Behaviors a Principal Should Look

¶ … behaviors a principal should look for while performing a classroom walk-through. In some ways, the principal is evaluating the students just as much as their teacher. However, it is absolutely essential that a teacher is able to foster some level of engagement with students, which should be high on the checklist. It may be difficult to evaluate student's level of engagement depending on what sort of classroom directive they are following at the time of the walk-through, which may require a principal scheduling visits during non-test or examination activities.

Additionally, teachers should be looking to model the behavior and the concepts that they are teaching students. This part of the checklist is especially important in language arts portions of education, since teachers should speak and write with a degree of clarity and communication students are striving for. Another important item on the checklist is student behavior. Students must treat one another and their teachers with a form of respect that is agreeable to learning.

A crucial element related to this item is a dearth of discrimination and discriminatory practices -- again on the part of both teachers and students. It is also important to gauge a teacher's level of preparation. Although spontaneity is valuable as a means of augmenting a structured format, pedagogues should begin readying themselves for their lessons days in advance after some sort of needs assessment of their students (Woodard).

Just as crucial as itemizing preparation is itemizing student input in a lesson -- which is a key way to see how pedagogues can specifically tailor their instruction for their particular students. One of the best ways of doing so is employing some variation of the Socratic Method, in which teachers ask open-ended questions to facilitate discussion (Ellis, 2003, p. 17). The appropriate educational approach to take in disseminating the feedback garnered from the aforementioned items on the checklist is to dissuade instructors from thinking that they are being critiqued.

Rather, it is essential to convey the fact that walk-throughs are merely a means for instructors to learn about how to better their performance, and subsequently increase the knowledge and retention levels of their students. The important thing is to not make instructors feel defensive or overly-scrutinized, but to view the entire walk-through process in a positive means in which they can refine and improve their prowess as a pedagogue.

In terms of communicating the findings or the results from the walk-through to a particular teacher, it is important to do so in a manner that is encouraging and in which both professionals, -- the principal and the teacher -- are at ease. One of the ways to do so would be during a 'lunch and learn', informal lunchtime setting. It is probably best if the principal has some sort of written documentation delineating bot the positives and areas of improvement for the instructor.

As far as the actual dissemination of the feedback, the management technique known as sandwiching would be highly appropriate and conducive to facilitating an environment in which teachers can.