About my observation today

Tweet

I think the whole idea of observing teachers is stupid--at least experienced ones. Here in NJ tenured teachers get observed twice per school year. There is a "long" one (most of the class period) and a "short" (10-20 minutes). There are 180 days in the school year. How can they possibly assess what I'm doing in a maximum of 60 minutes? (narrator: they can't) I didn't plan anything special for today. I did my usual lesson on genetic redundancy and how to decode a DNA segment into an amino acid sequence. I'm over trying to jump through hoops so I just did my thing. Anyway I texted one of the assistant principals some pictures from today's Baking Club project. She's the one who offered me the position. She was a teacher in the building for about as long as I've been there and is someone who I've always been friendly with. She was promoted last year and has been a breath of fresh air in the building administration. So she said she was impressed and that they looked yummy. Then she followed up her response with "I heard your lesson today was AMAZING". I was confused. I replied "From (supervisor)? I thought it went okay but I wasn't doing anything crazy." She said "He said it was impressive." I have to say I'm surprised. Like I said I wasn't doing the dog and pony show that former observers demanded to see. I just did what I would do on any given day. He could have come in unannounced and seen the same thing. Ironically it was the sole Honors section that I teach. You think I'm impressive with them? Good--give me more H classes. Anyway that is a load off of my shoulders. This new(er) supervisor has been a gentle observer but still I always have anxiety until I see the actual observation document. I am looking forward to seeing this one next week.