13 Tips to Help Teachers Pass Their Evaluations with Flying Colors
If you’re like most teachers, you’re heavily invested in your teaching prowess, and want your district to value you for all you can do. Your evaluations are a great time to demonstrate your skills to an audience, but that means some serious prep work. Here are 13 tips to help you pass with flying colors.
- Use a Lesson You’ve Done Before
It’s best to avoid something new when you’re being evaluated. Instead, do a lesson plan you did the previous year and had good results with. If you’re a new teacher or teaching a new grade, try modifying a lesson you like slightly instead of crafting an entirely new one.
- Test Technology Beforehand
There’s nothing worse than trying to teach your lesson and being thwarted by tech. HubPages recommends avoiding this by testing all audio-visual equipment before you use it in your lesson. Even better, try to do a lesson that doesn’t require and technology at all … unless you’re specifically being evaluated on your ability to use it.
- Plan for English Language Learners
As of 2012 and 2013, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 4.4 million students were estimated to be English Language Learners. That translates to 9.2 percent of all children in United States classrooms, which means you have an excellent chance of having some in your own. That makes it crucial that your lesson plan accommodate them, or else you may be marked down on your evaluation. Plot out how you’ll differentiate ahead of time.
- Write Out the Lesson Plan
Especially as an experienced teacher, you may not always use a full lesson plan. However, your evaluators will expect one, so don’t let them down. Write out the full plan, including objectives, goals, standards, differentiation, assessments and so on.
Quote:
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
~ Albert Einstein
- Make the Lesson Interesting
This seems like an obvious statement, but as we can see from the quote above, it’s quite crucial. Students will forget (or never learn) facts and figures, but they will engage with intriguing content. Especially for your evaluation, when you want a high degree of student participation, choose something you know your kids will love.
- Prepare Your Students
While you don’t want to make your students nervous, it is essential that students are on their best behavior during the observation. The Cornerstone for Teachers recommends talking to them beforehand about proper behavior when there are visitors in the room. Go ahead and give specific examples of how they should and should not behave.
- Arrive Early
It’s always best to arrive on time, especially if the evaluation falls on your first lesson of the day. Even if it doesn’t, arriving early that morning will give you extra time to set up all the materials you need and feel prepared.
- Make an Evaluation Packet for Each Evaluator
While your evaluators will bring their own materials to use in your assessment, it’s helpful if you provide the materials you’ll be using in the lessons as well. Put together a small packet for each that includes the lesson plan, any handouts you’re using and whatever other materials they’ll need to follow along. They will appreciate this, and it will enhance your credibility.
- Focus on Inquiry-Based Learning
Inquiry is crucial, and evaluators are looking for examples of inquiry-based learning more than ever. Choose a lesson-plan with a hands-on component or one that employs Socratic dialogue.
- Practice
If possible, you should practice your lesson on another group of students before you use it for your evaluation. This is easier for middle and high school, where you use lessons for multiple classes. If, however, you teach elementary, you can get the same effect by teaching the same lesson with different source material … i.e. a different book or different number concepts. This will help you walk through similar steps and feel more prepared.
Quote:
Most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months.
~ National Summer Learning Association
- Bring Students Up to Speed Beforehand
Summer learning loss is real, and usually results in two month’s loss of both reading and math, especially in impoverished populations, explains the National Summer Learning Association. While this is a testament to the changes we need to make in education, you shouldn’t let it negatively impact your evaluation. Especially if you’re being observed toward the beginning of the year, you must make sure your students are up to speed in the subjects you’ll be covering, otherwise it might just look like you haven’t taught them well.
- Smile
When in doubt, just smile. Smile at evaluators and especially smile at students. Simply smiling actually helps you feel calmer, and even if you don’t, it will make a better impression.
- Use Lesson Planning Software
Using planning software like Planbook Plus can help you ensure that your lesson plan flows seamlessly with the rest of the unit, and students have the best chance of understanding and participating in it. If you would like to learn more about this so you can perform better in future evaluations, and simply become a better teacher, you can try Planbook Plus for free.
Of course, no number of tips can replace good planning and a solid understanding of your material, but if you keep the above advice in mind, you’ll do well. On a final note, it’s okay to plan for your observed lessons longer than those you do with students everyday, but make sure you don’t make a habit of this … your observation is meant to be representative of how you really teach, and if it isn’t, your evaluators will know. In the end, if you’re a good teacher, you’ll do just fine.
