MFL MarMac teachers find additional way to collaborate with one another, community
MFL MarMac teachers have discovered a new way of collaborating with one another and the community...and it all begins by placing a simple sign outside their classroom doors. The signs, like this one, invite people observe lessons and provide feedback. (Photo by Audrey Posten)
By Audrey Posten, North Iowa Times Editor
MFL MarMac teachers have discovered a new way of collaborating with one another and the community...and it all begins by placing a simple sign outside their classroom doors.
The signs invite people—be it staff, school board members, parents or other members of the community—to enter classrooms, observe lessons and provide feedback about what they’ve seen and heard.
The movement is called #ObserveMe, and was created by California math teacher specialist and educational trainer Robert Kaplinsky in order to foster more collaborative school environments.
MFL MarMac teacher and curriculum instructor Eliza Philpott discovered the movement, and the hashtag #ObserveMe, on the social media network Twitter. It led her to Kaplinsky’s website, where she learned more about how teachers around the country have implemented and benefitted from the signs. She thought, why not do the same at MFL MarMac?
“It’s good to have feedback from people,” Philpott said. “It gives more of an open-door policy and collaboration. I’m willing to take criticism if it helps me teach the kids.”
To get started, said Philpott, teachers simply place an #ObserveMe sign outside their classrooms that lists several areas in which they would like feedback. Deciding what she wanted to list was the hardest part, she noted.
“I wanted it to help me, but also help the kids,” she stressed.
Philpott and her fellow McGregor Center teacher Brent Pape, who’s also one of MFL MarMac’s instructional coaches through the TLC (teacher leadership and compensation) program, began encouraging the #ObserveMe movement earlier in February. Since then, signs have begun to pop up not just at the McGregor Center, but in Monona, as well.
“Within the week, we started seeing them,” Pape commented.
So far, he shared, teachers have sought feedback in a variety of areas, including student engagement, teaching strategies, responsibility centered discipline, questioning techniques and use of technology.
To assure they’re in the classrooms, some teachers prefer scheduled visits, or at least a timeframe during which an observer may stop by their classroom. Others welcome surprise visits.
“Then, it’s an everyday visit,” Philpott said. “You’ll get real feedback because this is what it’s really like.”
Depending on the teacher, observers can provide feedback through a few different channels. Philpott has created a comment form, but said others also welcome emailed comments or speaking with one another following class.
If teachers want to observe another classroom, they can receive coverage from Pape or any of the other instructional coaches.
Philpott said #ObserveMe makes teachers less wary of venturing into other classrooms.
“Before, you might have been nervous to walk in,” she said. “Now, you feel like it’s OK.”
When Philpott decided to try #ObserveMe at MFL MarMac, she said she did it more so with the community in mind, not to incorporate into the TLC program, which was created by the state and implemented at MFL MarMac last year. Pape said it works for both.
“I saw it fitting right in with TLC. It opens up the collaboration and communication with other teachers,” which is one of the program’s goals, he noted.
As #ObserveMe spreads throughout the district, Philpott said teachers will hopefully see the benefits of observing one another.
“They’ll think, ‘I never thought about that or that’s a great way to do that.’ It’s adaptable,” she commented. “This gives you a better idea of what’s happening at each [grade] level. What happens in sixth grade affects the high school. They’re all our kids.”
Pape said #ObserveMe has a positive effect on students not just in that their teachers are getting classroom feedback, but that students can witness the collaboration.
“We ask the kids to [collaborate] every day,” he said. “Now, the teachers are putting their learning on display.”
“It shows the kids that teachers can learn, too,” Philpott added.
If anyone is interested in observing at MFL MarMac, you can call the school or email a teacher.
