I don't know how your school works but at ours new teachers are evaluated once a year until they get tenure and then every other year after that. We also use the Charlotte Danielson rubrics. This is my year to be evaluated and I have two ideas that I need to flesh out for the student growth section.

The only tracking we've done this year is to separate the freshman class into higher and lower students. Which when there are only 7 lower, I think it would have been just as well to mix them with the others. But...not my decision.

Anyway, I basically want to compare their growth over the year and hopefully show more growth in the lower class than the larger. That one's pretty straightforward I guess. Although I hate that it's based only on EOCs but again...not something I can control.

The other one is lofty and maybe not possible. I'm trying out whiteboarding this year in Geometry only and I'd like to somehow measure something and look for growth. My principal doesn't want me to compare the results to last year because the students are different and it's comparing apples and oranges. I don't want to use a control group because when I want to try something new, I want to do it for everyone and also with four preps, I don't want to add extra prep.

I posed the question on Twitter and got these two responses:

hmm, could you collect some sort of student survey data? perhaps something about rating themselves as mathematical communicators before and after deployment of whiteboards?

— Geoff Krall (@geoffkrall) August 23, 2018

Perhaps how "fluid" their thinking was while using the whiteboards (the word "fluid" may require some unpacking )

— Geoff Krall (@geoffkrall) August 23, 2018

What about their confidence and willingness to make mistakes while trying something new?

— Jae Ess (@jaegetsreal) August 23, 2018

Now I love a good survey and a good Google Form so this sounds so great. What else can I measure? Should I have students rate themselves 1-5 for each so I have actual numbers for comparison?

Better make a list:

• Mathematical communicator
• Fluid thinking
• Confidence
• Willingness to make mistakes while trying something new
• Ability to follow directions
• Willingness to work with someone new
• Willingness to take instruction from someone
• Ability to disagree with ideas without disagreeing with a person
• Math ability
• Interest in math

I'm not going to claim to be an expert in any of these 'how to' posts but I've made quite a few pacing guides and I can at least explain my thinking behind it.

Here is my Algebra I rough draft. Look at it first so that I can break down each decision.



First of all, I want a clear list of topics that I plan on teaching. I want those nestled inside cozy little units. I want a specific number of units that spans the course of a year.

I want these things so I can break them down into small, manageable chunks. I will be starting my eighth year of teaching and to be honest, I usually get about halfway through my pacing guide. That's pretty terrible.

I've just decided: no more starting over!!! I want to focus on adding.

I've started with Algebra I. There are 12 units...which means 3 units per quarter which means 3 weeks per unit. I have 6 or less skills per unit which means 2 skills per week. This is the goal I'm shooting for while knowing that some units will go faster or slower than I predict, the weather will mess up my good intentions several times, and instead of getting upset, I will focus on getting farther and farther along in my pacing guide each year.

I also align my pacing guide to the final exam or end of course exam. This means that next to each skill, I put the question number from the exam that corresponds to that skill. This way at the end of the year, I have a list of each question that students *should* be able to do (since I never get through everything).

This year I added activity structures to check off, mainly because I want to see how often I use certain activities and I want to make sure I include movement more often.

I also included the mathematical practices because I've never done a good job at focusing on them.

Reflection, seld-assessment, and peer-assessment came up a lot in my reading and at TMC this year so I added those sections as well. As you can see, this is a weakness of mine since I have very few ideas to attempt.

I put a 'notes' section at the bottom because I'm trying to get better at reflecting.

For next year, I would like to add vocabulary words, good questions, and prerequisite skills. I will try to add those things along the way so that next year: no more starting over! Hopefully I will remember to update this post in the next month or so with *this year's* final draft.

Oh, and the color strip at the top of each page will be color coded for each course and to that course's INB...of course.

This will also be a great tool to include in my teacher evaluation binder!

What else would you include in a pacing guide that will help you focus? What are some of your favorite strategies for self and peer assessment?

Two years ago I posted my first attempt at creating binder dividers for each component of the Charlotte Danielson domains for teacher evaluation.

For those of you being evaluated under the Charlotte Danielson model, this is a set of binder dividers labeled with each ___domain and component. It gives a checklist of possible documents to include such as: lesson plans, pacing guides, parent contact logs, end of course exams, final exams, etc.

I decided to update this to my new 'brand' aka chevron!

I also added in the components for Domain 3.



Again, it also include a customizable binder cover and spines in four different sizes.



These work like a charm on evaluations/evaluators.

Enjoy!

I found a survey I liked on Twitter but couldn't figure out how to save it as my own and edit it in Google Forms.

Classroom Chef to the rescue!

@misscalcul8 maybe try this one?https://t.co/AL7xKVkGsn

— Classroom Chef (@classroomchef) May 11, 2016

I added more of my own questions but I really liked this as a foundation.

Here is my version {I hope it doesn't mess anything up by sharing this lol}

After I finished it, I thought of even more questions that I wanted to add but you have to stop somewhere I suppose. Although I sure do love making and taking surveys- the fun never has to end! Lerky, I know {lame/nerdy/dorky}.

I plan on pairing the results of this survey along with Brigid's End of Year Evaluation post. She has a great idea for a Teacher Goal Setting Form that I really like. I also think it will look verrrrrrrry nice in my teacher evaluation binder.

I love to plan ahead and you already know I love a good form!

I've decided to do a little series about the teacher evaluation process. It's become a huge deal over the course of my newb 7 year career but it is actually a process I enjoy. I love to reflect and analyze myself and what could be better than organizing it into a cute binder and sharing it? =)

SMART Goals 

End of Course Exam Data 

Evaluation Binder

I've decided to do a little series about the teacher evaluation process. It's become a huge deal over the course of my newb 7 year career but it is actually a process I enjoy. I love to reflect and analyze myself and what could be better than organizing it into a cute binder and sharing it? =)

• SMART Goals
• End of Course Exam Data

I've decided to do a little series about the teacher evaluation process. It's become a huge deal over the course of my newb 7 year career but it is actually a process I enjoy. I love to reflect and analyze myself and what could be better than organizing it into a cute binder and sharing it? =)

See first post about SMART Goals here.

In our district, we give the EOC three times: the first week of school and the end of the first and second semester. The first time they take it, if they get a 25% it's an A. My whole test has 60 problems so the first time I say it is worth 15 points, the second time 30 points, and the the third time 60 points. This is how I determine a grade to put in the gradebook. Students must pass the final administration to pass the class. If they fail the first time, they get a second chance. If they fail it the second time, they have to go to summer school to get credit for the course. They also have to pass the class.

But for my own records, I like to know the pure results. I use Excel to track my data and make graphs.

I have a different tab (color-coded of course) for each class period. Here's a screenshot of one class:


I track the number of problems correct and the percentage grade for each administration. Then I also track their gains in the far right corner. So right now, all of these percentages are calculated out of 60. But it's very easy to adjust so that I can determine the grade. I can easily change the August Percentage to calculate out of 15 as per my district. The dark red line all the way across indicates a student who has moved. I keep their data because you never know who might come back. I also keep a class average at the bottom.

This is a great tool for evaluation because I can then make nice graphs out of this data like so:

I've decided to do a little series about the teacher evaluation process. It's become a huge deal over the course of my newb 7 year career but it is actually a process I enjoy. I love to reflect and analyze myself and what could be better than organizing it into a cute binder and sharing it? =)

I'm going to go through the process from start to finish, and try to stay as true to that as I can.

We start the school year by giving our end of course exam to every class within the first week of school. This counts as our baseline data.

Those that are on the evaluation cycle will meet with an administrator within the first month of school for our Beginning of Year conference or BOY.

Our district provides a form for us to explain our baseline data, our classroom make-up, our goals, strategies for improvement, and our classroom content. Our goal statement is written as a SMART Goal: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

• Subgroup 1: improve by 31-40% 
• Subgroup 2: improve by  21-30% 
•  Subgroup 3: improve by 10-20%

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since August!

Short summary: this is my best year yet! My biggest class size is 13, I have less preps, I've been decorating the crap out of my brand new house, and I just generally feel like I actually know what I'm doing and I'm doing a pretty good job!

I feel guilty for not posting but I also feel like a lot of my posts were complaints anyway....so it's actually GOOD that I haven't posted.

But to make up for it, I want to write a few posts and share some resources!

Even if you're not being evaluated under Charlotte Danielson, it is still a great resource for evaluation. It keeps you neat and organized and looks very impressive to administrators.

We had to create this for one of our classes in our master's cohort and it spread to other teacher's in our school.