From Dreadful Admin Walk-Throughs to Productive Admin Walk-Throughs

 How many of you dread the season of the walk-throughs...if you are a teacher, you know exactly what that means.  Admin walking through your room, and it's usually on that day everything has gone wrong!! So that lead me to see how, as a teacher, I can see walk-throughs in a more positive way since I'm inspiring to one day be the one walking through teacher's classrooms.  I stopped to ask myself...how can walk-throughs be beneficial to teachers, as well as students?  And, how can admin being visible consistently on campus change behaviors?

I started with the article, The Power of Walk-Throughs by Bruce Oliver.  I found interesting feedback from principals, but this one stuck out to me because I feel it addressed not only interventions, but behavior also.  "The walk-through process has benefitted our school in so many ways.  In addition to increasing the visibility of administrators and the amount of feedback each administrator is able to provide for teachers, we are better able to plan our staff development initiatives because we have so much more data about what teachers need to increase student learning" - Elementary School Principal (Oliver, 2009).  The visibility of admin on campus is greatly important, it helps control behaviors and student engagement.  Students need to be aware of who admin are, I can speak openly to this because our campus struggles with visible admin.  They only appear when the need to - LET'S BE SEEN!!

The other benefits I found about being visible "administrators could learn a great deal about student learning" (Oliver, 2009). Such as having sensible conversations that are not worded in "education language" but to the point of student understanding.  Being visible also allows admin to observe student behavior, instead of just focusing on teacher behaviors.  Walk-throughs rarely have admin consulting with students.

In the end, the purpose of walk-throughs should determine student learning is happening throughout the school.

I wanted to also take a deep dive into the meaning of Response to Intervention (RTI).  The main purpose of RTI is "giving every student the additional time and support needed to learn at high levels" (Buffum et al., 2010).  Schools are using RTI as a way to qualify students for Special Education rather than a prevention intervention.  Which leads to Administrators and Districts asking the wrong questions.

1. How do we raise test scores?    

2. How do we implement RTI?     

3. How do we stay legal?              

4. What is wrong with these kids?

This way of looking at RTI is providing more paperwork for teachers, when they could be using that time for at risk student intervention.  It down grades RTI to a single accomplishment, rather than being goal oriented.  If schools and districts want to be legal, they need to start focusing on student learning.

Let's start asking the right questions:

                                               1. What is the fundamental purpose of our school?                      

                                                      2. What knowledge and skills will our children need to be successful adults?

                                                 3. What must we do to make learning a reality for every student?

"Schools and districts need to provide students with skills and knowledge to be self-sufficient, successful adults" (Buffum et al.,2010).  Asking the right questions emphasizes the purpose of RTI.

Let's remember that we are doing the right thing for the right reason.  Our job, as teachers, shouldn't be about test scores, it should focus on teaching students to realize they have hopes and dreams to be successful adults.

References:

Oliver, B. (2009, August). The Power of Walk-Throughs. Just ASK Publications.

           http://www.justaskpublications.com/

Buffum, A., Mattos, M., & Weber, C. (2010, October). The Why Behind RTI.

            https://ascd.org/el/articles/the-why-behind-rti