Hours 7 and 8

This week the first grade class finished there Matisse paper cutouts.  One student was behind from the previous week.  To help that student catch up Mrs. A would usually allow them a sample that she had started with the class the week before or she might allow them to use another students who was present the week before but missed class this week.  It seems that none of the students really mind this although I think that it might undermine how much owner ship a student would really take in the creation of their work.  I'm not really sure how I would approach grading a project that wasn't completely done by a student either.  Her concern is that the student would never catch up if with the class if they aren't allowed to start where the class left off.  I do see her point, but I'm not comfortable with a student using another students work as their own.

I talked with Mrs. A a little about how her principle evaluates her.  The schools policy is to have a formal evaluation every other year and an informal evaluation every year.  Mrs. A didn't seem to think there was much of a difference between the two evaluations.  The principle stays within the classroom for the entire class and later the principle writes an evaluation for Mrs. A and reviews the evaluation with Mrs. A.  Mrs. A said that she doesn't do anything special for the evaluations.  In the beginning she used to always try and stay engaged with the students while her principle was viewing her, but she has with time become more comfortable with allowing the students to work while she multitasks prepping for other classes.  The evaluations seemed very informal to me and I'm wondering if every school approaches teachers evaluations this way or if another principle may stress the need to develop a professional philosophy and ask you to set teaching goals throughout the next year.