Evaluation Self-Reflection

Video Transcription

Welcome. I'm Trisha Fyfe, and in today's video lesson we'll look at the topic evaluation self-reflection. As we learn about this topic, we will work towards one main learning objective. And we'll use the following question to guide our learning in this lesson-- what are best practices when engaging in self-reflection as a component of the teacher evaluation process?

As teachers, we must reflect often. We use reflection for several things, including the teacher evaluation process. When teachers take ownership for our improvement, we become more effective. Self-reflection can get us to this point. We should consider reflecting often and we should ensure that we're making connections to the teacher evaluation process when doing so.

There are several considerations you must make as a teacher prior to the beginning of the evaluation process each school year. First think about participating in self-reflection exercises. Make sure that these include rubrics associated with the teacher evaluation model in your school. You should also rate yourself in each category. This helps you to determine areas of strengths and needs that you have, determined the area or areas you will focus on. What are your needs?

Consider any areas you can incorporate into your professional development plan for that year. If professional growth schools are used at the school in which you teach, ask, can I develop a goal based upon what I have learned about myself? Use tools to help guide your self-reflection process. Tools like optional or required self-evaluation tools are super helpful.

Share your self-reflection. Share it with your instructional coach or induction coach. Begin constructing your plan for that school year together. Compare your ratings with their findings in observations. Do you need to adjust any areas of focus?

After an observation or the receipt of feedback from and evaluator or coach, there are several things you should consider. It's helpful to use the rubric associated with your own teacher evaluation model. Use this rubric to review feedback that you have been provided. Do you agree with this feedback? Are there any areas that you need clarification on? Make sure you ask for guidance here, if needed.

Are there areas that you would like to evaluator or coach to revisit? If so, invite your evaluator or your coach back to observe again. Develop an action plan for the areas where needs are noted and work on improvements. To do this, you can use a tool such as the PDSA, Plan, Do, Study, Act process. Where do you want your focus to be? How you put your plan into action?

Make sure you implement the plan over specific time frames that are predetermined. Were there any improvements, or are you still struggling? If it's working, continue your plan. And if it's not, work with your evaluator or coach to gain support to revise your plan. Reflection and feedback are both so critical. The purpose here is to improve your practice continuously.

This should be done to ensure that all students achieve at high levels. Continuous reflection is needed as are strategies for improvement. Even veteran teachers have things to learn, improvements that can be made.

Let's walk through a sample of a PDSA cycle. Let's say teacher is struggling with technology integration in her class. The teacher and coach have met and discussed this need. She develops a PDSA. The "P" is plan. The teacher set some goals. She plans to begin using the class website for students to access at home. And she also plans to begin using learning stations with technology integrated into these lessons.

The "D" is do. This teacher incorporates both of these, a class website as well as learning stations with technology at certain stations. The "S" is study. She notices that students using these activities have higher levels of engagement than before. She also noticed that scores on assignments are higher.

The "A" is act. And this is where the teacher will either set new goals or adapt the goals that are made, if needed. Things are working, so this teacher plans to continue integrations with technology using these two methods. She will go through the cycle again and repeat these activities as well as continue to study the progress.

Let's talk about what we learned today. We looked at the question, what are best practices when engaging in self-reflection as a component of the teacher evaluation process? In this lesson we talked about evaluation and reflection, and the importance of reflecting in evaluations.

We talked about the fact that teachers reflect often, and we connected evaluation processes and reflection. We talked about considerations that you should make before you begin the evaluation process for each school year. Things like self-reflection rating yourself in each category, determining your needs and making goals.

We also talked about at PDSA cycle. And I gave you an example of this, where a teacher goes through the process of creating a "P," plan, "D," do, "S," study, and "A," act cycle for a goal that's implemented.

Now they you're more familiar with these concepts, let's reflect. What are the benefits of self-reflection as a teacher? What can you do to reflect more effectively within the evaluation process?

Thanks for joining me today and discussing the lesson, evaluation self-reflection. I hope you found value in this video lesson and are able to apply these ideas about evaluations and self-reflection to your own teaching. For more information on how to apply what you've learned in this video, please see the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The additional resources section includes hyperlinks, useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource.