Here we go again

A new week and a meeting after school.

I had thought that SMART targets was something I had left behind in the UK but no, phoenix-like they have raised themselves from the dust of the school and reasserted themselves as the latest in educational technology.

As far as I can tell our school has no tradition of assessment, evaluation or professional development – but, after a secret conclave of twelve just persons who have slaved away in isolation from the people they are going to effect with their decisions we have now been presented with a document which is going to be implemented next month which outlines the evaluation procedures for the next couple of years.

It is a case of “Instant Ethos”: from nothing to a fully-fledged system which could have been downloaded from any British school’s website.  The interesting aspects of any system of evaluation or professional development are things like the time allowed for the initial interviews to happen; the personal agreement which determines the scope and direction of the observation; the resources available to make any further professional development real.  I don’t think that any of the above is in place in our school.  I fear that this system of evaluation is more a box ticking exercise than anything real.

But what will be real is the influence that this new system has on the professional lives of the teachers that are bound up in the “practicality” which follows from the theoretical guff with which the process was launched.

There is nothing worse than someone saying, “I have seen all this before!” but I have and I know the consequences of an ill prepared, or worse, ill-resourced evaluation system.

Just another factor to take into account in my response to this school.

On the other hand the month is marching on to its close and we are getting ever nearer to the last teaching month of the year.

As something to keep us going I have suggested a Chocolate Week where each member of the English Department makes a chocolate confection in turn for a week.  I have discovered an excellent sounding recipe for chocolate brownies in The Week and so I am prepared for my contribution.  It will be interesting to see how my colleagues respond!

The examination season, in one of its periodic spasms, has now gripped the school and left me with marking to do which is soul-destroying tedium.  And these exams are but a taster for the end of year examinations which are yet to come.  Sometimes the end of June seems a very long way away.

A very long way away.