Some of you may have noticed an increase in the amount of administration that is coming into your classrooms. Usually seeing Mr. Griebel, Mr. Lohmann, or even Mr. Dufoe in your classroom is never a good thing, but this semester they’re trying to change that stereotype.
“it gives me an opportunity to see the hard work that teachers are doing”
In a press conference with Mr. Dufoe he explained a new goal of the district administrators. “What we’ve identified as that group of school leaders is that we weren’t getting into classrooms enough routinely enough. If you think about that for a second, just think through the possible repercussions of that happening in a school system. The real work of teaching and learning happens in classrooms. That’s really common sense. So the more distance there is between teachers, principles, and district office leaders like myself, that can become a negative.”
Dufoe explained that being in the classroom and seeing teachers and the practices they use opens up opportunities for conversation. He says that the visits will remain relatively short, around 10-15 minutes, and each principle and vice principle is expected to schedule visits to two classrooms per day.
Previously when admin entered a teachers classroom they might’ve left notes or feedback for the teacher as an observation style visit. Dufoe says that there might be a short conversation with the teacher in the classroom just about what they are teaching, but no notes will be left and it will remain a casual visit and not a form of observation of the teacher. ” It’s it’s gonna be very focused on simply being present in classrooms ”
Dufoe talked about how blessed he feels to be able to go into classrooms and see students. “I’m very excited for this because being in classrooms and being around students at every level from kindergarten, the the five year-olds who look at me and blurt out things like, ‘who are you?’ and ‘you’re tall’, and ‘you have gray hair’ they’re just a blast. And being in classrooms with seniors who are are so close to jumping off into a new chapter of life. Those the time classrooms is is just gold for me”
Dufoe also explained the team aspect of this project and how they are each keeping each other accountable throughout this project. They all meet once a week on Friday and report back what they saw in each classroom during the week. “I think really there can be an excuse or a cop out. It can be, well, I’m too busy. You know, I’m too busy to be in classrooms and the other work is more important and in some days that’s true. Some days, you know, uh an emergency or a crisis comes into play and I’m unavailable. But that’s those the times in which that’s true is less than what we sometimes um convince ourselves that they are.”
“We’ll meet weekly to um share our results, share our work, we’re gonna track it. We’re gonna challenge each other to do better if we slip up and go from there. I’m super excited to be in classrooms more. Hopefully you’ll see me more often in the coming months.”
