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Sunday, October 20, 2013

NYC Educator: If Your Supervisor Isn't Crazy, Part 2

NYC Educator: If Your Supervisor Isn't Crazy, Part 2:

If Your Supervisor Isn't Crazy, Part 2

I wasn't intending to continue this, but it now occurs to me that if your supervisor isn't crazy, there's no need whatsoever for this wretched new evaluation system. Actually, if your supervisor isn't crazy, it won't necessarily take 4-6 observations to determine what goes on in your classroom. For one thing, if you're doing a truly abysmal job, there's likely to be a line of kids outside your department office complaining about you. If I were a supervisor, I'd probably make it my business to see firsthand whether or not these complaints were valid.

If there were no complaints, I'd still want to see what was going on. But I don't think I'd bother you very often if everything looked good. I believe a competent supervisor can make these judgments fairly quickly. But, you say, that's not always the case, and of course you're right.

So say you have a supervisor who's nuts. This supervisor wouldn't know a good lesson if one were beating him upside the head (which is of course precisely what he deserves). Do you honestly believe that a Danielson rubric will keep this guy from writing inane or hurtful crap about you? I don't. Do you believe this bad