Teaching Effectiveness Framework

I had the opportunity to work with Judy Martin from The Galileo Educational Network when she was hired as a consultant for a two-year period to help teachers become more effective in their practice. We hit it off right away and seeing her face in my classroom was a welcome experience.

Back then, I had designed an inquiry-based project for my students, but was unsure how effective it was. Judy pulled out the Effective Teaching Practices Rubric and went through it, evaluating my project, what the students had completed thus far, and what they had to say about what they were learning.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear from her that it was a great project! She came again, at the end of the project, and video taped the students presenting their work. The whole event took over two hours and the students were giddy with excitement.

The Parts of the Evaluation
The rubric is set up like a standard rubric with a score of 1 to 4 as you move right on the page. Each principle of the T.E.F. is evaluated. Please read through the article first in order to understand how to evaluate yourself, your project, and the understanding of your students.

Principle 1 - Teachers Are the Designers of Learning - Page 9

Principle 2 -  Work Students Undertake is Worthwhile - Page 10

Principle 3 - Assessment Practices Improve Student Learning and Guide Teaching - Page 11

Principle 4 - Strong relationships Exist - Page 12

Principle - Teachers Improve Their Practice In the Company of Their Peers - Page 14

Using this rubric in the Early Years
As an educator, we should always be looking at the projects we undertake and evaluating their effectiveness at teaching the objectives and outcomes from our curriculum. Use this rubric to look at your role, specifically, as the guide to learning and decide how effective you are in that role. I would suggest that if this project is phenomenal, share it with your colleagues on your own wiki!