A Sinuous Approach to Fly-By Evaluation

During some serious discussion about the cursory nature of much teacher observation and evaluation, a TLN member lightened the mood with this story:

I remember one particular experience where for some bewildering reason, the assistant principal decided to make it her mission to evaluate me herself and to find fault with me and my teaching. (This happened shortly after I was named my state’s teacher of the year.)

Fortunately, I had a simple and foolproof solution for this problem, given the AP’s known phobias. My solution was known affectionately by my students as George. She (we discovered her gender after the naming activity!) was a 5 1/2 foot speckled king snake -- the kind that looks all slithery and evil, but is really quite sweet and cooperative.

You can probably guess the rest. When I knew evaluations were in the air, I took George out of her cage, to the delight of the students, and draped her gracefully around my neck. With an occasional tug to make sure she didn't take her position too seriously (king snakes are constrictors), this worked quite well to keep my students’ attention totally focused on me, and to keep the assistant principal out of my room.

From that point on, the principal always did my evaluations (eyes rolling when he saw George, matched by a knowing grin). And he was always fair. I should add that we gave George regular work breaks, draping her over the crossbar of my lab station from time to time.

George deserved her own evaluation. She could really take charge of a classroom.

Comments

[Heather Wolpert-Gawron]

I love how you kept the students focused, distracted the evaluator, and kept humor as form of discipline. I also believe that teaching more transparently and with more of an open door policy, is key in making administrators less suspicious and teachers more comfortable with the evaluation process. I also feel that it is in the teacher's best interest to put their best foot forward and let an administrator know when they have a stellar lesson looming. When you know that you've got an awesome lesson ahead, call the office and get someone in their to see your stuff. Get in control of your own evaluations and administrators will be less likely to throw their (light)weight around. Great post. Great snake. Great out-of-the-box thinking.