A Guide for Administrators

Understanding What is Happening in a PLTW Classroom

• I-Tech Teacher and Administrator in Hazelwood • Certified in (IED, DE, CIM, CEA)• Currently an Administrator at Francis Howell• Enjoy being outside and with my boys as much as possible!

Who am I

• Determine the Purpose of Teacher Evaluations• Develop an understanding of what PLTW Classrooms should

look like• Create a idea of what types of things you should see when

doing a classroom observation. • Identify how you can know if the class is on track with the

national curriculum. • Consider what should be picked for student data to measure

teacher/student growth. • Plan on how you can have a productive post observation

conference.• Write down what you want to get out of this presentation.

Objectives of Presentation

• Talk to the person next to you, introduce yourself and where you are from first. Then answer the question above and be ready to share:

• Go quick, you only have 2 minutes:• Then we will all share a little

Why do Teacher Evaluations?

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• Teacher Growth

• Requirement of all districts

• Use of student data in Evaluations

I see it as coaching

Purpose of Teacher Evaluations

How do you know if the teaching is good in your PLTW Classes?

Talk to the person next to you and be ready to share:You will have about 2 minutes

What was it you all talked about?

Instruction in a PLTW Classroom

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Components of PLTW Classrooms:• Project based instruction • Students should be doing most of the work!!!! • Teacher as a facilitator• Inquiry based learning• When students have questions what does the teacher

do? • Materials used in the classroom• LMS System, does anyone know what it is? • LMS System• Course objectives • Presentations• Assignments

• Why should we know what is provided to the teacher from PLTW?

Instruction in a PLTW Classroom

So….. What is missing from the LMS?Talk for about 4 minutes what you feel is missing and why do you think that is the case:

Instruction in a PLTW Classroom

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So what did you come up

with?

Biggest thing is AssessmentsFormative assessments• Student activities• Good teaching practice • 1.1.2a PreInvestigating Basic Circuits.pptx

So what makes a good assessment in a PLTW classroom? • Teachers should be considering the following • What is the instructional model based upon? • How can we best assess students abilities and skills within the class?• How can we ensure that the assessment is balanced? • Why is that important to not just assess the highest levels?

Example AssessmentWhat do you see in this assessment?

Instruction in PLTW Classroom

PLTW classroom assessments should:• What type of things did you see in the example

assessment?• Level of questions• Organization of questions? • What were they asking the students to do? • Provide the teacher and student with an understanding of

the students knowledge of the content of the course. (Vocabulary, concepts, etc.)

• Provide the teacher with a way to measure the students mastery of basic skills required within the class.

• Provide the teacher with a way to measure the students ability to use their skills and knowledge to solve real world problems within the context of the course.

Instruction in a PLTW Classroom

• How many administrators have done classroom observations in a PLTW classroom? • What are some of the things that you normally see in these classes?

Classroom Observations

• The curriculum inherently is engaging to the students • The question is not really how engaged are the students, but should

be what are the students engaged in? • Ask questions!!!!!• What are you learning today? • Why is it important to the class? • Does what you are learning have any application to the real

world, your future or other courses? • How do you know if you are doing well on this?

• Why would we do this? • I learned it from my students

Classroom Observations

What should this sound like in PLTW classes? • Content vocabulary• Design process steps• 1.5.A DesignProcess.pptx• Documentation of work • Engineering Notebook• 1.3.A EngineeringNotebook.pptx

Classroom Observations

• How do you determine the pace of the class? • Provided by PLTW• https://my.pltw.org/• LMS System – Modules – Teacher Resources- Day by Day Plans

• Difficult to maintain this pace• Students are the main factor

Class Pacing

What should you see during lab time?• When you come into the PLTW class what do you usually

see?• The most important thing is to focus on the objective • Importance of understanding what they are supposed to learn!!!!

Class Pacing

How can you help the teacher/students stay on track?• Ask your teacher to question the students and you should question

them when you are in there• What are you supposed to learn by completing this activity?• What do you think you may hear?

• Student Work • Realize the students will want to work forever on projects• Must maintain a focus on the real objective• Once they master the concept/objective you have to

move them on

Class Pacing

Requirement of student data for teacher evaluationHow do we choose a standard? • Not all standards are created equal• Focus on what is important• How do we decide which ones to pick? • Focus on standards that have:• Endurance• Leverage• Necessary for next level of instruction

Student Data for Evaluation

• What if I don’t have enough experience to pick or if I have a new teacher?

Sometimes they may not have enough experience to know, So….Use your:• Master Teacher contact• LMS Discussion boards• https://pltw.instructure.com/courses/168085/discussion_topics/46359

0

Student Data for Evaluation

Measuring Student Success and GrowthHow do we measure student success on the standards? • Teacher or collaboratively developed assessments• Remember what we talked about beforeSetting classroom achievement goals• What do these goals really mean?

• 80% of students will master standard XYZ• Students will achieve 80% mastery on standard XYZ

Student Data for Evaluation

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• Pre/Post Assessment• What do you see as the benefits/drawbacks of this?• Leveled Assessment among a continuum of skills• What do you see as the benefits/drawbacks of this?

Student Data for Evaluation

Before the conference think about what you saw in the classroom:• What were the students’ engaged in?• Were they working on their assigned project or other things • What was the teacher doing?• Facilitating or Lecturing • Answering questions or facilitating understanding

Post Observation Conference

What did the students have to say about:• What they were learning that day? • Why is was important to the class? • Do they understand it’s application to the real world, your future

or other courses? • How well did they know if they were doing well?

What thoughts do you have about taking to your teachers if the students don’t give good responses to this?

Post Observation Conference

How can I help this teacher continue to grow?A loss is time for learning, A win is time for celebration

Coaches take responsibility for losses and praise their team for wins

• What are they doing well?• What can they improve upon?• What questions can I ask them to get them to think about their

practice?

Post Observation Conference

Guide with observations then ask questions:• Which is a better observation statement to give to a staff

member and why? • I noticed you did a great job of moving around the room and

speaking with your students. I bet they got a lot out of your discussions.

• When you were moving around the room it looked as though you spoke with 5 of the 25 students you have in your class.

• Possible Follow up question to observation:• I was curious what your next steps were to asses the level of

understanding of all the students before moving on to the next objective?

• Can you think of how you may have assessed all of them in the same timeframe before moving on to the next standard?

Post Observation Conference

How is the teacher using their resources: • How has their partnership team supported instruction within

the classroom?• How have you worked with outside mentors to support your

students understanding the concepts within the class?• How have the students used their engineering notebooks

and what have you done to support their development with it’s use?

Summative Conference

Francis Howell High SchoolBrian Thompson636-851-4702Brian.thompson@fhsdschools.org

Contact me at anytime if I can help