Journey Into Mastery - Week 92: Rating Yourself

In his book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Living on Earth (which is a fantastic read by the way), Chris Hadfield mentions that people in any environment are either a +1 or a -1 in that they either add to a team, or take from a team.

Similarly to this, Todd Whitaker mentions asking the question ‘how hard would it be to find a teacher to do as good a job or better’, as a metric for teacher appraisal. Jimmy Casas takes it one step further and asks ‘would you recommend this person, or would you go and actively recruit them?’

Taking these ideas into consideration, when you rate yourself in a school, do you feel that you are adding to the team, maintaining the team, or taking from the team? One way to evaluate yourself is on a scale from -2 to +2. This is by no means a comprehensive model and it is not meant to label particular teachers, but rather a mental model to help evaluate how you perform as part of the school team.

Let’s begin in the middle. If you have a neutral score, you are not a bad teacher! Those with a neutral score are there, they are doing a good job in the classroom but they aren’t necessarily adding to the school in any way beyond that. Some students will like you but maybe you aren’t knocking it out of the park, pedagogically speaking. You may be struggling in the classroom but could be the face of the school’s extra-curricular. The reverse may also be true in that you could be amazing in the classroom, but not engaged in the wider school community (this may be because of other demands on their time or a lack of interest, either way, it is not an expectation that you can have of teachers).

Then you have a +1 or -1 based on their classroom performance. A +1 is a teacher leader in their pedagogy and gives back to others. They strengthen your team, students tend to enjoy their classes and they produce good results. By contrast a -1 would be someone who hurts the team, they take often but contribute little or nothing back. Students do not enjoy their classes and may have animosity towards them. Again, you may have a neutral score where your classroom runs ok but your influence doesn’t go beyond your own room.

The next points are based on how you contribute to the school. Teachers who are +1s coach teams, they are on committees, they take on projects beyond the classroom. To be clear, I don’t think that everyone needs to do everything, but if everyone does something then the school is better for it. -1s are teachers who hurt the school’s atmosphere. They are negative towards new initiatives, they do not lead in a positive way or attend school events. They may also bring a negative reputation to the school.

If you are net positive you are likely an asset to your school. Teachers who are +2 are those that school leaders are likely to want to recruit and build around. Be mindful though that these are also the ones that can burn out quickly so be sure to set boundaries for yourself.

If you feel you are net negative then you may be unhappy or in need of a change. Perhaps you need an exciting new project, or partner with other teachers to either mentor or be mentored.

It’s important to note that you may find yourself evaluating yourself differently in different schools, in which case it may be a question of fit as opposed to overall capacity. There have been schools where I have been happier and as such, I was more engaged in those schools. Also, there have been times like when my children were born that I was less engaged in my current work because of the out of school priorities. That’s fine too! If you find yourself stagnant after a few years however, it might be time for some additional reflection.

As you might guess this is hardly a formal rating system, but rather a mental model in terms of self-evaluation. The primary focus will always be the classroom and the students in your care so rating both classroom and wider school as the same might be misleading. Again, this is always school and context dependent so do not be hard on yourself if you don’t like your self-evaluation, it may simply be a sign that you are ready for a change.

~ Owen

omatchim@gmail.com