The year ended for me. Time to evaluate

The class has ended for me. The year of working, preparing material, checking works ... well, it ended. The students have vacation, last wednesday was the graduation. And that's it. A year was gone by the wind again. And we don't see how time is so fast. But never so fast to evaluate the whole process.

And I want to do this, to share with you my successes and failures, so you comment, and help me to improve as well.

Let's start with the good things.

• I had my own classroom
• I could buy my long-waited projector
• I got a better mark from my students
• I applied for a project to get my own small library, and I won.
• I was awarded for my creativity and innovation
• I finished two e-learning courses, and two e-workshops, with good marks
• The students were motivated to work this year

But there are still bad things:

• I still have problems with classroom managment
• I still have problems with group works
• I have been disconnected from my students, at a personal level
• I still have to work harder on speaking skills

A new year will come, and I hope to get more good news, and less bad news.

What are you evaluating?

I have had the chance to see different kinds of tests from other teachers. I always get ideas from them, because I know I am not perfect, and I must improve my own work. So, the best way is by learning from other teachers.

But sometimes I am worried, because I don't know if I am so different or what, but some of the tests I have seen are weird for me.

I really don't get what they are trying to do, and what they are trying to evaluate.

Maybe you can criticize my way of evaluating, because I put emphasis in listening and reading comprehension. I wish my students can get the main information, they can get the main ideas, keywords, guessing ideas. But other teachers put emphasis in grammar, that students must write perfectly.

For instance. If the activity is like this: Change the following senteces into present continuous.

Then you have this sentence:  I write a book.

And the student writes: I am writeing a book.

Some teachers can give one point to this item, and maybe, they will say it is wrong, because the student wrote "writeing", instead of "writing",

Well, what I do is this: I give two points for this exercise. Because I want to check if my students can get the two most important aspects: the use of the verb To Be, and the ending ING. The student could remember both aspects. But the fact of leaving the letter "e" in the word "writeing", is just a minor detail. If it is me, as a teacher, I will give the two points. For me it is perfect.

Teachers tend to confuse some aspects. Are you evaluating grammar or spelling? Are you evaluating vocabulary or length? Are you evaluating pronunciation, entonation or fluency? Are you evaluating the skill of getting main ideas, or the idea that "just you" consider the main idea?

English as a second language can be like a song. Everyone gets a different feeling from it.

So, as teachers, we have to be precise in what we want to evaluate, and let's not be so hard. If there is just one spelling mistake, we can't consider the whole answer wrong  (unless, the mistake changes the meaning of the word).

English can be similar to mathematic, but let's not be so exact as maths. That is the beauty of the language, every word can have a different meaning to the hearer.

Evaluation, just to get a mark?

Well, I must say sorry, I know it will sound repetitive, but yes... I have been very busy these days. The end of the year is near, and at least, in Chile, the year school is ending too. Fourth level went home already, and it was sad to say "ok, after four years working with you, today it is the last day I can teach something new to you". But that is life, and it is really so fast. So we must enjoy every day as it is the last day, because, some day, for sure, it will be the last day.

But I don't want to sound emotional. it is just... when the end of the year is near, it means that we have to evaluate our work.

There is a misconception about evaluation. We think that it is just a way to get a mark. But it is really wrong.

It is true we need a way to test the knowledge of the students and get a mark from that. But we don't have to forget that evaluation must be part of the whole process. So at least, we must evaluate three times a year to know the progress of the students' work. But it is not just them, we must evaluate our work too. So let's consider this:

Do you have a diagnosis test for your students?

Do you plan to have a diagnosis test, at least, two or three times a year?

Do you evaluate values, process, actions, interests... not just knowledge?

Do you use your diagnosis tests to improve the work?

Do your students know their improvement?

Do your have your own diagnosis test to know your own improvement as a teacher?

Did you plan your own evaluation at the beginning of the year?

Does any other teacher evaluate your work?

Is it really important to evaluate your performance? or is it just a mere obligation?

I hope as teachers we consider the previous points. Because it is not just an ending part. Evaluation must be an essential part of our work as a feedback to improve our work

I teach "Y", but they evaluate me "Z". I am a teacher, what do you want from me?

One of the problems we can find on education, is at the moment of evaluating. Evaluation is not the ending, but part of the process. And as such, it must be considered in the beginning of the process of planning. Having a clear goal, we can settle clear objectives and activities to get it, and therefore, a realistic process to evaluate the achievement. Although, we know that to create an objective tool of evaluation is not easy, we already know that it must be connected so well with the main goal and the teaching and learning process. As teachers, we have dealt with this problem.

But what happens if it is our work, the one being evaluated?

There is still a big gap between what we are supposed to teach, and the way how the Government is evaluating our work. We are supposed to teach the students how to talk and speak in English. How and when to use a specific kind of grammar and expressions in English. In other words, what they want from me, is that I help the students to face normal and common conversational situation. But look, most of the tests (including SIMCE* and TOEIC Bridge for SIMCE of English) evaluate grammar and sentence formation; and Listening comprenhension. But there is no oral expression.

And even more, the school has too many responsibilities, that among all of those, it is the fact that we must form good people for the society. Students must have all the good values (responsibility, honesty, punctuality, creativity, good manners, good citizen, etc.) But is there a test to evaluate that? No. All the tests just try to evaluate knowledge and some skills, but there is no evaluation for values.

We already know what we have to teach, or at least, try to develop in our students. But I think, if there is no clarity in what they want from us, as teachers, there won't be clarity in what is the product we are going to obtain. They want us to just teach content? or they want us to raise excellent and good people? Maybe both? Then we must be evaluated according to those standards and goals.

What do you think?

*SIMCE (System to measure the quality of the education)

Debate: Students evaluating the teachers?

Is it convenient that students evaluate teachers' performance? Is it objective and truthful? Do you agree with it? Are you scared of being evaluated by your own students?

I can share to you that it has become a common institutional practice of my school delivering satisfaction surveys among the students, so they can evaluate the performance of every teacher. We are evaluated in different aspects: personal presentation, knowledge of the subject, classroom management, time management, etc.

For me, it is essential to know what is the opinion of my students in relation with my work, because they are the ones receiving all I produce and do as a teacher.

Though, I agree with this kind of evaluation, sometimes I wonder if it is objective or not, if the student hates or not so they can evaluate me with less mark, if just one bad experience is generating adversion against me, and many different factors that can affect this kind of evaluation. But I think, this can be just a small percentage.

The important thing, is that we give the students the chance to evaluate us, in different aspects, so they can express their own ideas and opinions. And I am sure, most of the times, they are right in many of their thoughts.

And what about you? do your students evaluate you? do you have a personal template of evaluation that you share with your students? What is your opinion about these kind of tests?