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.bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly.
