I mentioned back in April that I was inspired by a teacher, Amy Balling, who was using her blog to illustrate the creative ways that she is addressing the Danielson Rubric and her district’s APPR. I know that there are flaws in the evaluation process, obviously, but I also know that we’re going to be dealing with the APPR for the long haul; especially since it is now part of NYS law not just a policy of the week.
Thus, I too have tried to “love the one I’m with” and be as creative and thoughtful as possible in my own relationship with the APPR. In April I shared with you the link to my first attempt at being creative with my Teacher Artifact (my 2nd attempt was a lot better and shorter). Our district breaks up the 60 points not associated with student testing as follows: 25 points for our Announced Observation, 15 points for our Unannounced Observation, and 20 points for our Teacher Artifact. For the 2012-2013 school year we had artifacts we were required to turn in associated with our observations and a choice artifact. The choices were a bit limited and overlapped many of the areas that were previously evaluated during our observations.
To fully illustrate our competence in all aspects of the rubric we really needed to submit an additional artifact or artifacts. I decided that I would be a little different than other folks and get creative with my additional artifact and create a website using Google Sites. I happened to be working on a project for my district that required me to use Google Sites and I thought that this would be a great way for me to get acquainted with the format. *Side note, I really am not a huge fan of Google Sites compared with Weebly. Google Sites just doesn't seem intuitive to me and I was constantly searching for the menu I needed to format the way I wanted to. Weebly may be more closed in its formatting but the ease of use completely makes up for that. But I digress…
When I created my Google Site for my final artifact submission, I incorporated my required Choice Artifact and addressed the other aspects of the Danielson Rubric in a sort of portfolio format. For example, to illustrate Domain 1b, Knowledge of Students, I discussed four ways that I monitor students’ progress, work with my inclusion teacher to address students’ individual needs, etc. AND I attached a folder of files with surveys I have conducted of my students and their results. This way my administrator could have the evidence based information he needed to evaluate me on that aspect of the rubric.
As it turns out, I did quite well on my overall Artifact score! I haven’t yet received my summative APPR score for the school year which includes the student test performance. That, needless to say, will be a very fascinating score to receive and could be the topic of numerous posts in the future! Even though many of my colleagues submitted much less time consuming artifacts than I did and received similar scores, I do not regret doing the extra work. I think that I will most likely do something similar next school year but with a slightly different format: maybe a wiki or livebinder. I will also start my artifact in the beginning of the school year since I understand the process a whole lot better this time around.
Please feel free to click on the picture above or here to visit my artifact. I would love to have feedback so that I can improve for the future. And honestly, isn't improvement what this whole APPR thing is supposed to be about anyway?
Thus, I too have tried to “love the one I’m with” and be as creative and thoughtful as possible in my own relationship with the APPR. In April I shared with you the link to my first attempt at being creative with my Teacher Artifact (my 2nd attempt was a lot better and shorter). Our district breaks up the 60 points not associated with student testing as follows: 25 points for our Announced Observation, 15 points for our Unannounced Observation, and 20 points for our Teacher Artifact. For the 2012-2013 school year we had artifacts we were required to turn in associated with our observations and a choice artifact. The choices were a bit limited and overlapped many of the areas that were previously evaluated during our observations.
To fully illustrate our competence in all aspects of the rubric we really needed to submit an additional artifact or artifacts. I decided that I would be a little different than other folks and get creative with my additional artifact and create a website using Google Sites. I happened to be working on a project for my district that required me to use Google Sites and I thought that this would be a great way for me to get acquainted with the format. *Side note, I really am not a huge fan of Google Sites compared with Weebly. Google Sites just doesn't seem intuitive to me and I was constantly searching for the menu I needed to format the way I wanted to. Weebly may be more closed in its formatting but the ease of use completely makes up for that. But I digress…
When I created my Google Site for my final artifact submission, I incorporated my required Choice Artifact and addressed the other aspects of the Danielson Rubric in a sort of portfolio format. For example, to illustrate Domain 1b, Knowledge of Students, I discussed four ways that I monitor students’ progress, work with my inclusion teacher to address students’ individual needs, etc. AND I attached a folder of files with surveys I have conducted of my students and their results. This way my administrator could have the evidence based information he needed to evaluate me on that aspect of the rubric.
As it turns out, I did quite well on my overall Artifact score! I haven’t yet received my summative APPR score for the school year which includes the student test performance. That, needless to say, will be a very fascinating score to receive and could be the topic of numerous posts in the future! Even though many of my colleagues submitted much less time consuming artifacts than I did and received similar scores, I do not regret doing the extra work. I think that I will most likely do something similar next school year but with a slightly different format: maybe a wiki or livebinder. I will also start my artifact in the beginning of the school year since I understand the process a whole lot better this time around.
Please feel free to click on the picture above or here to visit my artifact. I would love to have feedback so that I can improve for the future. And honestly, isn't improvement what this whole APPR thing is supposed to be about anyway?
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