Due this week: Educator Effectiveness Plan

As if you don't have enough going on as we near the end of October, this is a reminder that your Educator Effectiveness Plan is due on Monday, October 31, 2016 to your evaluator. What does that mean?!

Your Educator Effectiveness Plan consists of:

• Student Learning Objective (SLO) - choose baseline data and a subgroup of students, set a goal for what they'll achieve by the end of the year. 
• Professional Practice Goal (PPG) - complete the Self-Review, and choose a component of Danielson's Framework to focus your attention in order to better your own practice. 

If you haven't already, you'll have a meeting soon with your evaluator to go over these goals.

What else happens with Educator Effectiveness this year?

• Observations: Your evaluator will observe you in action a few times this year. One formal, announced, planned observation (45-60 min), one formal, unannounced observation (45-60 min), and at least one drop-in, unannounced observation (10 min). 
• Meetings: You'll meet with your evaluator to talk about these observations and to track progress on your SLO and PPG.
• Collecting Evidence: You'll start to collect artifacts (I can help you!) to show evidence of meeting the standards for teachers as laid out by Danielson's Framework. Evidence of teamwork, lesson and unit planning, and student records are the majority of this, and you're already doing it!

Want some links? 

The Educator Effectiveness website is amazing and contains everything you'll ever want to know!

• mmsd.org/ee 
• SLO worksheet
• Self-Review worksheet
• PPG worksheet
• My Learning Plan
• Danielson's Framework for Teaching

More questions? 

Contact me or your school's Educator Effectiveness Strategist (Jorge Covarrubias, Dan Davidson, Sue Gorud). We're all here to help! 

Juggling!!

So, I decided to recycle and use the same blog post I wrote about a year ago at this time.
I'll see you tomorrow evening at our Seminar!

Are you feeling like this octopus, juggling a million balls at once?
You're not alone!

This is the time of the school year when teachers realize how overwhelmed they actually are. Demands seem to come from many people, including principals, teammates, students, parents, and more! You're writing your SLO and PPG, meeting with your teams, and scheduling conferences. You're attending IEP meetings, coming into work on Saturdays, and staying up late planning the perfect lesson. New teachers (and veteran teachers) are forced to prioritize when they realize that they cannot possibly do everything for everyone.

This is, for most people, the Phase of Disillusionment.

*See Phases of First-Year Teachers for more information.

Can you relate to any of these?

• "New teachers begin questioning both their commitment and their competence."
• "Many new teachers get sick during this phase."
• "They are faced with back-to-school night, parent conferences, and their first formal evaluation by the site administrator."
• "At this point, the accumulated stress of the first-year teacher coupled with months of excessive time allotted to teaching often brings complaints from family members and friends."

Here is the good news . . . you're doing it! 

You're teaching, you're changing lives by the day, and you're making a difference. 

You have teammates, colleagues, friends, and families to support you. 

You have students who look up to you. 

Remember why you became a teacher, how your students are learning and growing, and don't be afraid to say, "no" or let some things go. 

Share your insight in the comments below:

• What do you think teachers should spend their time and energy doing at this time of year? 
• What are YOU spending your time and energy doing? 
• What have you decided to postpone for a while (or not do at all)?