Gradeless Classroom and a “Titanic” problem
Recently I have completed my two mandated formal evaluations for this school year. I haven’t worried about formal observations since my first couple years of teaching, and this year was no exception. What was different, however, is how my observations made me feel. This is the first time that my eleven years of teaching that my formal observations made me frustrated and sad. Part of my struggles with being evaluated is that so much of what occurs in my classroom is invisible, even to trained professionals. (I should note that my evaluator is an excellent administrator who I greatly admire.) For example, during my second observation, I ran a lesson that was basically act out a scene from the novel we are reading. My observer noted that “All students were engaged in these activities…” and that “The pacing of the lesson was appropriate.” However, here are the myriad conscious decisions I made that were invisible to everyone in the classroom but me: Differentiated