Today I had a visitor. The high school principal sat in on today’s lesson. It is part of his job to observe and evaluate each tenured teacher twice a year. New teachers are observed more often. After the observation, an evaluation is prepared and presented to the teacher. It becomes part of the teacher’s permanent file and if the rating is poor, steps are taken to bring about some improvement.
I remember my first observation at Weatherly Jr.-Sr. High School. I was twenty and several of my students were my age. It was done by a representative from the county rather than the district and it was a disaster. The students put on an obvious act for the observer. I had been hired in January to teach six math classes, all different. (I was the fourth teach that year. The first three all walked away.) She observed my 11th grade, general math class. It was near the end of the year and I was losing control of this particular class. I was even considering quitting and joining the army, even though those were the days of the Vietnam buildup.
But I survived and the following year was experienced and teaching science classes. The same person observed me in November and gave me a superior rating and I have survived almost 80 formal evaluations with all satisfactories and aboves by at least twelve different administrators in my 38+ years in four different districts.
I have always wondered about the procedure universally followed by administrators. The teacher is given advance notice of up to a month as to the date of the observation. Then a preobservation meeting is held with the planned lesson being reviewed. Afterwards, the administrator observes the lesson and does a written report for “the file”. It is a little bit like college, where a lesson is prepared that will impress the administrator and keep everybody happy. If the teacher “screws up” with all of that advance notice, he/she definitely needs help.
Some of us experienced teachers don’t worry about doing anything special for the observation. We know we are observed everyday by over 120 observers who really matter- our students. We do a “show” for them everyday. The principal is just another body among many.
I have always believed the principal needs to drop in at random to do observations. Then he will really know what is going on in a classroom. Of course the principal needs to observe with several goals in mind: give a pat on the back for good things, a kick in the ass for bad things, and be a resource to help the teacher improve.
Every teacher can always benefit from helpful input from any observer. The problem is, however, that teachers are by and large the most insecure people around when it comes to a feeling of job security. If the principal is a rare visitor to the classroom and only points out negative aspects of the teaching techniques, then the teacher will develop fear toward the principal and be one “unhappy camper”. The “drop in” observations take on the aspect of harassment. But handled properly (in a helpful and positive manner), they are more effective than the “dog and pony” show the principal usually gets to see and no teacher will feel threatened.
By the way, my evaluation was exemplary and I believe he enjoyed the two oxygen production demos I did for my first period chemistry class.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Measuring Up
I have two sections of ninth grade students taking a course I helped develop at the county level called Natural Resources. It is available for students to take as either a science credit or a CTE (Career Technical Education) credit. It is oriented toward the students who are not planning on attending a four year college. The past two weeks we have been doing drafting with drawing boards, T-squares, architect scales, and other equipment.
The first disaster was an assignment to draw a 4”x6” square centered on a sheet of paper. I thought most of the students were just being difficult when they said they could not do it. After the third disastrous drawing, I had them do a scale drawing of the front of the high school building. Then I discovered the reason for the difficulty: most of them could not read a ruler. It was like beating my head against a wall as I showed student after student the 1/8 and ¼ marks on the scale. They had no comprehension of the fractional divisions on a scale/ruler.
Then this one girl asked to be excused on the first day of the scale project to go work on a history project. I told her she would fail the drawing if she missed the introductory information. She said she didn’t care. She missed day one. Then on day two she showed up in the middle of the class period. On day three she just sat in the corner of the classroom with two other girls and ignored what the rest of the class was doing. When class ended for the day, she came up to me and said she wasn’t able to complete the assignment because she was absent and didn’t understand it. I was very sympathetic and was moved to tears as I told her that was her choice and have a nice day.
Meanwhile my physics students are studying triangles by triangulating the distance to Mount Rainier from our football field. Then they have to determine the height of a radio tower on a ridge about two miles away. I have two theodolites on permanent loan from a local surveying company. They were just collecting dust in the owner’s garage. Some of the students are really getting “into it”. Meanwhile, my ninth graders can’t even read a ruler and they don’t think that is a problem.
Their math teacher is doing algebra (no one gets general math anymore) and rulers are not part of the curriculum. Whenever they were taught to use rulers, it obviously didn’t stick. Meanwhile the state wants all students to take math through geometry to graduate. I doubt they will “measure up” and are in danger of becoming dropouts.
The first disaster was an assignment to draw a 4”x6” square centered on a sheet of paper. I thought most of the students were just being difficult when they said they could not do it. After the third disastrous drawing, I had them do a scale drawing of the front of the high school building. Then I discovered the reason for the difficulty: most of them could not read a ruler. It was like beating my head against a wall as I showed student after student the 1/8 and ¼ marks on the scale. They had no comprehension of the fractional divisions on a scale/ruler.
Then this one girl asked to be excused on the first day of the scale project to go work on a history project. I told her she would fail the drawing if she missed the introductory information. She said she didn’t care. She missed day one. Then on day two she showed up in the middle of the class period. On day three she just sat in the corner of the classroom with two other girls and ignored what the rest of the class was doing. When class ended for the day, she came up to me and said she wasn’t able to complete the assignment because she was absent and didn’t understand it. I was very sympathetic and was moved to tears as I told her that was her choice and have a nice day.
Meanwhile my physics students are studying triangles by triangulating the distance to Mount Rainier from our football field. Then they have to determine the height of a radio tower on a ridge about two miles away. I have two theodolites on permanent loan from a local surveying company. They were just collecting dust in the owner’s garage. Some of the students are really getting “into it”. Meanwhile, my ninth graders can’t even read a ruler and they don’t think that is a problem.
Their math teacher is doing algebra (no one gets general math anymore) and rulers are not part of the curriculum. Whenever they were taught to use rulers, it obviously didn’t stick. Meanwhile the state wants all students to take math through geometry to graduate. I doubt they will “measure up” and are in danger of becoming dropouts.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Teaching is Never Boring
Yesterday my ninth graders started working on a drafting unit. I have them use drafting tools to draw simple geometric shapes with specific measurements. Eventually we get to the point where they are able to do scale drawings. Then when we start studying maps they have a better understanding of map scales and what they are showing. The first assignment involves drawing a 2” x 3” rectangle in the lower corner of a sheet of paper to be used for the student name, date, class, and assignment title. Then a 4” x 6” rectangle was to be drawn in the exact center of the same paper. All sides of the rectangles were to parallel the sides of the paper.
You would have thought I was asking them to do calculus. I had to baby them through the assignment. Eventually most of them completed the assignment with various stages of accuracy. In my last period of the day the students were getting their equipment together to begin work. I was helping some students get started when I heard a loud CRACK. Upon investigation I discovered one of the boys standing with his equipment and blood running out of his nose. He threw his drawing board across the room and started calling one of the girls a “fucking bitch’ followed by an interesting string of obscenities. Meanwhile the girl was just sitting at her desk trying to ignore him.
It turns out that he had used his board to push her board part way across her desk. She told him to stop and she stopped his pushing. He held his board in front of his face and she pushed it into his face, catching him across his nose, thus the blood. His response was to slam his board across her skull much like Randy Orton using a chair across the head of John Cena. The board was cracked and she appeared to be unaffected by the whack. He weighs about 80 pounds (35 kilos) and she weighs about 200 pounds (90 kilos). I turned the incident over to the administration and they proceeded to handle it since I had 31 other students working with the same equipment to monitor.
I am not really looking forward to teaching these students how to graft trees. I can almost imagine the carnage that might result when I put exacto knives into their hands.
You would have thought I was asking them to do calculus. I had to baby them through the assignment. Eventually most of them completed the assignment with various stages of accuracy. In my last period of the day the students were getting their equipment together to begin work. I was helping some students get started when I heard a loud CRACK. Upon investigation I discovered one of the boys standing with his equipment and blood running out of his nose. He threw his drawing board across the room and started calling one of the girls a “fucking bitch’ followed by an interesting string of obscenities. Meanwhile the girl was just sitting at her desk trying to ignore him.
It turns out that he had used his board to push her board part way across her desk. She told him to stop and she stopped his pushing. He held his board in front of his face and she pushed it into his face, catching him across his nose, thus the blood. His response was to slam his board across her skull much like Randy Orton using a chair across the head of John Cena. The board was cracked and she appeared to be unaffected by the whack. He weighs about 80 pounds (35 kilos) and she weighs about 200 pounds (90 kilos). I turned the incident over to the administration and they proceeded to handle it since I had 31 other students working with the same equipment to monitor.
I am not really looking forward to teaching these students how to graft trees. I can almost imagine the carnage that might result when I put exacto knives into their hands.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Which High School Grade Has the Most Morons?
Today there were a few incidents at school that led me to think of this question, and at the same time also come up with an answer.
My school district has what is supposedly a cutting edge “deployment” of students. Our sixth graders go to our middle school, where the teachers want them segregated from the 7th and 8th grade students. Our ninth graders go to the high school where their middle school maturity leads to all kinds of interesting situations and the upperclassmen wish they were segregated from them.
This year we have been required to institute a half hour study session that actually runs twenty minutes for students in grade trouble. I have sophomores and seniors while my neighboring teacher has freshmen and juniors. We have been telling our students the expectations for three weeks. Many of the freshmen have no idea what is going on. Some of them have decided they don’t care if they are failing everything. Others are angry because they can’t go “hang out” with their friends who are passing everything. They have to stay in the “study hall” and do work.
Meanwhile, in my freshman science class, I had an interesting “moronic” incident. A boy was playing with a tennis ball and fifteen minutes before the end of class he shoved it down the front of his jeans. He then turned in his seat so the two girls to his left could see what he was up to. Somehow he thought I didn’t notice what he was doing. I was going to wait until the end of class (I was lecturing) to have a “chat” with him. But he kept playing with and adjusting it, so I told him to come up front. When he did, I told him I wanted the tennis ball. He had to reach next to his crotch and work the ball down the inside of his leg. He handed it to me with a smaile that disappeared real fast when I told him he was being reported for inappropriate sexual behavior. After class I explained to him that using a tennis ball to make a bulge like a big penis or large testicles was inappropriate and doing it to girls was a sexual harrassment.
When I asked him if his mother would be upset, he said it wouldn’t bother her. I said “We’ll see later tonight.” Ten minutes later I called his home and spoke to his mother. She had just talked to him and he explained that he had the ball in his pants pocket and I took it from him. When I hung up five minutes later, she was very upset, with him.
Yesterday I announced to my freshmen that too many were going to the bathroom during class so the privilege was taken away. They were just going for walks. One of them told me I couldn’t stop her from going and if she had to go, she would just go. I was so frightened!
Freshmen kick each other, throw things at each other, get the most F’s, walk around in their own little worlds, BUT eventually they grow up and become normal people.
My school district has what is supposedly a cutting edge “deployment” of students. Our sixth graders go to our middle school, where the teachers want them segregated from the 7th and 8th grade students. Our ninth graders go to the high school where their middle school maturity leads to all kinds of interesting situations and the upperclassmen wish they were segregated from them.
This year we have been required to institute a half hour study session that actually runs twenty minutes for students in grade trouble. I have sophomores and seniors while my neighboring teacher has freshmen and juniors. We have been telling our students the expectations for three weeks. Many of the freshmen have no idea what is going on. Some of them have decided they don’t care if they are failing everything. Others are angry because they can’t go “hang out” with their friends who are passing everything. They have to stay in the “study hall” and do work.
Meanwhile, in my freshman science class, I had an interesting “moronic” incident. A boy was playing with a tennis ball and fifteen minutes before the end of class he shoved it down the front of his jeans. He then turned in his seat so the two girls to his left could see what he was up to. Somehow he thought I didn’t notice what he was doing. I was going to wait until the end of class (I was lecturing) to have a “chat” with him. But he kept playing with and adjusting it, so I told him to come up front. When he did, I told him I wanted the tennis ball. He had to reach next to his crotch and work the ball down the inside of his leg. He handed it to me with a smaile that disappeared real fast when I told him he was being reported for inappropriate sexual behavior. After class I explained to him that using a tennis ball to make a bulge like a big penis or large testicles was inappropriate and doing it to girls was a sexual harrassment.
When I asked him if his mother would be upset, he said it wouldn’t bother her. I said “We’ll see later tonight.” Ten minutes later I called his home and spoke to his mother. She had just talked to him and he explained that he had the ball in his pants pocket and I took it from him. When I hung up five minutes later, she was very upset, with him.
Yesterday I announced to my freshmen that too many were going to the bathroom during class so the privilege was taken away. They were just going for walks. One of them told me I couldn’t stop her from going and if she had to go, she would just go. I was so frightened!
Freshmen kick each other, throw things at each other, get the most F’s, walk around in their own little worlds, BUT eventually they grow up and become normal people.
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