Raining today, cloudy, muggy. Real warm and muggy. It looked like winter but felt like late summer. Very windy this morning... it nearly blew my umbrella out of my hand.
I've been in a mentor training workshop all day, and though I would rather be in the classroom teaching, I am so glad I was able to participate in the workshop. We are learning about the purpose of the teacher evaluation/assessment tool used in our school system, and how we (teachers) will be trained during the next two days to be peer observers so we can participate in the evaluation process.
I have never been a peer evaluator. After this workshop I will be certified to do so. I see this as another way to improve myself as a teacher. What better way to sharpen your own skills than to know that you have to observe them in another teacher, and that you will be required to give them important and relevant feedback after such an observation? Another teacher's future rests on such evaluations, by her peers and by her administrator. I take this job very seriously.
Teachers have to be evaluated every year to continue their licensure. There is a different procedure for beginning teachers than for experienced, tenured teachers, mostly in the number of observations each are required to have within a year's time, however, the result is the same: good teachers stand out and bad teachers are weeded out. It doesn't happen over night, mind you, either way. There are several observations that must be made over the year, so teachers can demonstrate their abilities, proving that they know how to do their job, and that they are good at it. I have been a teacher for six years. I'm past the novice stage, and entering the experienced stage. I am far from the expert stage, however.
I now have tenure, but even so, a teacher with tenure can slack off, slide off the effective teacher path she once started. Teacher turn-over rate is steady each year. I want to be one of those who burns brighter as the career progresses rather than one who burns out.
Today I learned something new. Two more days, and I will be officially a trained TPAI-R mentor capable of completing a formal evaluation.
This was a good time for me to receive this training, to be reminded of why I do what I do, and how I do it, and how to recognize good teaching when I see it, how to recognize it when I do it.
Our principal reminds us nearly every month that we do wonderful things at our school, but we never "toot our own horns." It's true, we don't, but I feel uncomfortable tooting my own horn. She wants us to recognize the specific things we do that are benefiting the students, to tell parents what we do with books in the classroom, how we are teaching curriculum objectives, even naming those objectives for every activity we plan.
Parents are a savvy bunch, these days. They want to know what their kids are going to learn, and why they are learning it this year, or why they have so much homework, or not enough. Parents - those that are involved, that is - have a serious investment in their kids' education, and they want to support their kids at home with the help needed to learn new strategies and skills in academic areas.
We teachers want them to do just that. We need them on our team as much as they need us.
Oh, yeah, the pictures I had taken this evening as it rained. I was trying to capture the golden orange color of the atmosphere caused by the weather passing through. The camera did not pick it up very well, however, by adjusting the color button while editing, I could recapture somewhat the effect. I thought the round spots you see might be the raindrops, but then I thought they wouldn't look that round. Must be drops of mist on the lens even though when I checked the lens it looked clean. ... Amazing! Well, I thought it was pretty amazing.
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