In schools, observations and evaluations of teachers and principals can be a contentious event rather than a productive process. Watching someone teach or facilitate a meeting changes the event being observed. Observing something, for the most part, involves the conditions of the observed to change. For example, how a teacher interacts with students may be different if a supervisor is watching. This can be a good difference or a bad difference, but it is different. The same goes for students. Behavior in a classroom may be radically different from behavior in the hallway, the bus, or neighborhood based upon how observed they are. What would we learn if we could observe ourselves?  And how much more powerful would that reflection be if a skilled partner could observe along side of us?  Read more...