Happy Friday. Hope your week has been a good one.
So, by now you know that I’m a bit of a data junkie. Data doesn’t lie. It tells us how we are doing. Did what we do work? Did it not? What do we do next? Data, when used correctly, can truly be a gift to us. And so can:
Feedback.
In fact, John Hattie says this:
Many of us are making a real effort to meet our goal of getting into classrooms at least 50% of our day. Why?
Because that’s
going where
the real work is happening.
Filling out reports does not help students grow. Getting our inboxes to zero does not help close the achievement gap. Attending meetings upon meetings upon more meetings does not build capacity in teachers. Going where the work is happening (aka – the classroom) does have an impact . . . but only when coupled with
Feedback.
So, here’s the challenge – next week try this:
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Try scheduling fewer classroom observations (yes, you read that right).
-
Schedule longer blocks for each observation. Start with the formula 12 and 10:
12 minutes in the classroom.
10 minutes organizing your feedback.
Try this formula for a while. See if you notice that less is actually more. Here’s the secret. When we go to fewer classrooms each day, we are able to build in the time to organize our feedback and get it to the teacher quickly. As Hattie’s research supports, feedback delivered immediately has a substantial impact. And, at the end of the day, IMPACT is what we strive to achieve.
