How To Handle A Formal Observation

During my daily perusal of the few Facebook groups I belong to I ran across the following post:

I had a few thoughts immediately after reading this.

1. This person is in a bad place right now. If they are looking for lesson inspiration the night before an observation on a Facebook group, the desperation, or apathy, must be strong.
2. If your principal hates you, why would you attempt to “WOW” them right before the end of the school year? Is this a “see, I am better than you perceive me to be” kind of thing? A spite lesson, perhaps? I’m intrigued.
3. If you have already resigned, why are you bothering with this at all?

Despite these initial questions, my main reaction was, “Yeah, I get it”. Being observed can be extremely stressful, even for the most experienced, tenured educator. As a temporary or probationary teacher there are times where your job is quite literally on the line, and you feel as though one small mistake could cost you your teaching position. Depending on student enrollment and future projections, there may be one less spot at your school next year, and you need to prove you are worth keeping. The stress doesn’t leave once you are tenured, as a bad observation could be the first step in being removed (worst case scenario), or the beginning of a lack of trust and support from your administration. 

At least, that’s one way to look at it. A different mindset would be to celebrate with your administration the great work that you are doing, and gain key feedback on strategies and practices you are ( or might not be) using. Obviously, this more positive viewpoint can be more challenging to master, but it’s worth trying.

When I am observed now I try to focus on the good that can come out of it. First off, having other professionals in your room while you are teaching can really only make you better, since they always have a different perspective and can see the things that you are blind to. I still remember in one of my first observations from my mentor teacher in year one she brought a clipboard with the class seating chart on it. During my lesson she made tally marks next to each student who got to speak productively during the lesson. After the lesson, which I thought went pretty well, she showed me the chart and asked what I saw. Out of 32 students, only 6 kids had marks next to their names. I could have sworn more students were verbally active during the lesson, but the stats didn’t lie. She then taught me some more strategies about how to include more voices during a lesson, and other ways students can non-verbally participate but still feel engaged. It was such a simple thing to do that I had not considered. I still think seating chart when planning my lessons today.

In this past school year my principal popped in during my lesson for about 10 minutes and then wrote a note and dropped it on my desk before leaving. He had positive things to say about student engagement, but questioned if there was more I could be doing to support English Learners during the lesson. He was totally right. I hadn’t thought through that portion of my activity, and it made me think more about that for the next time.

Sometimes another educator in the room can really improve your self-esteem. This past year I had a challenging class period that would drain my energy each day and I felt way less effective. One of my colleagues happened to come by during that class period and remarked about how well-behaved and productive they were, noting that one particularly challenging student we both shared was doing really good work. It was a real confidence boost that I certainly needed.

So, what kind of advice did the Facebook group give our fellow colleague from the above comment? Most of the comments were about not worrying about it since she was resigning anyway. Some gave some actual lesson ideas. A few said to do nothing at all. Here’s what I would say to anyone being observed:

1. Stick with the normal starter routines that you do daily in class. Attendance, warm-up, number talks, SEL openers, etc. Don’t throw a massive curveball at your students the moment they enter the room.
2. Do a lesson that has a structure you know the students are used to. If you try to “WOW” your administration with something completely out of the ordinary, everyone in the room knows it. It’s not genuine, and everyone knows you are trying too hard. Also, when you try a brand new lesson structure for the first time you always spend more time on directions and logistical things and less time on learning and thinking. This is not the time for that.
3. Make sure you plan out your strategies for student engagement. How are you going to make sure every student is involved in the lesson? How are you calling on students? Is it equitable?
4. Make sure the work is rigorous and differentiated. The students should have the opportunity to think deeply, and also have the chance to extend their thinking or step back a bit if needed. Your evaluator should know that you are able to reach all of the students in your class where they are at, rather than just one-size-fits-alling them.
5. Be yourself and roll with the failures. I have never taught a perfect lesson, and something always goes wrong. Your ability to change directions in a lesson when the formative assessment tells you to is critical in telling your evaluator that you are responsive and can adapt when needed. This is easier said than done, but is also easier when you have more experience doing the job. The longer you teach, the better you can anticipate student errors and different conceptions of the math.

Now, the savvy teacher will read this list and say “Hey, isn’t that what I should be doing on a regular basis for most of my lessons?”. Yeah, pretty much. It’s not like I said anything groundbreaking in the five points listed above. I wish there was a secret tip I could give, but certainly can’t think of one. I’m sure I missed something important, but those were the main five I could think of.

Just know that no matter how the lesson goes, you will learn something and become a better teacher because of it. And to our mystery commenter from above, I hope you find happiness in your next teaching position, and that you learned something from whatever lesson you chose to do.