Secret confession (kind of…I’ve told several people this story, actually): I completely bombed my first unannounced observation. Like, I told the kids that a comma goes on the outside of an end quotation mark. I taught fourth grade that year, and it was late in the spring, so we were hardcore into some standardized test-prep. And for this particular example, the comma was supposed to be on the INSIDE of the quotation mark, and I’m not sure if I was so nervous that my principal had walked in a few minutes before that I misspoke, or if I just flat out didn’t know what you’re actually supposed to do with commas and quotation marks. I probably just didn’t know.

And if my principal hadn’t been in there, I likely would have taken the time to look in the teacher’s manual and clarify my thinking. Because, I know how to write with quotation marks and all that punctuation jazz, but this was my first ever stab at teaching it to other human beings…most of which were still confused about what a quotation mark even was at all. And knowing how to do something, and knowing how to explain it, are two very different things. You learn during your first year of teaching all of the things that you don’t really “know”, because all you can do is show the kids 50 million times how to work that equation…but you don’t know how to break it down for them.

I took a wild stab in the dark, and decided to just roll with it. I told the kids to circle “C” in their TCAP workbooks and moved on.

My principal did not move on. She printed reference materials about the grammatical rules of quotation marks. She highlighted examples of quotation mark questions in past sample TCAP books, to show the way it would likely be worded on the test. AND she highlighted the correct answer for each question she found…because she assumed I wouldn’t know what the right answer was.

And she gave me some pretty lousy scores.

This was coming off of the high of a pretty fantastic announced observation back in the fall. We won’t go into how many nights I kept myself awake all night long with anxiety over that announced observation, but at least I’d had the time to really prepare. And I did well.

But this principal believed in the art of a total sneak-attack unannounced observation. She chose to visit staff members in a totally random order, so you never knew where you were in the list. And she showed up whenever she felt like it. Being 15 minutes into your lesson wasn’t really a signal that she wasn’t coming. She could still show.

So, when she walked into my room, I was instantly blushing and sweating, because all we were doing was test prep in a workbook. I didn’t even know how to address all of the things on our rubric that require small groups and critical thinking skills. And then to top it all off, I didn’t even teach the scripted workbook correctly. Major. Eyeroll.

So, after I got her notes back on that lesson, I had severe PTSD about my next observation. I think I worried about it all summer long. And like all things that cause me great anxiety, I decided to find a system that would put observation worry in a box that I could pack away. I HATE being controlled by fear, and when I really thought about what an observation was…another human being, who has never taught your kids, writing down some numbers that reflect his or her opinion of what he/she saw in your lesson on that ONE small part of that ONE day…I decided it was way too dumb of a thing to worry about extensively. Should you try to learn from the feedback? For sure. Should you respect the opinion of your administrator. Yes. Should you lose sleep over the idea that they may dislike something you did or said? N-O.

In the name of simplifying things that bother me, I developed a system for braving unannounced observations. I want to share it with you today, because I could have certainly used something like this 8 years ago before that freaking quotation marks lesson. (Eye roll. Again.) And these steps worked extremely well for me. I have never had another observed lesson go poorly, even when I was completely surprised by it. I have been high-scoring, with little to no observation anxiety ever since. If you want the same, then keep reading. :)

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Decide That You’re Awesome

I’m easing in here with this, because you will forever and ever worry about observations of all kinds if you don’t just decide that you’re good. I’ve seen veteran teachers who LOSE their minds with stress at the thought of an observation, and I’m over here like: Girl. You’ve been teaching for forever and you still don’t know you’re great? I’m not living that life. I can’t be 25 years into this gig and still lose sleep over someone walking into my room and watching me teach. No thanks.

If you get super anxious about them, try to pinpoint what it is. Is there something about your teaching that you are self-conscious about? What resources can you look into to help you improve so you can be more confident? Is it the anxiety about poor feedback? What about the feedback piece bothers you so much? Is it your perfectionism standing in the way of you just relaxing into your teaching?

I can remember venting to a coworker, who was many years my senior, about this whole observation thing. I was saying it was so unfair that this system is just based on opinion, and I get these scores based off of one 60 minute chunk of my day. blahblahblah.

It’s been almost a decade, so I can’t directly quote her here, but the gist of what she told me was: I am really damn good at what I do, and if I teach like I’m great at it, my principals will always agree with me when they’re watching me.

And that was that. I’ve held onto it forever. Teach like you know you’re great.

Plan All of Your Lessons With These Things:

A measurable objective.
Knowing what the assessment looks like.
Differentiation and grouping.

Boom.

Measurable Objectives

First off, this is just good teaching. Always have a measurable objective, and know what it means. How do you know if you’ve mastered it? Our district has this magic 85% number in their heads. I guess because the RTI model targets 15-20% of kids in a classroom or grade level, so that 85% should be your “Tier I Kids”. But basically, the idea is that 85% of your kids should master grade level content under your care. What if you teach a standard, give an exit slip on it, and only 60% of your kids get the exit slip correct? And you only budgeted a day to teach this standard? You got a problem, friend.

If you don’t know these things, they will come back to haunt you later. It will show up on a benchmark that or a grade level assessment that only 60% of your kids knew something you were supposed to teach them.

So, based off of your standard (which I didn’t list in the things you should have in a lesson, but it’s a given), always have an idea of what you’re aiming for here.

Assessments

Then, know how you’re going to measure it. That is likely an assessment. Can be summative or formative (taking y’all back to college, now), but it needs to assess what you just taught. Knowing this ahead of time informs you’re instruction. That way you’re not doing things like…oh I don’t know…telling kids the answer in a workbook about quotation marks is C when it most definitely isn’t?!

Differentiation and Grouping

Now that you know what you’re teaching, how you expect your kids to do, and how you’re going to find out how they did, you need to plan to not be the star of this show.

Design each lesson around the idea that the kids will collaborate at some point, give feedback to each other, share ideas that will lead your discussion..there are a million ways that you can turn the learning over to the kids. Sitting and lecturing, no matter how old your kids are, does not translate well to an observation…because it’s boring. If your admin is bored sitting in there, they will assume your kids are bored. Have variation in your lesson. Get the kids engaged with the work. Get them talking. This should not be a dog and pony show. There are a million ways to do this simply. Turn and talk. Small group instruction. Think-Pair-Share. Sticky Hands (my personal favorite).

Then, of course, have a plan to differentiate as needed. Pro-Tip: any paraprofessionals or gifted teachers who will be present in your room during this time don’t count as evidence of differentiation. You, as the classroom teacher of your roster, should plan to reach all students.

If you know how you’re going to break things down for your struggling babies at your small group table, and you know how your high-fliers are going to engage more deeply than the other students…then you. are. golden. You can relax, now.

Reflect

So, now you’re teaching every lesson like this confident, grade-A teacher who knows she’s good whether Mr. Principal comes in today or not, but there’s one more thing I think you need to do. When the day comes, and your admin comes in with the laptop and clipboard, pause at the end of your lesson and write a quick reflective statement on your lesson plan.

Write it at the bottom of your lesson plan, like this: At the end of this lesson, 93% of my students met the requirements of this standard, surpassing my goal of 85%. This means that, as a class, we can move forward to the next standard in our scope and sequence.

Or, maybe like this: At the end of this lesson, 80% of my students met the requirements of standard, falling short of my goal of 85%. Therefore, I will be reteaching this standard in small groups next week, and I will re-assess at the end of the week.

Our rubric for teacher observations in Tennessee has a brief line over in the 5 column about how the teacher knows how his/her lesson will impact future instruction. You can’t get a 5 in planning unless you provide some sort of note on your plans on what you will do with your exit slip/test/small group activity/what have you. This little sentence earns you a 5…so, you’re welcome. :)

There you go, y’all. You can snag my lesson plan template for FREE with the sign up below, and snag yourself some articles that can be used in your small group lessons, or centers around the room during your observation…or just a normal day in your classroom!