Recently I was asked to share ways that I encourage our teachers to be amazing. I was asked to share specific examples of feedback I had provided as well as if it was impactful and/or implemented by the teacher. I reflected on this request and came up with the following list.
Classroom visits
I visit classrooms every day. Although it's powerful to visit classrooms to connect with students, it's also powerful to visit classrooms to see staff work their magic in their rooms. Occasionally staff will ask me why I haven't visited in a while because I am in classrooms so often. I use a Google sheet to keep track of visits and the type of feedback I provided.
Face to face interactions at end of visit
Following almost every classroom visit, I do one of the following things. I make eye contact, give a thumbs up, fist bump or high five, or share a comment. These are not formal bits of feedback, but they are feedback that teachers come to enjoy and expect.
Face to face conversations
These are the best ways of getting to know your staff. It's a time to put down your phone or laptop and pay attention to what's being said. These conversations can occur during prep time, before or after school, during lunch time, and at passing time. I just recently had my favorite conversations with staff as we spent 15 minutes for a "halftime" talk, discussing what they wanted to celebrate from the first semester, what they were proud of from the first semester, and how I can better support them so that their second semester is as good as, if not better, than their first semester.
Handwritten notes
Who doesn't like a handwritten note. I don't do this often enough, but when I do, I know that it makes a big impact. I also share handwritten holiday cards right before Winter Break. I have stopped in classrooms days, weeks, months, and years later, and I see some of them posted on file cabinets or on walls. I actually have a file folder of notes that I've received that I look through whenever I need a pick me up.
Voxer messages
One of my favorite apps is Voxer. From time to time I'll use the "My notes" feature in Voxer to record a message after I've been in a class. Then, while I'm walking to the next classroom, I'll send the voxer message via email to the teacher.
Student Learning Objective/ Professional Practice Goals meetings
These SLO/PPG meetings are part of the evaluation process for all teachers in our district. The teacher and I collaborate to determine the objectives and goals to start the year. We then meet halfway through the year to celebrate and adjust the objectives and goals. At the end of the year, we meet one final time to celebrate the progress of our students.
Pre-observation/ Post-observation meetings
These meetings are part of the formal evaluation process with teachers on cycle. There is a formal written part by the teacher for the pre-observation meeting. We meet to discuss what the teacher wants me to look for during the observation. I take notes during the observation and then tag these notes as evidence, which I share with the teacher. We finish up this process by both filling out our own post-observation reflection. We exchange and read our reflections, and then the magic begins. This is when we get to talk about the celebrations from the lesson as well as any suggestions for improvement moving forward. The paperwork is important, but the conversations are vital.
Social media posts
If something is posted on social media it is part of the story of our school. Some posts are made by me, but others are posted by other staff members. I almost always retweet these posts that our staff shares on social media. We use two hashtags, #mertonint and #MertonProud, when we post on Twitter (@mertonint). Our school Instagram account (mertonint) is followed by lots of our students and our school Facebook page (Merton Intermediate School) is followed by lots of our families. Posting on social media may not really encourage amazing teachers, but I think if teachers know there is a chance their classroom activities will be posted on social media, they are more apt to want to provide amazing learning opportunities for our students.
In a follow up conversation with the person asking me about how I encourage teachers to be amazing, I stated this fact (Well, it's a fact to me.). Teachers won't be amazing unless they want to be amazing. If a teacher wants to be amazing, then it's possible that a principal, or a colleague, or a friend, or a family member can encourage them to be even more amazing. Hopefully the ideas I mentioned in this post have helped me encourage our teachers to be even more amazing then they thought they could be.
What other things do you do to help encourage your colleagues to be amazing teachers? I still have room in my toolbox for more ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment