Classroom visits?

I spent this afternoon tagging along with a new teacher coach who works in several CPS schools.  I asked her later if she ever got a chance to coordinate classroom visits for her beginning teachers, so they could see what excellent classrooms look like.

They’re starting to implement this, but it’s slow going, she says, and here’s why.  It’s hard to identify which classrooms her teachers should observe.  Does it makes sense to send a new PE teacher from an extremely high poverty school to observe a fantastic teacher in a school with more resources?  Will new teachers in overcrowded schools benefit from seeing classes taught in charters with limited enrollment?

The answer is probably yes: teachers benefit from seeing great teaching, wherever it is.  BUT (and it’s a big “but"), in the short term, it seems like what would help a new teacher most is to see really excellent teaching that takes place in a very similar context to the one they are teaching in.

When TEN was first being developed, one of the ideas on the table was to use it as a way to gather a really comprehensive list of all the good teachers in Illinois.  Not just Golden Apple winners, not just National Board teachers, but all of them.  I’m not sure how practical this would be, but I’m interested in seeing if we can figure out how to do it, if only so new teachers and their coaches will have more options for seeing good teaching in action, and will be able to choose teachers from schools that face similar challenges to theirs.

Labels: Conversations

Posted by Terri on June 7, 2007 10:59 AM

I think new teachers need to see people who are working with similar resources to them so they can get ideas as to how to deal with what they have. Most teacher education programs aim to train you for middle class schools, not necessarily for schools of need. So going into the classroom, I had ideas as to what I could do but didn’t know how to do it when I didn’t have the resources. I think that it’s when teachers gain more experience and feel more secure in what they’re doing, they want to see what others are doing no matter what the resources because they’ve learned how to “work the system” so to speak.

Posted by Adam on June 8, 2007 2:08 PM

I always wanted to see how a teacher’s first day of class went.

Posted by Anonymous on June 9, 2007 7:52 PM

I think that at the start of their journey new teachers need to see and talk with exemplary teachers in similar environments and situations to theirs. To continue to grow and develop and challenge oneself--exposure to all kinds of exemplary teachers is needed.