The Living Sky School Division closed out this year's board meetings with a glowing commendation of the division'ßs teachers by two of its superintendents.
Reporting on the status of supervision of teachers, Superintendents of Curriculum and Instruction Cathy Herrick and Brian Quinn told the board they were very impressed with the current roster of teachers in the division.
Their comments stemmed from various forms of observations done in the classroom either by division superintendents or in-school administrators.
This supervision reporting process, said Herrick, contributes to the growth of the teachers. It has been facilitating reflective dialogue with teachers, she said, and identifies areas teachers need to work on and encourages them in their successful practices.
For herself and Quinn, plus fellow superintendent Jim Shevchuk, it has been a learning experience as well, she said. Lots of changes have come to the classroom over the last several years.
Quinn said they have been very impressed with the teachers they have observed.
"They are there for the right reasons," he said.
Herrick reported that among non-tenured teachers, including one year replacements, and teachers who transferred schools, 60 were observed formally in the classroom one or more times by a superintendent and a summative report was written and shared with each teacher. As a result, one teacher is on a job improvement plan.
Temporary teachers numbering 19 were observed by their in-school administrators, using the same summative template as the superintendents use. These reports, said Herrick, are used to guide future hiring of temporary teachers and form a basis for references given by principals.
Tenured teachers, said Herrick, are subject to the supervision process every five years. They will work with their administrators to formalize a process that leads to a summative document to be placed in their personnel file.
Herrick added several administrators use the Three-Minute Walk-Through process to facilitate ongoing dialogue between themselves and all teachers. These brief classroom visits capture data on areas such as primary teaching strategies, use of technology and evidence of learning. After several short visits, data is printed for teacher reflection with the administrator.
This process also supports teachers' annual professional learning plans, said Herrick.
Director of Education Randy Fox said this process is an important one. It gets principals into the classrooms and, for the most part, teachers want this process.
Supervision processes also apply to in-school administrators, central office staff and support staff.
An evaluation process is also being prepared for the division's bus drivers.
