"Teaching is from the heart!"

After seeing the title of this post, I would be curious of your immediate reaction....  You probably went one of two ways....  "That's right!" or "That's absurd!"

(I hope you make it to the end of this post.)
I heard this statement recently at a conference.  Not only was this statement one of the central tenants, and the implied driving force behind a person wanting to be a teacher and their ability to be effective, but also something I read recently that went to a great number of people, "Teaching is a work of heart."  Two times in one week I've been told that (to be a great teacher, reach children, change the world, etc.) you have to teach from the heart, have a heart of compassion, want to love the children, love them into learning.  Heart is the driving force, the ultimate determining factor of your reason to be in the profession, the guide for your qualifications.  (I would posit that is actually why I became a teacher.)

I would agree with a colleague that has stated, "You teach children, not a curriculum."  I would agree that your motivations for being a teacher might determine your effectiveness in helping your students learn the subject matter.  "If you don't love your subject matter, you're not going to make it as a teacher."  If you loved your curriculum but didn't like children, you're going to have a problem "teaching" because teaching involves a teacher and a student, not a teacher and a curriculum.  This could go on and on, but you get the idea.

What does this have to do with TKES (and the teaching Profession)?  To me, everything.  As you review the TKES evaluation process, the Evaluator's observations, your lesson plans, the 10 TAPS standards, the 72 TAPS elements--for some reason or another, the Government/Legislators did not include anything about our heart, our feelings, our motivations, our caring.  Nothing.  Never have, never will.  Teaching from the heart will not make you an effective teacher, and you could get obliterated by TKES.

It is irresponsible for conference speakers, leaders, and anyone who has a microphone in front of educators to have a throw back to the early 20th century and pull on the "heart strings" of the audience to imply that is what they need, and that is what will make them successful in teaching: just "care" enough.  Tell that to a first year teacher (I have been a mentor for years) and you will see them at the end of each day leaving the school in tears.  (Another reason 50% leave in <5 years.)  Heart has (almost) nothing to do with it!  You have to be prepared, equipped for all aspects of the classroom.

I have previously summed up what I have seen in teacher education over time (40 years) from ever changing Government expectations from highly motivated to highly certified to highly qualified to highly effective.  "Which do you want to be?"  I posed to my audience.

Don't get me wrong.  I believe you must love your subject matter to be an effective teacher.  I believe you must love working with students to guide them to greater learning.  I believe you must love this profession to stay in it, irrespective of the huge imperfections and shifting legislative landscape.  I believe you must have great empathy and concern for each child to reach them where they are so that you can help them meet their needs.  But, I also believe that you must have real tools at your disposal to use, frequently, to be flexible and facilitate the learning process so that your students can learn as much as they can, as quickly as they can, as permanently as they can.  I want my students to be propelled into the future.

Yes, have a huge heart; pray for discernment each day; teach from the innermost of your being with all of the energy and excitement you can muster; walk in to your classroom each day with enormous compassion; "reach for the stars," "dream big dreams."  But also search for and acquire as many of the time-tested, research-based tools that you can possibly get to help your students learn as much as they possibly can, as quickly as they can--you owe them that.  During research on my doctoral study, I was astonished (shocked, alarmed) to find there were so many research-based, effective teaching techniques that have been discovered--that I had not known about.  Why hadn't I been exposed to them?  We were still working (only) out of the "teach from the heart" mentality; TKES is not going to allow that.  To the goal of disseminating quality teaching ideas, I continue to post pamphlets, handbooks, and resources to help you out.  Review and use "75 Instructional Strategies" or "Learning is a process, not an event" or "The Perfect Lesson Plan" or "How to pass all 10 TAPS Standards in one lesson" or "Some ideas for new teachers" or "Instructional Strategies That Work" under "Handbooks and Other Resources" posted at the top of this blog.  Need more?  Review "Links for Teachers."

Respectfully,
Glenn

TKES Documentation--what can be said....?

The two white ones on the left were my original pieces of evidence for each of the 10 Standards and 72 Elements; in many cases, there was more than one piece of evidence for each item.  The middle notebook, "Curriculum Notebook" is our school's place for our lesson plans, data samples, samples of grades, charts, etc.  The brown/gray notebook is our "Communication" notebook for parent contact, student contact, e-mails, behavior log, etc.  The new yellow folder is the result of Georgia doing away with the SLOs (see earlier blog posts) after barely implementing them; it contains professional learning sessions, reflections of those sessions, how to implement that professional learning, etc.

It is "funny" that all of this was encompassed in my original two white notebooks.  What is also funny is that none of these documents are "fluff" in any way; they all document what I do, why I do what I do, what I plan on doing, why I'm qualified to do what I do, etc.

Teaching has changed over the years....

Steps to prepare for your observation

As I become more aware of my responsibilities for the TKES evaluation, I am trying to become more efficient (to reduce my stress!).  For my next evaluation, I followed this process:

1. I decided to make my lesson plans according to the TKES Lesson Plan design I created last year (see sample here) and make sure all drop down fields were accurate and up to date.
2. I typed up what will go on the SmartBoard for the students to know what we are doing in class that day.  I copied and pasted the student version to a new page in the same word processing document.
3. I slowly read through all 72 TAPS elements, and  as I saw an Element that may apply to my lesson that day, I inserted the outline number of the Element (say, 2.6 or 4.5) into the SmartBoard outline that I will give to the Evaluator.  
4. After reading all Elements, I have two documents that I  give to the Evaluator: a formal TKES lesson plan, and a student version of the lesson with the Elements identified.
5. I still have my TAPS notebooks with evidence in the cabinet as well as just the outlines of my evidence in my lesson plan notebook in case the Evaluator wants to see them.

What I noticed is that even some of my reminders to the students about upcoming activities or after school events can be tagged with an Element.  An after school practice, rehearsal, or event can count as 4.2, 4.3, &/or 4.6.  Reminding them about upcoming tests or units could count as 2.6, 3.2, &/or 4.6.

Sample portion of student version of lesson given to Evaluator

Give yourself a grade (1-5) on your progress today! [6.7] 6th grade: Brass: Lip Slurs [1.4, 1.6, 3.2, 4.1, 4.5, 4.6, 5.3, 6.1, 6.3, 6.6, 8.3, 8.5, 8.7]; Bells: Octave/Chromatic [1.4, 1.6, 3.2, 4.1, 4.6, 6.1, 6.3, 6.6, 8.3, 8.5, 8.7]; Flutes: Aperture control [1.4, 1.6, 3.2, 4.1, 4.5, 8.3, 8.5, 8.7]; Clarinets and Saxophones: register slurs to determine embouchure, tongue placement, amount of mouthpiece, reed quality, air stream, hand position [MMSBB.2.b, MMSBB.3.a] [1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 3.2, 4.1, 4.5, 4.6, 6.1, 6.3, 6.6, 8.3, 8.5, 8.7]

These steps are also outlined in "How to pass all 10 TAPS in one lesson" and "District Walkthrough"  here.

Read This: Your TAPS Evaluation Score is up to You--Not Your Evaluator!

It is becoming apparent that my early predictions a year ago of defending your job by collecting, organizing, and updating evidence in notebooks (called paranoid back then) is becoming reality and possibly a necessity.

Your Evaluator may only look for as much evidence as they want to, take time to, or have time to - and then give you a score.  The score may not be a huge concern to them (even if it is a 2 or 1) because the score is not directly related to their certificate.  The teacher's evaluation score is up to the teacher, not the Evaluator.  Let me explain.

At the mid-year evaluation a friend of mine received a 2 on TAPS #6.  The Evaluator looked at two students' grades in the electronic grade book and out of 9 summative grades, those two students had either turned in none or one.  The Evaluator concluded that the teacher was not assessing well and summarily gave the teacher a 2.

The REAL story is that our of 30 or so students in the class, the Evaluator picked the two students who are ill-behaved, in ISS (in school suspension), frequently absent, and/or are two of the most troubled students in the school.  The Evaluator did not look at the entire class' grades, average, or completion status (which s/he was able to do), only the two "problem children."  Now, to me, that is either trying to be a "gotcha," a vendetta of some sort, ill-trained, or incompetence on the part of the Evaluator.  As people say, "That ain't right."  The TKES/TAPS process has been presented as a "totality of the evidence," but the evidence has to be reviewed first.

As a result, the teacher, in his/her defense (and anxiety) had to spend quite some time point out to the Evaluator other students in the same class.  The project turn-in rate and grades were quite high in fact.  Seeing the data, the Evaluator changed the 2 to a 3.

If you have ever been in a position where you had to regularly defend your job, you know the stress it creates, the morale it devastates, and the decrease in your effectiveness.  It creates a terrible work environment - especially mentally.  That teacher looked defeated.

However, in my mid-year conference, my Evaluator indicated that s/he had reviewed some of the evidence I had uploaded into The Platform (I think I have scanned and uploaded about 300 items).  That sounded good to my ears.  To me, that is an indication that s/he is trying to review the totality of the evidence, is doing his/her due diligence, and if there is a question, we can refer to it during the conference in The Platform.

I urge the effective teachers of this state to collect past and present evidence for the TAPS elements, organize it in some fashion that can be easily accessed, and take the evidence to meetings.  If you need suggestions on how to collect evidence, organize it, present it in notebooks, or uploading it into The Platform online, please see earlier blog posts of mine--also review my blog "How to pass all 10 TAPS in one lesson."  If you are going to the GMEA convention in January, stop by the poster presentation session or the Friday evening concert and let's talk.  We'll talk TKES.

Time to start!

If you're a teacher in Georgia, you have probably started preparing for the new school year.  Our school starts Monday, August 4 with students.  So, as you may imagine, we have had some several meetings the past week regarding the new Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) and the Teacher Assessment on Performance Standards (TAPS).  If you don't know those terms, you should get familiar with them; they are the law....

This past week I have been preparing multiple middle school and high school lesson plan templates that use the TKES rubrics as a guideline.  You can view some here.

If you haven't adjusted your lesson plans yet to reflect all of the items in the rubric, I recommend you get started soon!  It has been made very clear to us last year and this year that if the evaluator/observer does not see the evidence of one of the 72 elements in action, or on the lesson plans, you did not perform that element.  If enough elements are not met in each standard, you will not successfully pass that standard.

Then, the presenters usually follow up by saying that, "The elements are not a checklist so don't worry about meeting every single one.  We're looking for a preponderance of evidence in different ways showing you meet the standards.  So... just, as you see things that reflect the elements, collect those artifacts and maybe put them in a folder or notebook so that we can review them.  But, it's not a portfolio...."

That is hard for me to interpret any other way other than create a portfolio with at least one sheet of evidence (i.e., artifact, documentation, proof) for each of the 72 elements because the evaluator will be held accountable to their scores of us just as we are held accountable to teaching the curriculum, standards, elements, etc.  Review a suggested guideline for preparing your notebook here.  I started last year, and mine look like this right now...

The one on the bottom is Volume 1: Sections 1-4, the one on top is Volume 2: Sections 5-10, and the papers on top are the new items I need to include this weekend.  Now, some of the papers in the volumes will be swapped out during the year as they may include some old evidence (grade information, etc.)

One bit of good news, the notebooks can be stored near the Evaluator's area, and they can reference it while they are there.  The papers do not have to be uploaded into "the system."

Respectfully,
Glenn

Getting organized

At one of the faculty meetings I attended, it was made very clear that the days of assuming the teacher was effective are gone.  In today's educational environment, to prove you're an effective teacher requires evidence.  Therefore, begin collecting your evidence....  (I started the fall of 2013 and continue to this day.)

Getting your information/documentation/"evidence" organized will be important not only for you to provide verification that you have mastered each of the 72 elements, but also provides your evaluator a system so that they can find your documentation.

As I mentioned, there are 72 elements categorized into 10 standards; based on what I heard at the faculty meeting, I decided to have at least 1 piece of paper for each of the 72 elements.  Every school (and principal) is different, but your certificate is on the line and I'd recommend having 1 piece of quality evidence for each element.

1.  Create a table of contents (TOC) and then add specific and complete titles for your evidence.  Be consistent in your naming process.  I used the standards/elements from the DOE as the main outline, and then added the title of the piece of evidence under the appropriate standard and element.  For example, Section 3.4 begins like this:

3.4  Uses a variety of research-based instructional strategies and resources

     3.4.1  Lesson plan (dated 10/4/13) showing differentiation of process and product*

     3.4.2  Article: 3 Reasons, 10 Rules

I used the 3.4.1 outline method only because that is what the DOE used and I thought it would keep everything related.  I don't think it matters which outline system you use (1.A.i; I.A.i.; 1).A).i); etc.) as long as you use one and make it consistent.  

You may have noticed that I had an asterisk (*) at the end of 3.4.1.  That is a reminder to me that when I see my TOC, that specific piece of evidence will need to be updated.

2.  As you work through your table of contents adding titles of evidence, determine the location of other sources of evidence you'll need to collect and make a note in your TOC.  For example, in the area of "5.5: Uses grading practices that report final mastery in relationship to content goals and objectives," you could make a note, or leave a comment, that says, "Print out Lesson Plan (dated x/y/z) and Summative Test Report dated (x/y/z)."

I hope this helps you get started on collecting your evidence.  I'll continue with more a little later.  In the meantime, you can review a draft of "Keys to Your Successful Evaluation on the New Teacher Assessment on Performance Standards" located here: Notebook