Teacher Town Hall

This was a great video to watch. I thought that the first part about evaluations was very relevant because our district is trying something new in relation to evals. It's my year to be evaluated so Mrs. Koehn comes into the classroom periodically and makes notes on her iPad. One time she came in during the AIMSweb math comp test. It felt a little funny that she was in during that time but then as I thought about it more it's a part of my day 3 times a year so it's okay that she came in during that time. At the beginning of the year I was a little nervous about the walk-ins but now I am much more comfortable with them. I like the idea that she is going to see what she sees and some days it might be better than others or different than others but it's real world teaching and learning that she sees.
The topic of tenure is a big one and I have somewhat of mixed feelings on this. I think that if a teacher has a track record of not helping students make progress in their academic areas that they can be fired or put on a probation period. I think that they should be given a mentor teacher-even if it is someone younger with less experience. I think we are getting to the point where some teachers have lost the drive to be learners themselves and then this causes them not to be up to date on the latest research and best practices.
The poverty section was very interesting. I love the idea of a community learning center where we bring in what the students need to the school. I feel like our district tries to help the best we can when we know the parents can not get the child to an appointment or whatever it may be. I know last year on of our teachers took students to the doctor because the parents had no transportation. Our teachers do so much for our students but it would be nice if some of these basic needs could be handled in the school building. I want to check out the donors chose website also.
As for the common core I feel like the new standards are appropriate. I really appreciate the fact that we can go deeper instead of just skimming the surface. Again, we have to be learners and know that it will take some learning on our part to do something different.