Quality teaching and leading is critically important.
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))
- Centering instruction on high expectations for student achievement.
- Demonstrating effective teaching practices.
- Recognizing individual student learning needs and developing strategies to address those needs.
- Providing clear and intentional focus on subject matter content and curriculum.
- Fostering and managing a safe, positive learning environment.
- Using multiple student data elements to modify instruction and improve student learning.
- Communicating and collaborating with parents and the school community
- Exhibiting collaborative and collegial practices focused on improving instructional practice and student learning.
