Several days ago, the principal came into my room with a visitor during the last two minutes of the period. Hello, Anxiety. And thank you visitors for coming to see the last minutes of class which just happen to be the most chaotic minutes of the period - turning papers in, returning journals, going over homework details. Loved it.
I just learned, the visitor was an individual from the district who was assessing the percentage of engaged students in the class while I was teaching.
Seriously - they had to observe the last two minutes of class?
Oh well.
To be honest, I'm not worried (okay, I'm freaking out, but for the sake of my own sanity, I'm lying). I feel like most of my students stay on task and are anxiously engaged in my lessons. Why? Because I feel like every day, every lesson, is a new performance. I am putting on a beautiful show that they'll walk away from with new lessons and new tools to use to analyze the world around them. And they know how much I love it.
I've talked to many teachers who believe that it's not their job to make their content entertaining and exciting to their students, and though I see where they're coming from, I can't surrender to those thoughts! Right now, I have the energy to entertain, to be big and bold and say things that will make the students laugh and remember what theme really is!
Maybe I'm wrong, but since I can already infer that most of my class observations will be assessing student engagement, I'm sure going to keep trying to get each student excited and energized to be talking about our content.
And maybe it's working.
I got this note from a student yesterday - tender mercies get you every time, don't they?
"Dear Mrs. Brown,
I thought about you for the past hour of my day and decided to write you a letter.
While writing this letter, I was thinking about your smile and how funny and exciting you are.
I just wanted to tell you that you teach in such an awesome way that sticks.
I made this sign for you: (hope you like it! :)
Sincerely,
(the sweetest student ever)"
Don't worry. The sign she made said "Mrs. Brown Rocks!"
Yes, it fed my little teacher ego. And tomorrow, I'll probably have an experience that deflates it.
Either way, tomorrow, I'll take to the stage of my little classroom again and hopefully my students will join me there along the way, too.
Keep those notes! They are the best things to read when you have days where you feel defeated. Hold on to it, just in case the principal comes in to share with you their assessment of the last 2 minutes of class:)
ReplyDeleteThat's seriously ridiculous. If it makes you feel any better, once I was observed passing out pencils for a standardized test. My observation lasted 5 minutes and not only did I do the things I described above, but also I read directions out of the test booklet.
That brings up a whole different issue. How are we really observing, supporting, and assessing teachers?