Growing Pains

"Who stops being better stops being good."
-Oliver Cromwell

I have spent a good portion of my week having pre-observation conferences with the teachers who are up for evaluation this year. I don't enjoy the evaluation process, but that is only because I know teachers don't enjoy it. I wish I could enjoy it. I wish it required less paperwork and hoop jumping. I wish it was something teachers could enjoy. We want students to enjoy learning, and learning is just another word for growing. We grow by identifying things we haven't mastered and learning to master them. Students probably wouldn't enjoy growing if they had to do it the way we do it either. 

I'm not a fan of pointing out problems without identifying solutions, so here is my solution. I am going to give my absolute best effort to make the evaluation process feel as much like learning and growing as possible. I am going to work to shift the focus from the process to the possibilities. Instead of focusing on paperwork, we are going to focus on what is possible for each teacher. Instead of seeing a performance rating as the outcome, we are going to look for professional learning goals. 

The evaluation process should not be something to be feared. As people who have decided to make learning and growing our profession, putting ourselves through the same process should be exciting. I hope to find a way to make the evaluation process something we can enjoy because we start to view it as the vehicle by which we constantly get better.

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