School Evaluation Time!

I realize that this blog entry is dated Feb. 14 however that is when it was started. I saved my draft and finished it on February 25 not realizing it would keep the original draft date. So for those of you who are wondering about the time frame for all of this. Feb. 14 was day 2 of the inspection/evaluation. Then I decided to wait for it to be over so I could give a more complete post.

For the last two weeks our family has had lots of fun participating in our school's evaluation. Brian watched kids during recess, worked the front desk and did various other jobs as they were needed. I took turns with two others substituting in third grade. Where were the regular teachers and office employees you ask? Sitting at home wishing they could be at school! Because we are an international school we were subjected to two full weeks of visitors in the school. The teachers who already had their work permits were allowed to be there and do their normal job...as well as various other jobs! The teachers who were still waiting for their work permits to be approved shouldn't really be teaching yet so they had to "hide". They could have come to the school as substitutes or volunteers but the school administration thought that it might be better for them to not be on campus at all. Because the teachers all raise support they are really all volunteers anyway. A few of them do receive a small stipend but not enough to write home about! While I was subbing in third grade I was evaluated. The man watching me did not know English so he had our assistant principal translate. After my lesson was over he asked the kids several questions. One of his questions had to do with their knowledge of Turkey. I had only been there for 4 days and had not mentioned Turkey at all. The kids did a great job talking about the capital, other important cities, Ataturk, and different cultural points. They made me look like a great teacher! The evaluator never asked who I was or where the regular teacher was.
The teachers were asked to do lots of strange things like make sure the desks were all in rows...not in table form. The room that had been the teacher's lounge last year was changed to the music room this year and they made them change it back. Evidently they had to submit a form and get approval to change the teacher's lounge. Also one of the science labs was being used as a computer lab and they made the computer teacher break down all the computers because that wasn't allowed. The funny thing is we only have one science teacher and 3 science lab rooms. Two of them were sitting empty because he only needs one! As parents we were also asked to fill out some forms that were sent home about how well our children's teachers were doing. Here is a small sampling of what we were asked.

1. Imparting students the conscious in love and respect Ataturk and National values.
2. Trying children in solving their personal problems
3. Addressing children with their names.
4. Giving importance to fix a class announcement in the classroom.

These have to be marked with
1-I don't agree
2-I agree less
3-I agree
4-I agree much
5-I agree completely

I wondered who translated their forms into English for them! I would like to evaluate that person! So there you have it! The last two weeks in a nutshell. We should find out how well our school performed this week. On Friday the teachers and those of us helping all breathed a sigh of relief because it was finally over! We HOPE...