Marzano Week 2

Becoming a reflective teacher is something that we have been practicing this year. As a part of an agreement with the Missouri Board of Education, our district developed a new teacher evaluation process. It began with each teacher grading his or herself on several characteristics based on rubric. It was exactly what Marzano suggested. It is so incredibly important to do this and be honest about it. Like Dr. Phil says, “you can't change what you don't acknowledge”. From that scale, we chose two areas in which we wanted to improve. It was very similar to Marzano's except that we had to develop our own teacher and student evidence. Marzano's list was much more helpful. What I noticed between

On most of the scales, I scored a 2 or 3, which is okay with me. There are some areas that I could be better at monitoring the success of a strategy. I think that is where many of us fail. We utilize a new strategy because it is researched based so therefore it must be effective. However, everything doesn't work for everybody. I definitely need to remind myself to monitor the strategy while I am monitoring the student. There were also two areas that caught my interest, one in which I scored myself very high and the other very low. I gave myself a 4 (innovating) for “The teacher uses academic games nd inconsequential competition to maintain student engagement”. This is perhaps my favorite way to keep students “with me” during a lesson. We of course play Jeopardy and the millionaire games online, but I also incorporate “old school” games. We play musical chairs where you can stay in by answering a question. We shoot baskets in teams for review points. It is easy to tell that they are engaged, but I need to go a step farther. Based on the suggested student evidence for this scale, I will be sure to include some type of exit slip. Again, I need to monitor the strategy.

An area that I gave myself a one was in “Teacher provides a clearly stated learning goal accompanied by a scale or rubric that describes levels of performance relative to the learning goal”. I always begin the lesson with discussion surrounding the learning objective. I refer to it often during the unit but it is not posted. I have been in other rooms in which they are posted but have not done so myself. Again, I get in my own way with that. I don't have the space to do so, but it is important that students are reminded not just from me, but see what they are supposed to learn. This helps them take ownership too. This is also true in the use of rubrics. I use them, but the students only see them at assessment time. I should be more conscience in sharing those with them in the beginning along with the objective. This, too, gives them the opportunity to monitor their understanding.