How to Rock Your Formal Teaching Observation

There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than a formal teaching observation by your principal or another administrator. Thoughts of everything that can go wrong flood your brain.

• Do you have all the materials you need?
• Will the students cooperate?
• Will you forget everything you’re supposed to say?

You start sweating before you even arrive at school. Keep reading to find out how to ROCK your formal teaching observation.

Formal Teaching Observation Fears

After 11 years of teaching, you’d think formal observations wouldn’t bother me anymore.

Not true!

Luckily, I had a 5-year period where I wasn’t formally observed. I used that time to learn exactly what my principal wanted.

• If she liked a new program, I tried it in my classroom.
• If she made a suggestion, I implemented it immediately.

I knew that she would be impressed this year when she formally observed me.

No such luck!

At the end of the summer, my principal of 5 years took a position at the administration building, and I got a brand new principal. I had no idea what she expected or what she envisioned as the perfect lesson.

I hoped that she would be too overwhelmed with all of her other responsibilities to remember that I was supposed to be formally observed.

Then, I got the email.

“Please see the secretary to schedule a time for your observation.”

NOOOO! I started to panic. What if she didn’t like the lesson? What if I made a bad first impression? The questions and doubts started, and I needed a way to calm my fears.

The Solution

Even though my principal was new, one thing stayed the same. Every principal in my district uses a rubric based on the Danielson Framework during formal teaching observations.

If I could do everything on the rubric, my principal would have to be impressed. The only problem was that the rubric was kind of wordy, and I work better with checklists.

Therefore, I turned the rubric into a checklist of all the important things I needed to do. If I could check off each of the items on the checklist, my observation would have to go well.

Download a copy of my checklist.

How to Use the Checklist

As I planned my lesson, I kept my checklist nearby. One of the big themes of the Danielson rubric is differentiation. In many of the areas, meeting individual student needs is required.

To meet this requirement, I chose to do a guided math lesson, since the groups are all differentiated to meet student needs. I focused on the “Planning” and “Instruction” sections as I wrote my lesson plan at home. I checked off each item as I added it to my lesson plan.

Next, I took my checklist with me to school as I set up for my lesson.

I focused on the “Classroom” section and made sure my “I can” statement was displayed and all of my materials were ready.

By that point, the first three sections had check marks.

The last section, “Professional Responsibilities,” is filled with things you should be doing all year.

Even if your school doesn’t use the Danielson rubric for formal teaching observations, this checklist will still help you make sure your lesson will be fantastic. All of the items on the checklist are best practices and things principals and administrators are looking for in your lesson.

The Results

With each check mark I added to the checklist, a little bit of anxiety went away. On the morning of my lesson, I checked off the last few items.

I added all of my differentiated activities to my centers. I knew all the parts of my lesson and felt confident. The butterflies in my stomach were still there, but I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I was for observations in the past.

At our post-observation meeting, my principal shared how impressed she was with how I met each of the expectations on the Danielson rubric. She especially liked the flow of the lesson and the differentiation because I used guided math.

Want to Learn More?

Learn about how I use guided math to meet every student’s needs.

Download the checklist and start planning your lesson.

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What Do You Think?

How do you prepare for your formal teaching observation?

Let me know in the comments below.

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