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