Over the last several weeks, students may have noticed Principal Mr. Ira Pernick or one of the assistant principals observing their classes.  As part of the APPR program, for the first time all teachers (not just those without tenure) must be formally observed while teaching.

“I do most of the teacher evaluations and at the end of the year write tenure evaluations,” says Mr. Pernick.  “I write most of those and then they all go to the superintendent.”

Tenured teacher evaluations consist of one formal and one informal observation per year, while untenured teachers undergo two formal and one informal observation per year.

“Everything the school does is meant to benefit the students,” said Mr. Pernick.  “In the long run, I think it’s always good for schools to be talking about what happens in the classrooms, and I think the more we talk about what happens in classrooms, the more students benefit.  It’s a good thing overall for us to be talking about instruction and we talk about it now every day.”

Formal observations take one full period along with a private meeting before and after the teacher’s class.   Informal observations only take about twenty minutes of the class period, and are followed by a meeting with the instructor.

“I think it’s a good a process, but right now it feels very different because it’s still very new.   For me there’s nothing more exciting than being able to go into teachers’ classrooms and watch them work,” said Mr. Pernick.