who is charlotte danielson

This is the question flying around the internet as many school districts implemented her evaluation system.  While school systems around the country should be trying to inspire teachers it seems that instead they are trying to beat them down.  I sat on the teacher focus group for this evaluation and I remember thinking when this model is implemented it will be time to retire.  Unfortunately for me retirement is not an option right now, so it makes me think, do I want to stay in public education?

First off, teachers now have to keep a portfollio to demonstrate the good work that they do during the course of the year.  So we will have some teachers who will spend a ton of time putting this together so that they get a good observation.  None of this work will benefit students, but who cares, it is just extra work for the teachers.  I wonder who will sit down to read these portfollio's but that is a different story.

The next thing is that it dictates how you are going to teach.  No longer is the teacher suppose to be responsible for learning but the students now need to be in charge.  In fairness there are a couple of activities in which I put students totally in charge of and I think they work well.  However, by no means do I think that anybody should dictate the way we teach.  Each teacher is different, we have different classes and teach different subjects.  None of this matters with the Danielson model, one size fits all.  So be ready for a lot of group work.

Thirdly, there are four levels according to this evaluation system.  Highly effective, Effective, developing effective and ineffective.  We were told that you can not live in highly effective just visit.  So there is no motivation to try to be the best because you can not be there for more than a lesson or maybe a few minutes.  Who knows, surely not teachers.  Who still really do not know how all the points add up to gain your level.

So instead of inspiring teachers to be great, we have developed a checklist of things that you need to do according to some person.  Nobody has tried to sell us on the model, they have just tried to shove it down our throats.

What keeps me going each day.  I have amazing kids who inspire me each day to think of ways to make learning better and more fun.