Here's Looking at Us, Kids

It's Tuesday, and the following people have been in my classroom, observing my teaching THIS WEEK:

A principal was in for a "walk-through" observation; these are new this year. Actually, she didn't walk through, she sat down for about ten minutes after coming into the classroom unannounced and tapped away at her pda-- recording how the classroom is arranged, what teaching activity is occurring at that moment, whether the "essential question" for that piece of curriculum is posted, how the kids are responding, etc.

A speech-language specialist was in, to sit with a student who gets her services. She helps the student, and makes suggestions for modifying the curriculum for her needs.

A para comes in daily with a special ed student to help him.

A visiting teacher from Germany came to Creative Writing, as she was curious about how it's taught in the US.

I have friendly relationships with all of these people, they say nice things to me about my teaching, the classroom, the kids, and their attentiveness and responses. I have nothing to hide, I feel fairly secure about my teaching skills, and I've been at it long enough now to know that some days are diamonds and some days are stones, that those who don't actually DO my job really don't have much of a clue about what it actually takes to do it. But geeze. If I was a first-year teacher and all these people who are not my students were WATCHING, I'd be a wreck.

The evaluating, observing, testing, coaching, mentoring, and managing of teachers seems to be the thing in education these days. There is actually an adage teachers used to repeat back in the day that goes something like "shut the door and do your thing"- boy is THAT a thing of the past.

Oh, and did I mention that Monday was a 13-hour day? After a day of school, there were parent-teacher conferences from 4-8. I teach two sections of freshmen, and there was a freshman parent meeting that night, so business was booming at conferences. I can't complain about parents who care enough to come in and check on their kids, now can I? So I won't, but 13 solid hours of being "on", in addition to all the observing is, for an introvert like me, a bit, um,.........taxing.

I have a group of actors coming into each of my freshman English classes Thursday to conduct a discussion of a play the kids will see that morning. Am I the hostess with the mostess or WHAT?

Thank heavens I love my job. But it's the KIDS I love about my job. Anyone remember the kids???