Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 1

14 Background This is my second full year of being the Director of Wasatch Peak Academy. I am not a veteran administrator; my expertise is curriculum and instruction. I have worked with and taught teachers in grades K-12 for over twenty years and working with teachers to implement research-based best practice is my area. I started my job in January, 2014 and I had the spring teacher evaluations to conduct, which was difficult for me because I had not seen these teachers teach much at all in the first three months of my new and overwhelming job. I continued this assessment practice last year, although I did visit the classrooms more often. I provided a rubric for teachers for what I was looking for, met with them prior and after my observation and provided feedback. But still, it felt so artificial and honestly superficial. How could I ever expect to help my teachers improve if I only evaluated them two times per year? This past summer, I met some amazing principals from all over the country at the National Charter School Convention in New Orleans who shared with me the 12-minute observation and how it works. I was sold! The 12-minute observation: The 12-minute observation is the most empowering tool to help me (a) observe teachers, (b) provide weekly feedback, (c) build positive, trusting relationships, and (d) provide personalized professional development that will impact student achievement. Here is how it works: I randomly observe every teacher in my building for 12-minutes, one time per week. Twelve minutes is the perfect amount of time. I can get a feel for what is happening and see instruction, student work, evidence of objectives and standards, classroom management, student engagement, as well as take a few pictures, ask a few ques- tions, type up my entire observation, and email it to the teacher before I leave the classroom. Then, each teacher has a scheduled 30-minute debrief with me weekly. The first fifteen minutes of this time is the teacher’s time to discuss anything on his/her mind. The last fifteen minutes, the teacher and I talk about the observation and how things are going with instruction. Teachers ask for suggestions, clarify concepts, or bounce ideas off of me. The last week of the month, we talk about patterns or things we both notice that need improvement or tweaking from the previous four weeks of observations. Teachers then choose a new goal for instructional change they will implement for the following month. These changes are based on the principle(s) in the rubric. This way, teachers feel like they can work to improve without feeling overwhelmed; they have time to really implement the change. This seems to be more responsive and helpful, especially for new teachers. My focus for the next month will be looking for evidence of these changes. OneNote App is the technology tool I use. I downloaded OneNote onto my iPad. This is a free app and it is amazing and simple to use. I put each teacher’s name on a tab. I have a Notebook for K-3 teachers and a Notebook for 4-6 teachers. I developed a rubric for my observations and gave it to all of my teachers explaining each section of it thoroughly. I quickly record if an item on the rubric is effective or not. (This My Most Empowering Assessment Tool: The 12-Minute Weekly Teacher Observation BY EMILY A. SWAN, PH.D., DIRECTOR, WASATCH PEAK ACADEMY