Describe your own experiences with regard to being "observed.
"
Feel free to provide experiences as a teacher, administrator, or both.
The “Case from the Field” was an interesting piece with a focus on continuous
improvement for staff at Trinity Christian Academy. There is a highlight on how being casual
with teachers can help improve your school. Casual is used to describe a relaxed conversation
where there is trust built between an administrator and a teacher. This allows the teacher to give
critical feedback on systems within the school in a safe space, resulting in useful information for
school leadership to utilize. The information was so useful that it led to official meetings
occurring twice a year throughout each lower grade level team. The middle and upper schools
hold their meeting with an administrator present. Trinity Christian Academy understands the
importance of meeting the needs of their teachers through professional development that is
uniquely designed for each individual level. This is a powerful display of including all
stakeholders within a given educational setting and providing them with access to help make
improvement in their schools.
My experience of being observed as a teacher always felt casual as described in the
reading, thanks to having good relationships with administrators and good rapport with students.
I personally felt that I was an effective classroom instructor with great classroom management
skills. Students knew my expectations and I was intentional on being fair and consistent with a
student-centered mindset. I believe this came from having good mentors and being around
great leadership throughout my educational experience. The school that I taught at prior had a
completely new administrative team arrive after my first year of being a teacher. This was a
great opportunity for me because they were explicit with using instructional strategies and
carrying out our school mission through collaboration. All of our professional development was
geared towards unifying our instruction so that it was consistent across curriculums to improve
student learning. All that I have mentioned provided me with a sense of ease when being
observed because I was implementing strategies in conjunction with my colleagues. I figured
what I was naturally doing in the classroom should not differ due to a guest being in my
classroom.
My experience as an administrator is vastly different than it was as a teacher. Simply
because the role is reversed, but also because of the impact of the pandemic. This is currently
my second year as an administrator and my first year was all of hybrid learning. We were in and
out of school throughout the year due to multiple CoVid-19 cases. Our focus last year was on
trying to keep the school open and safe as possible. There were many flexibilities given by the
state to teachers and students. The accountability was lowered because there were other
priorities at stake. Teachers were not required to have summative evaluations in my school
district. Also, student attendance was not a requirement because of the spontaneous absences
that were accruing due to quarantining. I am looking forward to diving deep into evaluating
teachers and observing classrooms formally this year.