Learning About Teacher Evaluations

An Esperanza Board member, Suzi Ramos, and I went to the Charter School Conference dinner last night and then Carmen Thompson, another Esperanza Board member, joined Suzi and me for the conference sessions today. All of the sessions were helpful, but my favorite session was the one titled "Conducting Effective Teacher Evaluations" presented by Dr. Joe Heywood. There were some points I especially want to remember:

• Answer the question: Why do we evaluate?



• Answer the question: What do we want the outcome of evaluation to be?



• Have the purpose of evaluation be "Wonderful growth!" rather than "Gotcha!"



• Create a Professional Development Plan with teacher evaluation: 1) Goals, 2) Conferences, 3) Trainings, 4) Peer Interactions (Projects, lessons, etc. in collaboration with other teachers) and mentoring beyond 3 years and sharing knowledge, 5) Observations



• Use multiple observation tools such as a running log with marginal notes and interview questions.



• A good administrator nurtures the growth of his/her teachers by 1) providing strong professional development opportunities, 2) work closely with teachers to improve teaching ability, and 3) care enough about each teacher as a person and a colleague.

Our attendance at the conference would have been worth it if this were the only session we attended. Many thanks to Dr. Heywood for sharing!

Make Yourself Irreplaceable and Indispensable

One of our Esperanza Board members--Flavia McKnight-- asked me to review a resumé that she needed to write for a class assignment. It made me start thinking about what will be important to us as we hire Esperanza staff.

As we look for Esperanza staff there are certain things that will catch our attention in a resumé, in an interview, and in conversations with references. Jack Griffin, author of How to Say It: Be Indispensable at Work captures some of the qualities that will be extremely important not only to get hired but also to keep one's job and to get promoted.

Griffin says that every business speaks and thinks in the language of money. The language we want to speak and think at Esperanza is results. The bottom line for all we do is the impact it has on Esperanza scholars and their growth. Therefore, someone's position and duties in that position don't mean as much as what effect those duties had on student growth. In other words, it would be much more impressive to see that 100% of students participating in a tutoring program advanced than just stating that a tutoring program was implemented.