Ok, so you've had a few people poking around in your classrooms to look at what you're doing in literacy and more specifically writing. K-1 teachers are just the luckiest among us because Mr. Rhoades, our new superintendent happened to drop by on the day Mrs. Brimmer, Mrs. Brown, and I were doing the walk-throughs in the k-1 classrooms. I wasn't expecting the visit much less his wanting to tag along. I have to say that I really like his "hands-on" approach. One of the questions he rather pointedly asked us was if our teachers felt like they're being "inspected." I was confident in answering this question for our school because I think we have a relationship in which I am not placing you in a position to feel as if people are hovering and questioning your decisions. At least I hope we have this relationship. This is all about continuous improvement. I think it's important to have follow-up converstions. This is what separates our walk-throughs from being inspections or hovering behavior and being professional. I hope we can use this as an opportunity to reflect, seek support where you feel you need it. Many if not all of you probably recall my medical metaphor for what I think we should be be doing as professional educators. "Do you want your doctor or specialists doing the same thing they've done 10-15 years ago given the advances in medicine and technology?" Well, I'll add to this metaphor: "What if these same doctors and specialists never read professional journals, attended conferences about best practices, or discussed best practices about their profession?" We would be in major trouble.
With that being said, what did you learn as a result of the walk-throughs, subsequent conferences, discussions with your team about these walk-throughs and conferences? (For those yet to be scheduled, I know that you can't really contribute to this discussion, yet.) Did you have any "a-ha" moments? Were you prompted to seek information about a given topic? Was this not useful to you at all? The floor is open for discussion.
With that being said, what did you learn as a result of the walk-throughs, subsequent conferences, discussions with your team about these walk-throughs and conferences? (For those yet to be scheduled, I know that you can't really contribute to this discussion, yet.) Did you have any "a-ha" moments? Were you prompted to seek information about a given topic? Was this not useful to you at all? The floor is open for discussion.