Evaluation

Every year your principal has to come into your classroom to watch a lesson and do a formal evaluation.  Even after decades of teaching it still makes you a little nervous.  It's like live TV.  The students are always a wild card.  I really don't mind the observation.  Anyone can come and visit my classroom any time.  But as the years have gone by, formal evaluations have gone crazy town!

 I spent 3 hours on Tuesday filling out my pre-evaluation form.  It probably wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't had an attitude problem.  All the information I put down was just reworded by the principal on my final report.  I think I was doing the administrators job, writing my own evaluation.  I could make it sound good, but it wasn't a fun process. 

Then I spent 2 hours on Wednesday night writing a lesson plan.  Again, it might have taken less time if I hadn't had an attitude problem.  My school district has developed their own lesson format with several different templates that you can choose from.  In my opinion, this instructional model is a confusing, smooshed, mess.  I think the superintendent should be embarrassed to have our district's name attached to it.  We've had a lot of training, and I have a lot of experience, and the lesson I taught was thorough and engaging, but after 2 hours, I could not fill out the template.  I finally just faked it. 

Today my principal came in and observed for about 20 minutes.  The kids were sharp.  I was smooth, and the lesson was a hit.  The outcome would have been the same without the 5 hours of prep.  I could have used those 5 hours grading papers.