How Are You Effective (Not How Effective Are You)

After comparing our results of the Strenght Finder, we decided to focus our energy around framing the assessment with postive language and focus.
Objective is to help teachers identify areas of effectives and create plans to increase effective.
The three step plan:

1. Identify how you are effective as a teacher.
2. Decide which area of effectivess you want to maximize.
3. Create an action that will help you meet that objective.

Characteristics of what we hope it will be:

• on-going/months long
• of a reflective nature
• teacher-use/focused

Characteristics of what we don't want it to be:

• one-shot, high-pressure/anxiety observation
• of an evaluative nature (as oppossed a reflective nature)
• administrators-use/focus

The draft of the tool has six evaluators: self, peer, student, parent, division head/supervisor & program team.

Quarterly overview/"self" category":

1. complete survey, meet with head/supervisor, start collecting evidence from evaluators & create portfolio (where evidence will be collected)
2. present Three Step Plan to head/supervisor, continue to collect evidence from evaluators
3. meet with head/supervisor, continue collecting
4. continue collecting evidence, share reflection of Three Step Plan with head/supervisor

Draft of tool for collecting evidence:

Peer: classroom observation, answer 3 teacher-composed questions, have discussion with peer about areas of strength

Student: exit slip (Harvard Review as template), journal entry answering specific questions, conversation during "walk & talk"/lunch

Heads/Supervisors: observation, quarterly meeting, documents (like 23 questions)

Parents: answer teacher-composed questions/start doing, stop doing, keep doing (direct), incidental emails (indirect)

Program Team: observations, email, meetings, documents of observation

We will start our next meeting with developing above draft; prior to next meeting blog the following:

• sample questions for peers (like "How your strength plays out in the classroom?")
• templates for peer observation and student exit slips
• sample student journal questions

M3 collaborative

As part of our project for M-Advancement, Gary and I will use this blog to capture our conversation, thinking and progress. We have been researching and processing for about a month on the topic of effective teacher evaluation tools. From the start it was clear to use that this tool needed to be multi-dimensional.
The week prior to our first meeting, a book was recommended to me on three different occasions by colleagues and friends. That book was Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath (more information at www.strengthsfinder.com). This book, relying heavily on the work of Dr. Donald Clifton ("the Father of Strengths Psychology") and 40 years of the Gallup survey studies on human strengths, included an online survey. Gary and I both completed this survey independently and will meet later today to see what value it might have in our project.
The dimensions/components of the evaluation tool we are designing includes four quadrants: self, student, supervisor and colleague.