The Next Step

The first series of “From B106” memos of this year dealt with the new teacher evaluation system.  Admittedly, many of the following entries took a rather meandering course on more scenic educational routes.  For those of you who read them, I hope they were helpful.

For the last memo of this school year, I want to return to the topic of our Teacher Evaluation and Development System (TEDS).  As you know, for the past semester a K-12 committee has been meeting regularly to review and revise TEDS for next year.  The process was excellent—and difficult.  I wish you could have heard the discussions and the give-and-take as teachers and administrators from all walks of the HSE district worked through the handbook and rubric page-by-page and even word-by-word.

I know you would be impressed with the thoughtfulness, the professionalism, and the passion brought to the table during this time.  Soon TEDS version 2.0 will come your way.

As a preview, I offer these observations and one suggestion:

• Format: The format of the new Teacher Effectiveness Rubric (TER) is much more user-friendly.  Many of the indicators have been clarified and lined up horizontally across the page.  If you start with the “Effective” column and read to the right and left, you will see the progressions and gain valuable insight on what constitutes best practice instruction in HSE schools.
• Shortened and Combined: The TEDS Handbook has been shortened considerably.  When you first received the handbook last year, many of you felt overwhelmed with the enormity of the document and of the tasks described in the document.  After going through the full process this year, your understanding and stress level has changed—I hope.  When you see the reduced version of the handbook, you should feel even better about where we are now on this journey.  More importantly than reducing the actual size of the handbook, Domain 1 (Planning) and Domain 2 (Instruction) have had competencies either combined or removed in attempt to both clarify and to emphasize those instructional practices deemed most essential.
• Content: By now you know the direction we are heading as a district and as a school.  You hear repeatedly about HSE²¹, about 21^st Century Skills, about the importance of higher order thinking, and about literacy skills across the content areas.  You will find that the tweaks and changes to the TER are ones that reflect the importance of these topics.

My Suggestion: Take Time for Reflection

Take some time this summer to read through the new TER.  Do so when you have no pressure of deadlines, no students walking through the door, no lessons to prepare, and no papers waiting to be graded.  Note where indicators have changed and emphasis was added.  Then pick one competency as an area of focus for the coming year.

Don’t try to do everything at once.  Instead pick an important “next step.”

This could be area of strength you want to build on, or it could be an area of growth that you think is significant.  Over the summer, consciously and subconsciously, start thinking and planning for next year.  Let it percolate in your mind for a while.  Perhaps you should do some reading or writing, or perhaps you need to process internally.  Do whatever works for you, but come into next school year re-energized and with a good idea of where you want to focus your time and professional energy.  It will be good for you, and more importantly, it will be good for your students next fall.

Have a great week, HSE, and then have an even better summer. 

Phil

One last quote:

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.  –John Lubbock