Last year my son's teacher was a very nice person...but for a teacher, eh, not so much. I constantly heard stories about how he was on his phone or the computer in class while the students were working. When the research project, that was to be done entirely in school, began coming home I questioned that and found that during the free time the students were given to work on the project, they decided to fool around and use it as social hour, but did the teacher know? No, because he wasn't on top of the kids. My son's grades started slipping for the first time in his elementary school career and he really didn't like school. While I realize he needed to be held accountable, and he was, there has to also be some blame cast on the lack of teaching and supervision going on in this classroom. Communication is key, we got on top of this teacher, we told him our expectations and what our son needed. After a few meetings we got some results but not nearly what it should have been.
My daughter's teacher was polar opposite, her lessons were engaging and interactive. She promptly communicated any issues and sent home weekly news letters allowing parents to see what the students learned in each subject that week. My daughter thrived like I've never seen in this classroom and she loved school. These two examples just demonstrate how our kids can be our first way of evaluating teachers.
In college often times at the end of a semester we get surveys to complete on our professors. We are asked to complete these to help future classes and to allow the professor to see if there is anything they can do to better that particular class. Why not offer surveys to our kids? Now I realize we cannot expect a Kindergartner to complete a survey but for the older grades, middle school and up, why not? These are where we are seeing a lot of issues with the quality of education.
For the younger classes I think a weekly newsletter or e-mail to parents letting them know what their children are learning is a great tool to hold the teacher accountable and assess whether or not our children are really grasping what they are learning. My daughter's teacher this year is also doing an e-news letter and I must say it gives me a sense of confidence in her teacher and her school to see all that is being taught throughout the week. She even includes a few photos of the students doing various activities.
I know that the biggest evaluation of teachers is testing but I think there are better ways. Not all kids test well for various reasons, testing puts pressure on both teachers and students with sometimes unrealistic goals. I think student evaluations, really hearing what our kids have to say, can not only help evaluate teachers but improve the quality of their education. I also feel weekly communication with parents is important and helps to keep teachers accountable for what they are supposed to be doing .
