How Does Mr. R prepare to be observed by his Principal?

When I asked Mr. R how he prepares to be observed by his principal, he made sure to note that sometimes, he doesn't get formally observed. Due to the school switching over from a block schedule to a seven hour day this year, a lot of logistics in planning and scheduling have changed. I was very interested to hear the troubles that they are having with this system, compared to past years. Nevertheless, Mr. R noted that he doesn't really prepare for getting observed at all. At this point in his career, he knows that what he does works. He is a tenured teacher with a lot of experience under his belt. He has the confidence to know that no matter his review, he is a great teacher. He advised that in the early years of my career, I should cover all of my bases and make sure to prepare for the observations done by the administration. I definitely agree with him. I loved hearing about how comfortable he was with his position, but at the same time, I worried that he was almost too confident in himself. He has made a great name for himself in the school and has a lot of respect from his peers, which is well deserved.

I really enjoyed hearing about the system they use to evaluate teachers. There are seven criteria (although Mr. R didn't remember all of the criteria) most of them encompassed the basics of DBAE as well as classroom management, organization and so on. He was not shy to tell me that he doesn't care about these requirements, and doesn't even care if he doesn't match them. I, on the other hand, feel as though I would be very concerned with these criteria while I am teaching in my first year. Again, he noted that I would want to be very aware of these things, but with experience comes a sense of freedom as well.

This conversation was very nice to have with Mr. R, but I did feel like the advice he was giving me was opposite of what he does. Either way, his words of wisdom did resonate with me, and I will definitely be making sure to keep up on my curriculum, lesson planning, classroom management, environment and DBAE principles!