom management skills are excellent, and the students were performing a self-assessment on the RPG games they had created. No time has really been dedicated toward observations via eVAL so far.

Evidence ugh. If anyone is still reading this, and this is a blog post that only a mother or someone with a huge interest in TPEP could love, this is where I begin to seethe with resentment. This is soul-sucking. Create the Artifact (most likely a screenshot of an email, or a file that demonstrates hallowed student growth, etc), Title it, Describe it, What is the alignment of the selected artifact to the district's adopted instructional framework? What is its context? Describe the setting, purpose, and background of the selected artifact. Choose from amongst the 35! choices available to you in the State Standards and the 26! choices available in the Instructional Rubrics Alignment and THEN reflect: What is the significance of the selected artifact? Why was it selected as an example of your proficiency? How does it demonstrate growth? Now repeat this ad naseum. Well, not exactly ad naseum. Repeat this for each one of the 8 teaching standards. For some reason I have uploaded 11 artifacts. Here are some random rants that bounce about in my head as I click and type away: Why is this my responsibility? Why do I have to 'prove' anything? Who thought this was a good use of my time?  When did my evaluation become my job? To be fair, I appreciate the opportunity to give some input, but this is ridiculous. Who thought this would be a good use of anyone's time? I know teachers WHO ARE TAKING TIME OFF to do this. Did the legislators forsee this? With each addition I make there's a box I can click that says, "Notify your evaluator of changes'. Can you imagine that? Let's say there is a school that has its teachers ALL using eVAL and they are ALL constantly updating the principal on their TPEP changes. Is this really the best use of the principal's time? Is this supposed to help me be a better teacher, if so how? A teacher who excels at this kind of stuff is probably the most boring teacher in the world. Where was the union when this was pushed through? How could they allow such nonsense? Now I am NOT a union type of guy, but going through this makes me want to sign up to be a rep!

Resentment: noun

1. 1.

   bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly.

Barnum & Bailey's 3 Ring Circus

I have jumped through some hoops in my professional career. But the TPEP hoops make the circus look as active as a yard sale in a cemetery. Have just spent about 4 hours entering evidence and such. More after I have recovered.

TPEP Principles - Removing the Soul of the Teacher

TPEP Core Principles

Quality teaching and leading is critically important.

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Professional learning is a key  component of an effective       evaluation system.

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Teaching and leading is work  done by a core team of           professionals.
 

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Evaluation systems should reflect and address the career continuum.

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An evaluation system should consider and balance “inputs or acts” with “outputs or results.”

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Teacher and principal evaluation models should coexist within the complex relationship between district systems and negotiations. 

The above principles remind me of this scene from Dead Poet's Society. The 'Core Principle's come from the same stuff Mr. Keating has his students rip out. If you start believing this pap you'll lose your soul as a teacher. Can teaching be analyzed? Sure. Is quality teaching important? Of course. All of these 'principles' make some sort of sense and for the most part cannot be argued with. But if you're teaching solely for the purpose of attaining student growth data via these principles you have bought the introduction to poetry. And yet, that is what TPEP is forcing me to do. So please forgive me as I ignore Mr. Keating and begin analyzing down to a gnat's ass (as my Dad would say) my performance the 8 Criteria of Teaching.

I begin each year with an enormous 'To Do' list. I carry it around with me and add and subtract to it. It is filled mostly with mundane tasks, but occasionally contains creative things that I would like to try. When I first began teaching it was relatively easy to implement creativity in my classroom. Being creative was something you wanted to demonstrate during an observation. Just make sure your lesson followed the district format ITIP (Instructional Theories into Practice) and you were pretty much free to teach whatever you wanted. It was assumed that the teacher would teach the curriculum according to his or her professional opinion. My planning consisted of opening the teacher's edition, scanning the objectives, looking at the plans, and then deciding what to keep and what to throw away. I might focus on one aspect in say, a history lesson according to my personal strengths, background knowledge, and of course what areas I thought the students most needed, whereas another teacher would focus on a different parts for their own reasons. I was a sort of independent educational contractor who used the curriculum provided by the district to construct a lesson and one would hope a positive learning environment. Those days are gone for all teachers because we are no longer trusted to be professionals. I could write more about that and hope to. What I would really like to do is work on my messy to do list above, but RCW 28A.405.100 dictates I demonstrate my effectiveness at the 8 Criteria and their 67 underlings. So let's begin.

Teacher Evaluation Criteria (RCW 28A.405.100 (2)(b))

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1. Centering instruction on high expectations for student achievement.
2. Demonstrating effective teaching practices.
3. Recognizing individual student learning needs and developing strategies to address those needs.
4. Providing clear and intentional focus on subject matter content and curriculum.
5. Fostering and managing a safe, positive learning environment.
6. Using multiple student data elements to modify instruction and improve student learning.
7. Communicating and collaborating with parents and the school community
8. Exhibiting collaborative and collegial practices focused on improving instructional practice and student learning.

Criterion 1: Centering instruction on high expectations for student achievement & other mumbo jumbo

2b Establishing a Culture of Learning

This is mumbo jumbo by the very fact that the first sub-category of Criterion 1 is not 1a, but 2b. There was an explanation given for this, something about the different evaluation models didn't align properly so 2b made more sense than 1a. The amount of taxpayer dollars that paid for the salaries of the individuals while they debated this fine point in some committee could probably have purchased a new computer lab for an at-risk school. But enough! I decided I am Proficient (see certificate above which is not mine)  at establishing a culture of learning and below are the reasons and the evidences why:

High expectations for learning being the norm for most students.

The Proficient rating states in part: '...learning is valued by all, with high expectations for learning being the norm for most students'. I thought I would ask my students themselves. This poll was sent to all my 7th and 8th grade students. It would appear I have met the norm.

Classroom interactions support learning and hard work.

I think this exchange shows a support of learning and hard work. 

Planning Conference Summary

So the planning conference didn't go quite how I expected, but went well enough. The questions below are apparently an official questionnaire one has to go through with TPEP. At least it is for the Danielson model. I'm sure it was probably included somewhere in some of the dozens of documents we're handed and expected to go through at the beginning of the school year. It would have been nice to have this all ready to go, but my supervisor was very flexible and we took what we would be doing as a class that day. My document states that the Planning Conference is optional if the below questions had been answered ahead of time, but I much benefited from going through them with my supervisor. 

PLANNING CONFERENCE
Questions for discussion: 

1. To which part of the curriculum does this lesson relate? 
2. How does this learning fit in the sequence of learning for this class? 
3. Briefly describe the students in this class, including those with special needs. 
4. What are your learning outcomes for this lesson? What do you want the students to understand? 
5. How will you engage the students in the learning? What will you do? What will the students do? Will the students work in groups, or individually, or as a large group? Provide any worksheets or other materials the students will be using. 
6. How will you differentiate instruction for different individuals or groups of students in the class? 
7. How and when will you know whether the students have learned what you intend? 
8. Is there anything that you would like me to specifically observe during the lesson? 
9. How and when will you know the students have learned what you intend?
10. Is there anything that you would like me to specifically observe during the lesson. 

TPEP Evaluation Forms and Procedures

This is a 62 page PDF from North Thurston's Public Schools, only 2 pages of which have anything to do with North Thurston. All the rest are I'm sure the same everywhere. I went to http://tpep-wa.org/ to try and find the original, or at least one associated with my own district, but quickly became numbed by the overwhelming amount of bloated government documents. Trying to remain apolitical in this blog, but all of this need for conformity just reminds me of the children's classic A Wrinkle in Time. Especially given the fact that the evil antagonist is a giant brain named IT. What a cool coincidence that IT is the initials for Information Technology and usually refers to a bunch of people dedicated to making sure our networked 'brains' are all the same and able to work together. But I digress. The dangers of  being a computer teacher with a K - 12 Reading endorsement, I guess. 

It would have been nice to have gone over the planning document in our PLC meetings, but we have only been able to meet twice this year due to the fact that my PLC is comprised of electives teachers, and some of us have been required to stay at our home schools to attend various meetings. Core teachers probably have more PLC meetings than they want. Over three per week now, I believe but I'm not sure. 

Pre Observation Meeting 7:30 AM tomorrow

So this is what I'm going to share with my supervisor. We'll see how it dovetails into TPEP.

Doing the keyboarding goals because they're so easy to align with the student growth goals. Need easy and straightforward since this is the first year of doing this. Would like to expand next year, especially aligning Common Core Standards with STEM standards. That way, no matter what the software, since it changes so rapidly, the goals will still align.

I love Edmodo. Have been waiting for something like this a long time. Have long thought I'd like to upload some of my curriculum via some web platform, but nothing has been available. This will allow me to differentiate and there's so much available in the Edmodo Apps, I don't have to create the content. I can just monitor and adjust. It's great. Take a look:

Edmodo's Javascript App

Gamestar Mechanic's STEM connections.

Student Feedback

In the beginning

there was a Has Been Satisfactory Box and Has Not Been Satisfactory Box.

 To determine which would be marked, the principal would visit your classroom twice a year for an observation. One formal and one informal. If the principal observed signs that the teacher had an active pulse and determined that students would likely leave the classroom physically unscathed, the teacher would receive a satisfactory rating. I can remember getting satisfactory ratings and thinking, 'That's it? I'm satisfactory?' So, yeah. The system needed some work. Apparently very serious work as one can tell from Governor Gregoire's very serious expression. 

But did it need this much serious work? 

I now have to find 67 instances of me performing my job in a Proficient or Distinguished manner. Oh, and there's Basic as well, except you hope not to find those, because too many in two consecutive years will cost you your job. This is what we were bluntly told at our August inservice. Go get 'em team!