A Page of My Crazy!
Today I did something that some
might thing is just crazy! I went into
my observation blind! Yes, that’s
right! So, here’s what I mean.
Our
district has changed over to the Danielson Model. We have had very little training and very
little time to figure anything out. Our
administrators are learning on the fly, just like us. Just like us, there is no real time to become
experts at it. Just. Like. Us. I have
always said I could never be an administrator, but in this time in education,
that’s more than a fact then ever! Some
days, I question…well, I won’t go there!
I know you know what that question is!
On top of all this, we are also completing the “free” version of
Danielson. What that translates to is
LONNNNNG. Very, very
LONNNNNNNNNNGGGGG! Now, let’s back up to
what I did for prep work!
Prep Work: I am very
lucky to have a very good friend who thinks like me, who brainstorms like me,
and who will just, point blank, tell me what I wrote is crap or is great! I am very thankful for this friend. We survived National Boards together at my
kitchen table, Saturday after Saturday, while my husband took care of the kids
and allowed us to do our crazy work. I
honestly never thought we would be pulling this type of shift again-but it has
come-thank you Danielson (sarcasm intended!)
Over the
course of two Saturdays (thank you flu for making it two instead of three!) we
meet at my friend’s house. I have to
say, I am so thankful for the view of horses and open fields to take my mind
off the brain numbing effects of repeated questions worded another way. We spent the first Saturday working through
Domain 4. It wasn’t too bad. It felt similar to National Boards in many
ways. You learn the tricks and
techniques to answer these questions by finding every tool possible to guide
you. We found a decent tool and are
hoping for the best. The second
Saturday, we worked on Domain 1 and our lesson plans. We conquered the plans first-no problem! Then…oh the THEN! Can I just tell you that Domain 1 is, well,
Domain 1! Hours later, we still are not
sure exactly what is right and what is wrong! We tried our best and are hoping
for the best!
14 hours to be exact! FOURTEEN HOURS! The only way to emphasis this was by typing
it out! I have now heard everything from
6 to 21 HOURS of time! Time is a
precious commodity to a teacher today.
There are many things I could do for my family, for my students, or for
my class in those 14 hours worth of time.
Have I learned from it-to be honest NO!
No, I haven’t learned from the written response. I have not seen things differently or in an
enlightened way. That’s what National
Boards did. This was, well, 14 hours of
MY time! Time that is precious and could
be used for more then this craziness! (Please
allow me the favor of this moment! I
don’t complain very often and this is my opportunity!) So, here we go with Going Blind!
Going Blind: We were
told to go through and read Domain 2 and 3 and be sure to cover them as best we
could. I refused to do it. I honestly did and here’s why-it’s the ONLY
way I will get better! Truth right
there! I could have taken time to go
through them, change things in my room, fix things all pretty, plan according
to the rubric, and go nuts in general!
But what would that teach me?
What would that show me about my teaching? How can I get real feedback and improve? So I went in BLIND! I taught the way I would have taught this
lesson if my administrators hadn’t been in there. I did do some “extras”-I made my chart
pretty, I had my post-its ready, I did some pre-finishing work, like getting my
pretty Marzano rubric up instead of my chart paper one. But I didn’t go crazy and make everything
perfect, so I could learn!
How I Plan to Learn this System!
Now, I am also not one to sit back and let the good times
roll. What I did do is VIDEO TAPED my
lesson! Here is my “mad” idea. I will now go and print off the rubrics and
watch my video. I will assess myself
(just like we ask the kids to do). I
will find positives and negatives to my teaching and my classroom so that when
I go into my post observation I am well aware of just what occurred and where
growth can be made. Most importantly, I
WILL LEARN! I will learn what I do
successfully! I will learn what I can
work on! I will learn what DOK Levels
my lesson really hit! IT WILL BE OF
VALUE TO ME! That’s what I want from
this. Deep down, my administrators are
NOT who I am working for-it is my students.
If I don’t learn what I am doing well, what I can work on, and what I
can increase or decrease, what does it matter!
In many ways, it is my protest to this whole crazy educational time we
are in! It is my rebel side poking out
its head and saying, “I am worth more than this!” Crazy, I know, but I want to LEARN over and
over who I am as a teacher, who I should move forward to be, without the dog
and pony show of meeting the expectations to score high and be great! I want to be that teacher that doesn’t have
to, that it just comes naturally as a part of who I am! So, go blind everyone! Do this thing to be the natural you!
Good Luck! My post observation is next week-let’s see how I
feel then!
