I thought that Wagner's point about the inconsistency of how we evaluate teaching was very well-put. In my own experience as an educator, I've had different people observe lessons that were, from my perspective, very similar, and gotten wildly different responses. This can make it much more difficult to improve my practices, because I don't know what changes I should make (am I not student-centered enough, or do I need to take more direct control of the classroom?).
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I found that the author's story of his observations while he worked in the DC school system was similar to an experience I am having now. At my current school site, I am working to develop my classroom management skills, and while I have made great progress, I still have a long way to go. When last I was observed by someone other than my Cooperating Teacher, we met to discuss the observation afterward. To start, I was asked how I felt the lesson went. Speaking honestly, I began talking about how I really needed to work on making the material more engaging for my freshmen, that I still had trouble managing them, and that I didn't have as much tangible student work being generated in class as I would like.
The response I got surprised me. My observer simply told me that I was being too hard on myself, that the lesson had gone very well, and that I would do fine. I may still be a wide-eyed idealist, but I had been hoping to get a lot of constructive criticism I could use to improve my pedagogy. Instead, I guess because I was doing an adequate job, my observer saw no need to offer me any tips to grow as a teacher. I really identified with Wagner's statement that "More than anything, [he] longed to talk to other teachers about the craft of teaching and to get feedback on [his]work in the classroom.” I was fortunate at my previous school site. The school was small enough, and the Social Science department friendly enough, that I was able to benefit from being observed by several more experienced teachers, and I learned a lot from each observation. This site is more insular, and so I haven’t been able to get the same degree of feedback, which is unfortunate because this semester is presenting much more of an opportunity to develop my classroom management than last term did.
If I were in charge of teacher education and professional development, to start I would increase the pay for teachers significantly, along with the expectations. I would increase the number of teachers employed at each school, and I would make a point of giving teachers additional prep time with some restrictions: at least two days a week, they need to use one of their prep periods to go into another classroom and observe that teacher, providing at least two areas of strength they observed in the lesson and at least two areas for improvement. Ideally, I would even create a schedule for this, giving teachers a chance to observe instruction both in their content areas and in other departments to learn things that could then inform their own practice. Along with this, there would need to be professional development centered around how to give effective feedback and what to look for in an observation, as one of Wagner's other good points was about the serious inconsistency of many observations.
Wagner, Tony. Global Achievement Gap : Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do about It. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 24 March 2015.
The response I got surprised me. My observer simply told me that I was being too hard on myself, that the lesson had gone very well, and that I would do fine. I may still be a wide-eyed idealist, but I had been hoping to get a lot of constructive criticism I could use to improve my pedagogy. Instead, I guess because I was doing an adequate job, my observer saw no need to offer me any tips to grow as a teacher. I really identified with Wagner's statement that "More than anything, [he] longed to talk to other teachers about the craft of teaching and to get feedback on [his]work in the classroom.” I was fortunate at my previous school site. The school was small enough, and the Social Science department friendly enough, that I was able to benefit from being observed by several more experienced teachers, and I learned a lot from each observation. This site is more insular, and so I haven’t been able to get the same degree of feedback, which is unfortunate because this semester is presenting much more of an opportunity to develop my classroom management than last term did.
If I were in charge of teacher education and professional development, to start I would increase the pay for teachers significantly, along with the expectations. I would increase the number of teachers employed at each school, and I would make a point of giving teachers additional prep time with some restrictions: at least two days a week, they need to use one of their prep periods to go into another classroom and observe that teacher, providing at least two areas of strength they observed in the lesson and at least two areas for improvement. Ideally, I would even create a schedule for this, giving teachers a chance to observe instruction both in their content areas and in other departments to learn things that could then inform their own practice. Along with this, there would need to be professional development centered around how to give effective feedback and what to look for in an observation, as one of Wagner's other good points was about the serious inconsistency of many observations.
Wagner, Tony. Global Achievement Gap : Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do about It. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 24 March 2015.