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Brian Conway Evaluaton Fbla

The document provides a reflection from a student on their learning in a course on evaluating teaching. The student learned about best practices for staff evaluations, including being descriptive, supportive, and detailed. They learned to provide tools to help teachers grow, not just point out areas for improvement. Through discussions and activities, the student learned how to structure walkthroughs, evaluations, and improvement plans. They gained experience analyzing evaluation forms and conducting a video evaluation. If implementing a new evaluation system, the student would interview staff, create evaluation forms, explain the process to staff, and provide recognition for good teaching. The student believes they exhibited A-level work through active participation, completing all assignments thoroughly, and putting effort into evaluations, earning an A as

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67 views

Brian Conway Evaluaton Fbla

The document provides a reflection from a student on their learning in a course on evaluating teaching. The student learned about best practices for staff evaluations, including being descriptive, supportive, and detailed. They learned to provide tools to help teachers grow, not just point out areas for improvement. Through discussions and activities, the student learned how to structure walkthroughs, evaluations, and improvement plans. They gained experience analyzing evaluation forms and conducting a video evaluation. If implementing a new evaluation system, the student would interview staff, create evaluation forms, explain the process to staff, and provide recognition for good teaching. The student believes they exhibited A-level work through active participation, completing all assignments thoroughly, and putting effort into evaluations, earning an A as

Uploaded by

api-282132997
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Running head: REFLECTION PAPER

FBLA: Reflection of Supervising Instruction


7 hours
Brian Conway
Drake University
EDL 278: Evaluating Teaching
Trent Grundmeyer
March 13, 2014

Course Learning Summary


I have learned a great amount of information on evaluating instruction throughout this
course. Mr. Grundmeyer brought a real-world perspective to this course that helped me
understand the intricacies to evaluating staff members in a school district. My cohort members
also aided in providing me with the necessary skills to become an effective evaluator when my
first administrative job arises. This was done through active discussion and tasks created and
facilitated by Mr. Grundmeyer.
The beginning of the course focused on best practices for staff evaluation. We began
discussing the dos and donts when setting up walkthroughs, evaluations, etc. The main things I

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learned from this discussion were to always be descriptive, supportive, and detailed in any sort of
evaluation piece. I learned that it is important to put a personalized approach to the required
aspects of an evaluation. Lastly, I learned that random walkthroughs are the most effective
because then you are getting a true picture of an educators classroom.
We then dove into the important components to include in formal evaluations. Teaching
and discussions focused on the type of feedback to give. One thing that I really took away
though was not just pointing out areas of improvement for the teacher, but giving the teacher the
tools to be effective and promote confidence. This needs to all be laid out in the formal
evaluation so that the teacher can ultimately grow from the experience. We also talked
extensively about knowing your staff and how that would give you an indication of how to shape
your conversations. I learned that it is very important to understand how each teacher might
perceive your conversations. That will give you a good indication of whether you need to be
collaborative, instructional, or facilitative. I really came to understand that specific data needs to
be reported in the evaluations and that it needs to be measurable. Lastly, if I am conducting a
post-evaluation write-up, I learned to always speak in the third person and record what happened
and what did not happen.
Our discussions on walk-throughs, evaluations, pre-conference meetings, and postconference meetings were also beneficial. I really took a lot away from our learning on how to
create reflective questions that would accentuate the positives of the lesson but would still
challenge the teacher. Our discussions really focused on getting rid of the phrase I like. We
came up with terms that would be easier to justify in most situations. I learned what questions
should be included in a pre-conference meeting and a post-conference meeting. I also learned
what to focus on during an observation. The key components identified were curriculum and

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instruction, learning standards, classroom management, student engagement, and student


assessment.
Finally, some of my greatest learning came from doing the video walk-throughs and
video evaluations. I really liked the experience of getting to analyze different evaluation forms
and to try some out on my own. Comparing and contrasting forms with classmates and bouncing
ideas off of each other really made that portion more meaningful. I really learned how to tune
into specific criterion that the standards are asking you to look for when doing the evaluations. I
thought another positive aspect was being able to work through some of the assistance plans.
These are typically forms that you hear much about but it will be important as an administrator to
be able to complete them correctly. Learning the timeframes that teachers can be put on
assistance plans was a major takeaway. Knowing that you only have ninety days from the
evaluation to put a teacher on an awareness or assistance plan is important to know.
Implementation Strategy
If I was a new administrator coming into a school without an evaluation system set in
place, I would need to take several steps implement a system that fostered teacher development.
I would start off by interviewing each of my staff members before the year got underway to get
their perspectives on evaluations. This would be more of a fact finding mission than anything
else. I would want to find out if there were any elements of evaluation of staff members present
in the school. I would also like to get an early read on my staff and see which members seem
open and receptive to evaluations and walk-throughs and which ones seem to have a problem
with it.
The next step I would take would be to get together as an administrative team to come up
with some walk-through, evaluation, pre-conference, and post-conference forms. There will be
minor differences that will occur on the walk-through forms depending on the grade level and

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school, but I believe that that evaluation, pre-conference, and post-conference forms should be
consistent throughout the district. This will allow us to accurately compare data when
considering personnel moves and allow for different administrators to observe and keep the same
format that people are comfortable with. Once the administrative team has taken the time to
create these forms with meaningful questions, the real implementation of the evaluation process
can begin.
Next I will meet with the staff at my building to explain the evaluation process that we
are going to embark on. I want to do this to make sure all ideas of the implementation process
are out in the open. I want my staff to know my intentions with the evaluation process and to let
them know the frequency of my visits. I want staff to understand that this is chance to grow
professionally and that we will be working collaboratively to improve the craft of teaching. Staff
members will be made aware that I plan on being in classrooms for walk-throughs every month.
I want my staff to understand that the goal is for me to know what great things are going on in
the classroom and to get an accurate picture each educators classroom.
My walk-through schedule will be set for every month but my goal will be to make it in
to each educators classroom at least once every two weeks. I will not tell my staff of my goal
because I know it is ambitious in nature. I dont want to set a goal that I end up not attaining and
have people wonder why I am not in the classroom as much as I said I would be. My plan will
be to fill out a walk-through form on each teacher at least once a month. The other walk-through
time during the month will be informal and I will be just observing or taking a few notes. The
formal evaluation schedule will depend on state licensure requirements and the requirements of
my district. I will plan on meeting with my staff members who are on the evaluation schedule
shortly after the meeting I hold with all staff to explain our implementation. I will set these dates

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for times in the fall so that I am able to complete all the paperwork necessary before budget
decisions are made in the spring.
One of the last goals of the implementation process will be to make sure that I recognize
teachers for the great instructional practices that I see in classrooms. This will be done over a
daily bulletin email sent out to staff. I want the staff to witness that this process is all about
sharing ideas that are working and improving the craft of educating children. I want the staff to
be excited about the opportunity for professional growth.
Case for Grade
I believe that the work I put into this course would be deserving of an A. I feel that I
came to class each Saturday really looking to contribute actively in discussions. I thought I was
able to bring relevant and useful information to discussions. I was definitely able to take many
things away from other cohort members and the teacher as well. With most classes involved
with this cohort, I feel that our discussions are very meaningful and add a lot to the content we
are studying. During collaborative time, I feel that I did a good job of contributing ideas and
participating in any task that we were asked to complete.
I also feel that I have put great effort into completing the module on PD360. I made an
effort to watch all videos in their full duration and read each article that was assigned. This
includes all of the articles and videos that were marked optional as well. I am very happy I
completed all of the tasks because I feel that all of those resources will help me grow into an
effective administrator.
Another area in which I believe I exhibited A level work was my completion of the
walkthrough observations, formal evaluations, and improvement plans. I feel that I really put
effort into carefully analyzing the documents provided. From there, I feel as if I was able to give
authentic feedback based on what we had learned in class. I spent time reviewing videos to
make sure I was putting my best effort into giving fair and honest formal evaluations. I also

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spent time carefully preparing for my real observation of a teacher in my building. Because I felt
very prepared, I feel that I was successful in this task and that my taped post conference went
well. I am confident that I have much more to learn in the area of evaluation of instruction but in
my opinion, the effort I exhibited and quality of my work throughout the duration of this class
deserves an A for a final grade.

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