Google Classroom Guide: Help and Support for Ed... Allthingslearning. Sound advice…from Jedi Master Covey, there. Maybe, I should have thought about that before I started to re-vamp this “little mini-series”! Actually, I’m having a lot of “fun” writing this up – those notes have been sitting on my desktop for far, far too long! And, besides…I have a few minutes to kill… I did a quick calculation the other day and worked out that around 85,000,000 human beings (and my dog, Dexter) had “read” The 7 Habits (in one form or another)! So, why-oh-why do so many people in education still think that the best way to kick off a classroom observation programme is with a ticky-box “checklist” – and probably a checklist that has been “lifted” from somewhere?
But, I think we’ve all got that by now. Yes? Other (far smarter) individuals (and institutions) begin by thinking through the various components of an observation cycle – and usually come up with something like this: To be sure, this type of observation cycle seems to work better than most. Brilliant – let’s get to it! Allthingslearning. I decided to “pull” my first version of this “episode” as I wrote it as a tongue-in-cheek response to one of my dearest, dearest pals – in reply to his “e-mail dig” that I was being far too “wordy” and wasn’t “getting to the point”.
Everyone’s a critic, these days – actually, he IS (a radio critic, in his spare time)! What I found was (despite the fact that we have a very strong professional and personal relationship – he is my “Sunday beer ‘o clock” drinking buddy here in Ankara) that his remarks made me “angry” – even though he is probably correct (a bit, a teeny-weeny bit)!
As I noted earlier, “feedback” is a critical component of any classroom observation process (and the “technology” we choose to use as components of that process) – but my own reaction to his feedback prompted me to ask: BOTH are naff! In the real world, most of us have no “issue” with POSITIVE feedback (we all love it – come on) – but NEGATIVE or UNCONSTRUCTIVE feedback is “different”. FEELINGS and EMOTIONS The… Allthingslearning. I’ve been having a fair few LEARNing conversations about classroom observations over the past few months – both the virtual and face-to-face types. In those chats, I keep hearing about “misfıre” after “misfire” in the areas of observation cycles and processes. What do I mean by “misfire”? I usually define misfire as “getting it wrong” or “doing it wrong”…when you really want to get it right – but “screwing up” works just fine, too.
The real challenge, however, is that avoiding misfires with classroom observation is pretty, bloody difficult – especially within an institutional context. I know lots of great teachers that do some amazing work with “self-observation and reflection” (all “on their tod”). I also know a couple of teachers who do amazing things with (informal) “peer observation” – even though the teachers themselves work on different continents! No one (I hope) actually wants to set up an ineffective observation process or be an ineffective observer. …and, (ergo): Like this: Allthingslearning. Almost as soon as I had added the very last full stop to my last post – Why do we still have so many MISFIRES with classroom observation?
(Part 01) – I realised I might have bitten off more than I could chew! Let me elaborate. If, as I so foolishly (but correctly) pointed out: …the obvious follow-up question is “What the hell do we do about it, Tony?” I guess I could simply say “improve” your CULTURE and CLIMATE, and you’ll be alright, mate! Clearly, drawing up a list of problems is a lot easier than coming up with solutions for all of them – maybe, that’s why so many people like checklists! The importance of organisational culture and climate to designing, planning and implementing an effective classroom observation process was really brought home to me a few years back. Yes, you were right - you did smell “true teaching story” on the way! The time came for us to look at “classroom observation” – they were a bit worried about stepping out of their comfort zones.
Christ, we were on fire! Allthingslearning. As I noted in Part 01 and Part 02, classroom observation is an amazingly complex animal – and an animal that is frequently “engineered” for “misfire”! Despite this “fact”, a lot of institutions still do a far better job than others, many observers do a “great” job of helping teachers really grow – and loads of teachers (working in those institutions, with those observers) do not seem to have the “fears” and “negative reactions” to the observation process that their less fortunate colleagues seem to have.
This suggests, to me at least, that these observers and institutions know “something” – and “do” something with what they know. They not only recognise that TEACHing is “emotional work” – but also that to get observation “right” you have to focus on the “people” involved and “do” a whole lot of “systemic alignment”. We could say they “know” the ABC’s of classroom observation: But, I’m getting ahead of myself – let’s backtrack for a second or two. …about it! Like this: Like Loading...