[malia]

I remember, not so long ago, when a few elementary school teachers objected to being videotaped during class instruction instead of an in-person principal evaluation. They wanted to know exactly when and what day. I don't think it was to insure a good hair day.

[Clara Lou]

They wanted to know exactly when and what day.
I'll tell you why I want to know when. If a principal is going to do a full-fledged 45-minute evaluation, then, for the full time, I need to have the class doing things that can be evaluated. If students are testing that day or reviewing for a test or or doing an oral presentation-- these happen frequently in my room-- then there is little or nothing to be evaluated. On the other hand, one year I tried to get my observer to do my evaluation based on 5 or 10-minute walk-throughs. Walk-throughs are unannounced and happen 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 times a year, depending on the teacher being evaluated. Unfortunately, if you're an "old hand" and well known, you usually only get 1 or 2 walk-throughs because they have 10 or 15 new teachers to observe multiple times.