Sunday, May 29, 2011

Let's get started! Open Thread

This blog is created by a teacher for teachers. Parents and community members are welcome to join the conversation.

What is happening in your school or district?

It's Teacher Evaluation Open Season. How is that working or not working?

7 comments:

  1. good to see you doing this....have often wondered how and where teachers gathered to share info, vent etc....

    will post the link on MisEducation Nation and own facebook page...

    good luck with it...

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  2. Thanks so much. I read the Save Seattle Schools blog daily. It has become my number one resource for straight talk. I value the work done by Charlie and Melissa.

    Hopefully teachers will find this a good place to share concerns and news.

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  3. Luckily my district has not yet attempted to go where Seattle has gone as far as teacher evaluations...yet. However, this year is a bargaining year, so we shall see what happens. Unfortunately I don’t have the trust in my association president this year to say that it won’t come to my district.

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  4. Hi kinaz, welcome to the blog.

    The Seattle union opted into a system that has left some teachers very frustrated.

    Hopefully others will find this space and let us know their experiences.

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  5. There was an interesting range of comments in the diary "Teacher Assessments" from Friday 27 May.

    I'm actually glad that several teachers have had good experiences. I am crossing my fingers.

    I spent 25 years out in that theoretical meritocracy private sector where for each good boss I had, I also had about 3 or 5 who spent all their time ... like Richard Nixon - making enemy lists!

    I had to sign in to comment - I see that you've followed Melissa & Charlie's blog, so you're probably very aware that every blog decision has good sides and bad sides.

    While anonymous posting lets people be real jerks to each other - that happens anyway!

    Hope this evolves usefully, thanks for trying.

    BM

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  6. I am a first-year-in-public-school teacher who has gone through the eval system in Seattle. Like the other first years in the "other" blog, I had a great experience with it this year.

    My princpal very clearly outlined what each rating stood for and where I should be as a new teacher. My principal also gave me extensive and useful feedback that gave me ideas about where to go next and things I could add.

    I agree that the principal has everything to do with how successful the evaluation goes, but I don't think there is anything wrong with the rubric or eval itself. I also wonder as a newer teacher if I'm just more flexible in what is thrown at me?

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  7. There have been persistent rumors circulating that building principals have been told to "get rid of" experienced senior teachers.

    Perhaps this is the difference between receiving mentoring or criticism during the evaluation process.

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