GTA is a free charter school located in beautiful Northern Michigan. We are a “school of choice”, even more so than surrounding schools, since our families are required to transport their students to school and provide lunch. We do not have a bussing system or cafeteria. Our students are with their teachers for the entire day. Teachers supervise their own recess and even eat lunch with students. Classroom hour run from 7:55-3:40 Monday-Thursday and 7:55-11:40 on Fridays. It is safe to say that teachers at GTA develop a long-lasting relationship with their students. Not only because of the multi-aged classrooms, but our teachers spend almost more time with students than their parents do.
If our evaluations included a section on teacher/student …show more content…
We began the school year strong with many trainings on how to lesson plan, create our goals and modules, and how to reflect on our teaching. Once January rolled along, we had not revisited the Marzano meetings and evaluations were not thought of. Once it was April, teachers and administrators were scrambling to complete evaluations and complete all the necessary documents.
The Marzano Model includes four domains: classroom strategies and behaviors, planning and preparing, reflecting on teaching, and professionalism. Each domain is separated into various elements. Each teacher will decide on a few elements to include in their goals and evaluation.
The Marzano system, along with other evaluation systems, are not user-friendly for non-traditional subject teachers. As a music teacher, I am constantly trying to fit into a square-shape box while being an octagon. My music colleagues and I usually tend to write and create our own goals based on the Music Standards for the State of Michigan and what the needs of our students are for that particular …show more content…
Research is mixed about what criteria should and should not be included in teacher evaluations. Some studies support the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluation systems (Varlas, 2009). The use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers is very controversial. Research supports that using student achievement data makes teacher evaluations more valid and reliable (Varlas, 2009). The Race to the Top program is the most recent legislative reform effort that encourages the use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers. Victoria Martin describes RTTT as “teacher’s evaluations will be based on student scores, which will promote, then, a kind of education just focussed on scores not on real learning”.
If our evaluations included a section on teacher/student …show more content…
We began the school year strong with many trainings on how to lesson plan, create our goals and modules, and how to reflect on our teaching. Once January rolled along, we had not revisited the Marzano meetings and evaluations were not thought of. Once it was April, teachers and administrators were scrambling to complete evaluations and complete all the necessary documents.
The Marzano Model includes four domains: classroom strategies and behaviors, planning and preparing, reflecting on teaching, and professionalism. Each domain is separated into various elements. Each teacher will decide on a few elements to include in their goals and evaluation.
The Marzano system, along with other evaluation systems, are not user-friendly for non-traditional subject teachers. As a music teacher, I am constantly trying to fit into a square-shape box while being an octagon. My music colleagues and I usually tend to write and create our own goals based on the Music Standards for the State of Michigan and what the needs of our students are for that particular …show more content…
Research is mixed about what criteria should and should not be included in teacher evaluations. Some studies support the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluation systems (Varlas, 2009). The use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers is very controversial. Research supports that using student achievement data makes teacher evaluations more valid and reliable (Varlas, 2009). The Race to the Top program is the most recent legislative reform effort that encourages the use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers. Victoria Martin describes RTTT as “teacher’s evaluations will be based on student scores, which will promote, then, a kind of education just focussed on scores not on real learning”.