The Power of Observation

A few weeks ago, Megan and I played brunch hosts to a young woman from our church who is finishing up her education degree at a local university. She is six weeks into her student teaching at a local public high school and her experience has been anything but positive, not so much because of the students, but because she feels very, very alone. Her "mentor" teacher is anything but, and her education professor has basically stated that this loneliness is good training for what the "real world" of teaching is.

To make things worse, the principal at her school doesn't know her name, and she's not even sure he knows she's there. My heart broke for her. I really don't want this to be the case for our teachers - new or returning - at Veritas.

With this in mind (and as we do every year), Grammar School principals Ann Taylor, Todd Wedel and I have been investing the past few weeks in our Veritas classrooms. We started by observing our new teachers, and are now in the process of evaluating our returning teachers by way of a formal evaluation, during which we sit in on an entire class period to observe and take notes. We then write a 2-3 page narrative of each teacher's class and how he or she proceeded with students through the lesson for that day according to our vision, mission, and teacher job description.

Following the observation (sometimes immediately after), we write up our thoughts and email them to the teacher. We then get together with the teacher at his or her earliest convenience to walk and talk through the narrative, share a few observations and process questions together. Then, if all seems good and right, we'll both sign the report, make the teacher a copy, and the original goes in the teacher's personnel file for reference. I'm happy to report (and as many of our parents keep telling me), we're blessed to have the teachers we do!

We'll repeat a similar process more formally in the spring, with all three principals observing each teacher. For now, though, we're on track to finish our fall evaluations by Fall Break (which was our goal), and from here will continue to interact and process with teachers in conversation and as challenges and opportunities arise, as well as in our monthly staff meetings (one of which we had yesterday). It's always an enjoyable and important process.

Note: Earlier this week and at my suggestion, the young woman I mentioned at the beginning of the story arranged for me to come observe her teaching a class at her public school. After writing her evaluation and processing through it with her afterward, I've got my eye on her as a possible future Veritas teacher!