Today's class about teacher evaluations was something I remember my teachers having to do in middle school. They would know when the principal was coming in to watch so the teacher would tell us that we need to be on our best behavior and that we will be doing things that we were going to say we do all the time. Back in middle school it seemed as if a lot of the teachers were more worried about making sure that us students would blow the cover, than they really were about teaching to us in that class. Most of the time, us in the class actually preferred the day of class because the teacher actually demonstrated different teaching and caring a lot more. While in High School the principal would just walk into the class unannounced to the teacher to see how the class was doing. He wouldn't stay in the room more than 5 to 10 minutes, but he did stop in often through out the semester. This made it so the teacher would have to go on how they were without any chance to change a thing.
Out of the two different types I was part of, I really liked how the principal would just show up in the class. It made it so the teacher had to always be ready at anytime to be watched and this way they could have pre-planned things for when they were being watched. In high school the classes were much better taught, because the teachers knew that they could have a principal walk in at anytime just to see how the class was doing.
This article http://educationnext.org/can-teacher-evaluation-improve-teaching/ is very lengthy, but does have some keep points about does evaluations really help. As seen in Cincinnati the evaluations have helped there schools improve the educating of the students and also in the article they give an example of how they evaluate the teachers, to help improve. I feel teacher evaluations are very important in improving teachers in the classroom, with out them many bad techniques and ways would continue through out the academic year. What are your thoughts?
I couldn't agree more with the first paragraph of your post. I think we can all think back to the staged lessons and the weeks of notice that took place. But I also remember the times of unexpected appearances and surprise visits. When comparing the two as a student that has experienced them both I think it's obvious that the evaluations that aren't scheduled are much more realistic.
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