Thursday, May 3, 2012

STUDENTS EVALUATING TEACHERS, AND THE “ULTRA HAPPY SCHOOL” « Teachers Fight Back

STUDENTS EVALUATING TEACHERS, AND THE “ULTRA HAPPY SCHOOL” « Teachers Fight Back:


STUDENTS EVALUATING TEACHERS, AND THE “ULTRA HAPPY SCHOOL”

The latest suggestion from the geniuses behind “education reform” is to have students evaluate their teachers, and that score would then become part of a teachers overall evaluation by the administration.  Gee, can anyone see a potential problem with this ?  I can think of a few dozen problems with this idea, but I’ll leave it to your imagination to come up with a few of your own. Some of them should be quite obvious if you’ve been a teacher for any length of time. What adult wouldn’t want to be evaluated by an eight year old that has been a discipline problem for the entire year? Wouldn’t you want to be evaluated by that occasional “class from hell” that most teachers will experience if they’re in the profession for any length of time?
I’m not against a teacher hearing the OPINIONS of students from time to time as regards the teachers performance, but to be an actual part of the evaluation, I don’t think so. I valued student opinions and used an opinion form a few times during the year  to help me understand how to better relate to the students.  I had my students write unsigned opinion pieces about me and my teaching methods. I provided a form with questions