Professional Evaluations

Standard I: Teachers Demonstrate Leadership

Observer Comments

• The classroom was extremely safe, organized, orderly and well managed. The teacher is a leader within the Math Department (Chair) and within the school.
• The teacher follows the rules and procedures as outlined by the school administration. Cell phones were put in the caddy and the learning target was on the board for the students to see.
• The class was well managed. The teacher was very organized and everything was in order. The class was extremely safe. The teacher is a model teacher and leads the math department in a positive manner.

Standard II: Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students

Observer Comments

• The teacher created a terrific learning environment for the students. The environment was inviting, respectful and positive. The teacher and the students collaborated well together to create a learning environment that was conducive to quality teaching and learning. The teacher used positive language like "nice job," "very good," "thankyou," "awesome guys" that created a positive climate.
• The classroom environment was calm, peaceful, positive, collaborative and respectful. The teacher provided an environment that was conducive to quality teaching and learning.
• The teacher is respectful and maintained a class that was conducive to quality teaching and learning

Standard III: Teachers Know the Content They Teach

Observer Comments

• The teacher is extremely knowledgeable of the subject matter. He is prepared and is able to relay the information needed to the students in a way that they understand and enjoy.
• The teacher is very knowledgeable and can relay the information in a logical, step by step approach in which students understand.
• The teacher understands the content and is able to relay the information to the students in a meaningful way.

Standard IV: Teachers facilitate learning for their students

Observer Comments

• The teacher started the class quickly and had all the materials needed for the class out and ready. The teacher explained the assignment plainly and what the goal was for the day. The teacher handed out test results and celebrated the success of the students. The teacher then reviewed some material that was in their notes. The teacher asked good leading questions, transitioned well from one activity to the next,kept a good pace throughout the lesson, spoke clearly andmaintained a classroom that was smooth and there were no observable problems. The teacher broke the students into learning teams for an activity on analyzing raw data. Students measured their height and then had to determine the standard deviation, mean and IQR. The teacher monitored the activity by walking around and helping the students as needed.
• The class started quickly after the morning announcements. The teacher had all the materials ready and started class promptly. The teacher explained probability and had the learning target on the board along with the agenda. The teacher used the SMART Board in order to enhance the lesson. The students were highly engaged in the lesson and the teacher walked throughout the room answering questions, monitoring the students as they worked, adjusting his teaching based on the responses of the students, kept a brisk pace throughout the class. The teacher transitioned into a card game that dealt with probability. It was a fun activity that the students enjoyed.
• Class started quickly with the teacher reviewing some of the material. The teacher transitioned into a 5 question quiz without any difficulty. The teacher made the assignment clear. Learning target posted on the board in a place of prominence. The students were highly engaged in the work. The teacher used the SMART Board to enhance the lesson. The teacher spoke clearly for the students to understand. The teacher kept the class moving throughout the lesson. Positive student / teacher interaction. Use of random selecting of students through a computer program

Standard V: Teachers Reflect on Their Practice

Observer Comments

• The teacher conducted an outstanding lesson that was positive and a great deal of learning was taking place. The teacher is experienced and very conscientious about excelling in what he does.
  
  Positives:
  1. Student / Teacher relationships
  2.Lesson planning
  3. Presence in the class
  4. Positive feedback
  5. Pace of the class
• The teacher is the math department chairman and has led the group positively throughout the year. He is extremely organized,knowledgeable and has great relationships with the students
  
  Positives:
  1. Student / teacher Relationships
  2. Random selecting of students (Electronically)
  3. Content Knowledge
  4. Planning / Organizing
  
  Suggestions:
  1. Keep up the good work! You are doing an amazing job!
• The teacher is gifted in his work with the students. He is highly organized, knowledgeable and interacts with the students in a positive manner. The teacher is the head of the Math Department and works hard to ensure that the department is working in a organized way.
  
  Positives:
  1.Lesson Planning
  2. Teacher / Student interaction
  
  Suggestions:
  1. Doing a great job! Keep in up!
  
  

Standard I: Teachers Demonstrate Leadership

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris is a stellar professional. He models the ethical behavior of an educator. Recently, he had a cheating incident in his classroom that he worked through with the student. Mr. Harris encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning.
• Mr. Harris is a leader in his classroom, department, and our school. He serves as Curriculum Leader of the Mathematics Department.
• Mr. Harris is a teacher leader in his classroom, department, and school. He serves as curriculum leader of his department for the first time this year and is co chairing our Spring Open House and Curriculum Fair.

Standard II: Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris predominantly works with AIG students who do not have support personnel at the high school as the level of the Advanced Placement courses is inherently challenging in nature. Mr. Harris has a high level of rigor in the classroom. The environment in this classroom is conducive to learning. Student work, posters, expectations are all posted. Learning targets and an agenda are present. Organization for student responsibility is apparent.
• Mr. Harris teaches mostly advanced level classes and has very few IEP students but does have numerous AIG students. He plans a rigorous curriculum to help students meet the challenge of advanced classes and be prepared for the AP Exam in the Spring. At times, he does work with students who may not be as academically prepared as other students to take an advanced class. When this occurs, he works individually with these students and is always willing to work before or after school with students. Expectations are high in this class and students workto meet the expectations.Learning targets and the daily objective is posted. Student work is posted and the classroom is a positive learning environment.
• Mr. Harris is teaching our advanced Mathematics curriculum. Today's class is PreCalculus Honors. He is always willing to assist struggling students and works with families to communicate when extra assistance is needed. The classroom seems a very comfortable learning environment for all students

Standard III: Teachers Know the Content They Teach

Observer Comments

• The content in this course results in student learning at an advanced level and sparks an interest in future learning. I have had former students tell me that they have selected their college major or career choice based upon the content in Mr. Harris' class.
• In this statistics class, Mr. Harris returned from the holiday break with a video clip on Statistics - The Binomial Distribution. The content contained sports and medical topics which helps spark the interest of students and see the relevance of statistics beyond the classroom environment. Mr. Harris teaches with confidence discussing and leading the question/answer session with the class with no notes or hesitation. He is very knowledgeable in the subject of mathematics - teaching PreCalculus Honors and AP Statistics.
• Mr. Harris teaches this advanced class with rigor. Students are engaged in the lesson. The teacher instructs, then allows time for students to reflect and answer questions. Mr. Harris helps students strengthen their mathematics knowledge and encourages them to learn more and develop cognitively in the field of mathematics.

Standard IV: Teachers facilitate learning for their students

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris has high student engagement in his class. A student lab with high classroom participation causes students to want to do well in his class. Mr. Harris monitors his students throughout class for understanding and addresses all questions with a thorough explanation, including examples. He is confident in his content knowledge and can address any question posed to him with ease and accuracy. Learning teams and classroom procedures are clearly defined and followed in this classroom. Technology is used regularly and effectively in this classroom. In today's lesson, there was cross curricular embedded in the lesson through Health Science, health related topics, and culture. Rigor, connections, synthesis of knowledge, and creative and complex thinking is used regularly in this classroom.
• Today's class began with a Ted Talk type video clip on the Binomial Distribution in Statistics using topics from sports and medicine - genetics. Following the clip, Mr. Harris led a question and answer session for understanding with random selection of who is to answer from a technology generator. From this formative assessment, Mr. Harris can determine the understanding of the topic by students. Mr. Harris told a success story of a former student that the students knew who had used this lesson in his College Economics class successfully. Once again, giving the students a chance to see the learning extended beyond the classroom for other content areas and academic/work settings.
• Today's lesson has been a great traditionally approached lesson on polynomial functions. Students are using previous Math IIIknowledge and learning new concepts to develop the characteristics and graphs of polynomial functions.

Standard V: Teachers Reflect on Their Practice

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris is a reflective teacher. He teaches lessons that are interesting for students and sparks their interest. Mr. Harris is an outstanding teacher who cares about his students, is knowledgeable in his content area, and respectful of his peers and colleagues. He is currently serving as curriculum leader and co-coordinator of our Curriculum Fair.
• Mr. Harris is a reflective teacher. He revises his curriculum each year to be relevant for current research. He also looks at data from previous years to know the current comparative academic standing of his students in preparation for the AP Spring testing.
• Mr. Harris is a reflective teacher. I would love to see him present at a local or regional conference and share his expertise of teaching and technology.

Standard I: Teachers Demonstrate Leadership

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris is a leader in his classroom and department. He serves as the co curriculum leader of the Math Department. As Mr. Harris has been with us at ACRHS for three years, I anticipate he will become involved in a school wide leadership role.
• Mr. Harris is a teacher leader in his classroom and department. He is looking at ways to have some small scale school wide leadership opportunities. He is at sporting events to support his students. He is an exemplar of ethical standards of a teacher, always professionally dressed and spoken.
• Mr. Harris is a teacher leader. His leadership in the department is evidenced through his service as co-curricular chair, assisting new teachers, and extends school wide as he is co-coordinating the Spring Open House and Curriculum Fair. He is a solid role model for our students.

Standard II: Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris provides a positive and nurturing learning environment. The classroom demonstrates a learning environment through exemplars all around the room and posters of encouragement. Mr. Harris is also supportive of students beyond the classroom by attending school events. Students were randomly selected for participation; but, when a student stumbled, Mr. Harris invited assistance from peers.
• Mr. Harris provides a positive and encouraging learning environment in his classroom. His rapport with students and respect by students is evident. He rarely has an opportunity to work with support specialists given the advanced nature of the courses he teaches. He does contact parents of students. Yesterday, I had a parent of a former ACRHS student from Mr. Harris' first year tell that Mr. Harris is the reason his son chose to pursue Computer Science at UNC-Chapel Hill and has made the Dean's list for 4 consecutive semesters. He told me that Mr. Harris is the predominant teacher he talks about from high school and is the only teacher he pursues visiting when he is home on a visit. He attributes Mr. Harris for his son's academic and social success at college.
• Mr. Harris attends extracurricular events which helps him to establish rapport throughout the school community. The Advanced Level of his classes does not have numerous specific learning needs but he does recognize highly gifted students and challenges them while being attentive to students who have taken rigorous coursework and may struggle more than other higher achieving learners. He works with them to stay caught up in the class to be successful. He is aware of those who may be more timid to speak out in class and encourages them when their name is selected for participation. I have even heard him say, "Can anyone help him/her out?" I would love to hear the background story on the student at the front who appeared disengaged, could he be feeling bad today? I know that this student has had issues with plagiarism and cooperation in other classes. I wonder if this is more of a one-time behavior or ongoing disengagement in this class. I am aware this student is going through some issues at home. Mr. Harris expressed these same concerns and met with the student to set expectations for success in this class. Mr. Harris' classroom is student friendly and a learning environment is evidenced through the learning targets, agenda, assignments, and posted student exemplars.

Standard III: Teachers Know the Content They Teach

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris has been very helpful for new teachers and in transitioning teaching assignments in the Math Department. While today's material is fundamentally skill driven, Mr. Harris will bring the unit of polynomials together with real world based problems. In a PreCalculus Honors course, students interests are sparked for future learning. Mr. Harris is participating in our school wide emphasis of Writing Wednesday. The prompt is already posted on the board to begin student reflection before writing.
• From the comment above regarding a former student, it is evident that Mr. Harris sparks the interest of students and encourages outside and future learning. Mr. Harris is extremely confident in the Mathematics content knowledge. He teaches our advanced courses in the department and students choose to take his classes, mostly higher level math electives.
• Mr. Harris is extremely competent and shows confidence in his teaching of very advanced topics. Students can ask him questions and he is prepared to answer. Advanced students take this class and their interest is sparked to continue learning in higher level Mathematics. He is also working with our Math Competition students to be prepared for Competition at the District. An example of assisting colleagues is we have a visiting international teacher and another new teacher of which he has willingly shared his curriculum notebooks with them. Mr. Harris is very organized and prepares in depth lessons. He is always willing to share content and material.

Standard IV: Teachers facilitate learning for their students

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris uses technology in the classroom for learning and student management. Students are selected to answer by a random generator and teams are granted points in the reivew based upon an electronic "spin dial". During this class today, individual and team based learning was used. The teacher had formative assessments throughout the lesson by "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 finger" self assessment and teacher monitoring for success on each problem. Student leadership was evident in this classroom and the random selection of student participation causes all student to be accountable. I know Mr. Harris uses technology and applicable problems throughout his teaching. Today's lesson was skill driven of an advanced topic in preparation for a unit test.
• Mr. Harris is an excellent Advanced Math teacher. This statistics class has teacher led discussion on sampling groups and a "60 Minutes" video clip on placebos. The questions were multi layer questions that promoted higher order thinking of sampling groups. A very thorough agenda and learning targets were clearly posted in the class, along with exemplar student work. Technology is used for instruction, for classroom management, and student accountability. The use of the random selector for student participation requires all students to participate and communicate in the classroom. This created a classroom where all students were engaged in the classroom instruction. Student rewards were given throughout the lesson and this allowed for consistent teacher formative assessment throughout the class.
• Mr. Harris has lessons that spark students' interest. He uses technology regularly in his teaching. Sometimes it is to have video clips or stories to relate to the curriculum and he also develops lessons using the SmartBoard and other technology. He develops lessons and assigns problems to develop students' higher level of thinking and problem solving. He continually assesses students in the classroom through class discussions, short answers, and classroom monitoring. He stops periodically to get student's nonverbal feedback on understanding and time management of the content. Mr. Harris' level of understanding of this advanced topic allows him to address issues students have with clarity and even proactively address topics or problems that may arise in the lesson content. Mr. Harris is certainly preparing students for their futures in college level work while he teaches the content of an Advanced Placement course.

Standard V: Teachers Reflect on Their Practice

Observer Comments

• Mr. Harris is a reflective teacher. He attends Professional Development as required and implements learning strategies in the classroom. Mr. Harris is already signed up for our first Learning Walk of the academic year. I hope that Mr. Harris will host a walk this year.
• Mr Harris is a reflective teacher. He also has assisted new teachers in our department this year. I have observed the content preparation Mr. Harris has for each course he teaches and the preparation is evident. When we had some departmental changes this year, Mr. Harris was reflective in course sequences for students and how to change teaching schedules based upon course sequence, faculty expertise and wishes, and a "locked in" master schedule by the registrar so that only very specific moves could be made.
• Mr. Harris is a reflective teacher. I would love to see him share his knowledge with other teachers in the district at workshops. He has so many great content and classroom ideas to share with other teachers. He looks for varied ways to teach the material based upon his observations and professional study and reading.