45 Teaching Observations
“When we visit one another’s classrooms, we do so not to produce an official evaluative account of an individual teacher’s ‘performance,’ but to represent for one another our classrooms as texts that we can read critically, with the aim of better understanding what is happening and why.”—Amy Lee in Composing Critical Pedagogies
As Jessica Rivera-Muller writes, observations can “help the observed teacher and the observing teacher engage in a process of mutual learning” (email to potential Concurrent Enrollment teachers, Fall 2020). As teachers, we learn something new about our teaching each time we are observed and each time we observe someone else. Just like writers need peers to provide feedback on writing, teachers benefit from a critical peer who can affirm our strengths, provide suggestions for revision, and collaborate on new approaches to teaching. That said, working with colleagues is not always an organic process–especially during this year of teaching online–and so we have to intentionally create space for such connections.
In your first semester, you will be observed twice. Once by the director of composition and once by either the ADOC or GADOC. In your second semester, you will be observed once by either of the three. You will sign up for days in which your observers will be available so utilize this opportunity by picking a day when you particularly want/need feedback or suggestions for your teaching pedagogy. **These observations will not dictate if you get to keep your job or not but are simply an opportunity for the composition admin team to check-in and provide further guidance. After you have been observed, expect or request a follow-up meeting to discuss what the admin team noticed and what can be done afterwards.