As a principal, what did you learn from the last teacher observation you completed?

What did the teacher learn from you?

Observations have always been at risk of being something to get done...instead of something to get done right. For full disclosure, I'm not innocent in this situation. There were times when I looked at the long list of observations that I needed to complete for the year, on top of the thousand others tasks on the list, and I sometimes just wanted to get through it all unscathed.

I was part of the problem.

Adding point scales (required under new evaluation laws) to the formal observation process didn't help either. It made the focus of the observations about the overall points the teachers would be awarded at the end, instead of the conversation between two professionals who have an expertise in education trying to learn something from one another.

It didn't take me long to snap back into reality and come to the understanding that no matter how busy life can get, teacher observations are one of the most important parts of the job. Observations should be seen as exciting, and not something to get through. After all, it provides the school leader with the opportunity to:

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