Kim Marshall

A key goal for SAM teams is getting the principal out of the office and into classrooms for substantive observations and then face-to-face affirmation and coaching for each teacher soon afterward. In this pre-conference, Kim Marshall will unpack the key steps in mini-observations, a strategy that has far more impact on teaching and learning than conventional teacher evaluation. Kim developed this system as a Boston principal and used it successfully for almost a decade, then began coaching principals, writing about it, and consulting with schools around the world.

Here are the details of the mini-observation approach:

• Getting an accurate sampling of the 900 lessons each teacher teaches each year by classroom visits that are frequent (about once a month), short (10-15 minutes), systematic, and unannounced;

• Honing observation skills by being humble, curious, and low-tech, deciding on one “leverage point” per visit, and being aware of the bigger picture for each teacher (goals, data, context);

• Connecting with and having maximum instructional impact on teachers by always meeting face to face, affirming effective practices, courageously addressing mediocre and ineffective teaching, crafting a brief narrative summary of each conversation, and using a rubric to sum up teachers’ performance at the end of each school year.

 TimeTrack is set up to facilitate mini-observations: you can select any of the four TimeTrack descriptors for Seeing instruction, and then an Optional Descriptor for Mini-Observations. You also can use TimeTrack’s Connected Events to make the

scheduling even easier. Mark Shellinger will visit this pre-conference to guide participants on taking full advantage of this feature.

Kim Marshall, a former Boston Public Schools teacher, principal, and central-office curriculum director, now coaches principals, gives workshops and courses on school leadership, and consults with schools, often on teacher evaluation, time management, and curriculum unit design. He publishes the weekly Marshall Memo, www.marshallmemo.com summarizing the best ideas and research from 60 publications, and is the author of Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation (3rd edition, Jossey-Bass 2024).