Reality 101: CEC's blog for new teachers

Charmelle: New Teacher Evaluations

It’s only my first week back with my new students and I have already managed to catch a cold. Sore throat, sniffles, and lots of coughing—what a way to start the new school year!

Aside from being under the weather, the year is in full swing with lots to do. Planning, scheduling of services and meetings, as well as getting to know my new students. Although my plate seems full already, I just received an e-mail this past weekend requesting my schedule for observations and teacher evaluations. Which leads me to open up the discussion about teacher evaluations and how they work in different districts and some of the challenges new teachers face during this process.

Richard: Where to Next?

As the year comes to an end, I have to review my students’ progress and determine if I want to recommend placement, advancement, or retention for next year. As I began this process as a novice, I looked over my school provided rubric to determine if my students met the criteria quantitatively. I went through and according to that rubric, everyone should move on to the next grade.

Something didn't feel right with that process, so I decided to confer with my paraprofessional on how she felt regarding student placement. We had a conversation on the qualitative growth of each student. We asked each other if the student matured sufficiently, if the level of work he or she was able to produce this year suggests success next year, and if we felt the student would be able to achieve success in the general curriculum standards, especially with the Common Core State Standards being rolled out next year.

Richard: Where Did I Put My Map?

A special educator (read: paperwork specialist) enters the field with the foreknowledge that they will have a significantly higher amount of paperwork than the typical teacher.

I knew going into my position that I would have to complete IEPs, FBAs, BIPs, and goal progress reports every grading period. I spent my summer organizing my lessons and days to accommodate my duties because I knew I would not have a planning period, being in a self-contained setting. I started the year off with a wonderfully ignorant belief in my ability to complete paperwork within the school day without any complications, all while providing exemplary instruction. Boy, was I wrong!

Three weeks into the school year, our district decided to require that each case manager keep a four-inch binder of progress monitoring data for each student. We would be responsible for keeping student work samples and all the relevant paperwork up to date, such as IEPs and BIPS, both in the notebook and in the student’s file. We were charged with “regularly monitoring and assessing student progress” toward IEP goals and recording that information every few weeks on a form—forms we needed to create on our own, given only the vaguest examples possible.

Sheena: One Stroke at a Time

Happy new year! Students and teachers alike returned to school this week feeling relaxed and refreshed.

In one of my classes, we asked students to write about a new goal for their language arts course. The seventh graders’ resolutions included: Change my attitude. Do my homework. Finish my classwork. Pay attention. It was an uplifting way to start the week, having our kids share their commitments to change.

Speaking of which, I kept my resolution to join a swim team. I made it to the first practice of Masters Club this week and was so nervous about being out of shape compared to other swimmers. My mind was plagued with images of gripping the wall in fatigue after each drill and being passed repeatedly by swim-mates sharing my lane. But as it turned out, the coach was a gentle, jovial soul who paired me with another swimmer who, like myself, was returning to swimming after a seven-year hiatus. We immediately bonded and shared some time in the hot tub after our 90-minute practice.

Each lap was just a lap. The coach advised us to take it easy and work on our form. He told me I needed to bend my arm with each stroke in freestyle, and I tried to focus on that skill with each lap. Being a teacher, I immediately compared my physical actions—focusing on each movement to complete a full stroke—to student learning. Teachers, like coaches, support students by providing them with skills that they can practice until it become part of their metacognitive process. My getting back into shape is similar to a student’s becoming proficient in a standard. Each stroke is supported by a skill that must be actively developed, practiced, and eventually owned.

Brad: Leap of Faith

 A few years ago, I sat in a wooden chair and fielded job interview questions from an administrator of a rural Midwestern school district.

“How do you teach a child to read?” he asked. I recall telling him I’d start by finding out the child’s interest and by developing a rapport with him or her.

“How do you know a student’s made progress?” he said. “After all, sometimes it can be pretty hard to tell.” I wasn’t sure how to answer this, so I fell back to what I’d read about grade-level assessments, parent input, and comparing the pace of progress to that of a student’s peers. I rambled, then stammered. By the time I’d stopped speaking, I felt as though I was figuratively, in addition to literally, in the principal’s office . . . in trouble.

The administrator took a long moment to reflect on my answer. Finally, he said, “I taught special education for 15 years and I found that there were times I didn’t know, or couldn’t find out. But that didn’t keep me from trying.”

Throughout the last week, I’ve been inundated by paperwork, parent phone calls, and delivery-of-service questions with respect to my caseload of students and their schedules for next year. These are the times when I wonder how it’s possible to teach a student the breadth and depth of curriculum I’ve imagined for them—the one I truly believe they deserve.

Jennifer: Report Card Season

Report card season is here again. Is it strange that I’m as nervous about it as I was when I was the person receiving one?

I’ve always felt guilty about sending home report cards, and I never understood exactly why special educators needed to fill out the exact same report cards as general educators. I’m not referring to the goal progress reports, but the actual report card form that accompanies them.

I feel that when a student who receives special education services (particularly in a moderate/severe setting) is graded on grade-level curriculum, it can appear that he or she isn’t making any progress. As an educator, it’s hard to give low scores when you know how much hard work is going toward building the student’s skills. I’ve always felt like I needed to strike a delicate balance when reporting to parents of students in special education; in spite of the lower academics or scores, I still want them to feel encouraged by what their children are achieving overall.

Jennifer: Rethinking the IEP Process

Every career has its own form of “rush week,” the period of time where everyone is scrambling around,  feeling overwhelmed, and wondering if they have any stress leave left. For us, I think IEPs could easily be just that... the period when there isn't enough time to even glance at the clock to realize how little time you have left to get everything done. I try to take a hint from the seasoned veterans who make the whole IEP process look like just another daily routine. I try to remain professional, calm, and collected, but honestly I've been a complete and utter wreck these past two weeks.

It's not that the IEP process is necessarily that hard. It's really as hard as you decide it's going to be. Before now I had them strewn throughout the year whenever they were due for each child, but at my new school they designate two weeks at the beginning of the year for you get your annual IEPs finished.

End-of-Year Student Self-Evaluations

By Bill & Bobbie Donelson

Just as we have asked you, as teachers, to take the month of May to evaluate your efforts across the school year, this is also a good time to encourage your students to engage in the same self-reflection. Have students consider the things they did well this year and the skills they still need to develop.

You can also tie this into a positive classroom awards event. Once you have led each student through a self-evaluation, you can create class awards to highlight the strengths of each student. This demonstrates an appreciation of diversity and the positive characteristics of each student (e.g., wonderful math problem solver, extremely organized student, friendly smile award, good sense of humor medal). Dr. Bob Brooks, a noted author and speaker from Harvard, challenges us to find the “island of competence” in every child.