Supervision In Public Education

Supervision as defined by Merriam-Webster is “the action or process of watching and directing what someone does or how something is done.” This definition differs greatly, in my opinion, to what supervision should be in the public education system. The dictionary definition is what supervision has become in a lot of school systems around the country, but we have forgotten the sole purpose of public education, which is to make sure every student is prepared and successful in life. Supervision needs to focus on making this objective happen by giving teachers differentiated professional development, leadership opportunities, and teacher collaboration. Professional development is mandatory in most school districts, but in most cases it is ineffective at best. Development is the operative word, meaning once the activity is completed the teacher should have developed new skills necessary help students become more successful. Each teacher is in a different place and require personalized development. To accomplish this the great supervisor will offer many different options for professional development. These options may vary from classroom management techniques to social emotional learning strategies. Professional development transitions into …show more content…
The more teacher leaders you have in the school the more collaboration has to happen because you cannot lead alone. The best part about collaboration is the fact that it is pretty natural within the teaching community. Difficult collaboration exists between teacher and supervisor because of the negative connotations of supervision. The nature of collaboration is everyone has an opinion and it is considered, but discussions should “engage in open, reflective, ongoing discussion about how the school community can improve student learning by improving instruction at both the school and classroom level.” (Glickman,