I had my evaluation yesterday and thought it went OK, but the principal is looking for really specific things, which aren't in every one of my lessons, but are there over the course of the unit. I thought it went better than it apparently did, oops!
This morning, I met with him and it was rather disappointing. Things will get better though. He's going to have me observe some of the other teachers who know what they're doing (what he wants them to be doing). That should be helpful, since my cooperating teacher during student teaching would just tell the students to shut up whenever they got noisy or out of control, etc. Not very helpful for my learning of classroom management and teaching skills!
Oh well, he also said that he's not panicking about the issues that came up and that they will be easily fixed. He especially likes my use of technology and the depth that I'm bringing to the students. He mostly just wants the students to be told exactly what the learning objectives are, the exact rules for the day at the beginning, and specific praise loud enough for students around to hear. Then to regroup at the end and review for a minute. One of the teachers in yesterday's faculty meeting said she quizzes her students before they leave class for the day while they are standing in line. I'm thinking that this would be a great way to wrap things up. He also mentioned that if all works out and I want to, that he'd love to hire me again next year! I employed some of what he told me in my classes today and they went much better!
