Surviving Teacher Evaluations: How to Stay Grounded During Classroom Observations

Teacher observations can trigger stress, self-doubt, and overperforming—especially during evaluation season. In this episode, we talk honestly about how to stay grounded, protect your confidence, and remember what actually matters when you’re being observed.

If evaluation season ties your stomach in knots, you’re not alone—and you’re not a score. We take a clear-eyed look at how to stay grounded when someone with a clipboard walks in, and we share a toolkit that turns everyday good teaching into visible evidence without turning your classroom into a performance. You’ll hear why knowing the Danielson Framework inside out changes the power dynamic, how to select and rehearse a lesson that fits your voice, and the specific engagement moves that show learning from every seat.

We also talk about what makes the system feel unfair—how life outside school affects test data, how single snapshots miss the best moments, and why rubrics designed for growth get misused for pay. Then we flip the script. From student roles like a safety captain to essential questions and turn and talk, we outline simple structures that demonstrate culture, rigor, and management in ways observers can actually see. We dig into practical readiness: plan B tech, quick pivots when things go sideways, and calm responses to behavior that still meet the rubric.

Along the way, we challenge leaders to gather better evidence by teaching a mini-lesson themselves and to right-size the frequency of high-stakes visits. Until that happens, we can still advocate for ourselves: bring artifacts to the post conference, cite the rubric language, and narrate your decisions. Most of all, protect your confidence. A label can’t hold your craft, your care, or the spark you light in students long after the clipboard leaves. If you’re ready for strategies that lower stress and raise clarity, hit play—and if this helped, follow, share with a teammate, and leave a quick review so more teachers find it.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Gift of a Day off- Free Sub Plans

Chapters

• 0:00 Framing The Stress Of Evaluations
• 0:59 You Are Not A Score
• 2:43 Flaws In Rubrics And Fairness
• 6:59 Know The Rubric And Defend Evidence
• 9:57 Rethinking Admin Roles And Frequency
• 13:36 Practical Planning For Observations
• 18:01 Engagement Moves That Show Learning

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to One Tired Teacher, Episode 279, Observation, Evaluation, Season, Survival Guide. How to stay grounded when you're being watched. Okay, this is not anyone's favorite time of the year. This time of year can be really stressful and feel super overwhelming and sometimes even defeating and demeaning. So today we're going to talk about how to survive this time of the year. Hope you stick around.

SPEAKER_00: 0:36

Welcome to One Tired Teacher. And even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching. Here she is, wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She is awake, right? Okay. From Trina Deborah Teaching and Learning, your host, Trina Debori.

SPEAKER_01: 0:59

Hey, so we're gonna have an honest talk about teacher evaluations and protecting your confidence, because it's really important to remember that we are not a score. We are not a test score, we are not a weight score, we are not a salary score. We are not a score. Whether someone says we're effective or highly effective or needs improvement or whatever, those words are just words. They don't define you, they don't define who you are. And sometimes those words can be really unfair. Sometimes we're like, yes, they got us, they nailed it, they saw, they saw what we were trying to show them. Sometimes it feels like the way that the system was set up feels like it's not supposed to go that way. I don't know. I just know the it's hard to do something when someone's watching you unless you are an actor and that's the job you chose. So that that feels a little different. Although I probably am guessing even even professional actors feel like they don't love to have people watching them do something, or they don't like to watch themselves do something. I think that's always interesting when they don't want to see the playback. Like they don't want to see how it went. They're just gonna leave it up to the director and they're like either gonna cut it how they're gonna cut it and they let it go there. I always think that's so interesting. Anyway, how do we survive this? Like, what do we do about this? I know, I know for me, I've talked about this actually on TikTok. So I created this video years ago about a friend of mine who was an outstanding teacher, and she had gotten moved to a different position and she was gonna be evaluated on a new rubric. And and I we were just like, oh my gosh, are you are they not gonna give you highly effective? Are they not gonna give whatever? And we got you know really worked up about it, and I was really worked up about it, and I used to get so obsessed about this, and I'm like, I have to get highly effective, I have to get it in every single category, that's crazy. And I realized after stepping away from that, like how unhealthy that is, how unhealthy that was for me, and how that doesn't dictate who I am or what kind of teacher I am. How my children felt about learning, like that's what matters. How they um did in the classroom, like uh, whatever. How they went on to live as a learner and as a person and as a grow and growing in society, that's what matters. It's just so hard with this system. And part of it is comes down to a lot of districts use the Charlotte Danielson rubric, which was not intended for like an evaluation type purpose. It was for an evaluation, but not a paid purpose. So if we're they were using these evaluations to help teachers grow, then it would be a little easier to handle getting feedback that feedback that indicates you need to improve in an area or you've got some work to do. And I think people would be open to it. I know I tried to look at some of the things and think, okay, how can I do a better job of this? If I'm gonna prepare my kids for an advance, I'm gonna share in advance what the criteria is, what the criteria is in advance. That's really powerful and really helpful to kids. Or if I have to use higher-level questioning, that's helpful. So I didn't mind learning those things and improving upon my practice. What I didn't like was feeling like everything was tied to that and some things I didn't have control over as far as how well kids did on tests. I could do the best I could teaching, and I might be really effective at teaching. But if they didn't get enough sleep last night, or if they have a toothache, or their mom has cancer, there's nothing I can do about that. And so it doesn't feel fair, it doesn't feel like a fair evaluation, and that's really tricky. And also it's really hard when, like I said, when someone's standing over you watching, you you get self-conscious. It you can't help but get self-conscious, especially when you feel like they're there to see what you're doing wrong and not necessarily what you're doing really well. Another part that really irritates me is that a lot of teachers don't know the rubric, which is you you've got to know the rubric. That's the key. You want to know the rubric. But the thing is, is that principals don't know the rubric. Or if they don't see it in that 45-minute lesson, then it doesn't exist, which is not fair, and that's not how Charlotte Danielson intended it to be. She indicates in her book that if they don't see it in that observation or in the evaluation, like in the walkthroughs or in the formal evaluation, then teachers are allowed to bring that in the follow-up or the um, is that what it's called? The follow-up? That doesn't sound right. Um I can't think of what it's called. The meeting that you have, it makes sense that it would be a follow-up, but I don't remember if those are the exact terms. Um, but you should be able to defend yourself. You should be able to provide evidence. And a lot of people don't do that, and a lot of teachers don't fight for that. But let me tell you, you gotta almost be like an attorney. Like, here's the evidence, and how are you gonna prove that I didn't do this? And that's kind of mentality I think we should look more for is what am I doing right? Not what am I doing wrong. So, how do you survive this situation? I could get like I really get so frustrated about this on TikTok. So if you want to check that out, you can. I get really mad. I actually cuss a little bit. I just feel really I feel protective of teachers. I feel protective of teachers, I feel protective of myself, I feel I don't feel like it's fair. It's I don't think it's always fair. I feel like there's better ways of doing it. That's another thing I talk about in the TikTok. I I think if if an ad admin went in, did even a short read-aloud with a class, they would get so much information themselves for by doing the lesson themselves. Because they would understand the classroom community, they would understand what kind of questions the kids were asking, they would understand how systems were run, what kind of procedures were in place, they would get so much information just by being in there themselves. But they would think they don't have time for that. But if they are gonna take time to do all these walkthroughs and all these observations, then why couldn't they take time to do something that would be so much more meaningful? That's my question. But that's another thing. Like it's a waste of their time as well. When you do it year after year after year after year, is it necessary? Do you need to do that every single year? Or do you do that when you're having a question about something or after it's been several years? That made more sense to me when it was like every five years. I'm like, okay. I mean, and that maybe a lot could slip through that. So maybe you say every three years, but every year, it's just so taxing on all the people. And it's so much work, all the paperwork. Oh, I remember taking days off just to get the paperwork done, which is ridiculous. That was really more about me feeling like I didn't want to be rushed and I wanted to think things through. And if that if you want to gift yourself a day, then grab my free day of subplans so that you can do that without having to worry about subplans. If you want longer than that, then I have a subplan bundle for you. And I'll link to it in the show notes. All right. So the first thing to do to survive that, this, is we want to think about it. We we don't want to set ourselves up for anything that's like crazy that's gonna happen. I usually tried to pick, honestly, I usually try to pick a literacy lesson or even a math lesson. And I didn't want to use a ton of technology. If I wanted to show I was using technology, I did something that was relatively simple and practiced it and made sure that it was available and it wasn't gonna cause a mess. And I had a plan B, always had a plan B. Because if it didn't work, then I needed to show that I was able to move on to something else without it going into utter chaos, which is on the rubric. So one of the things that I wanted to always make sure that I was doing was I was having like an effective lesson. So I was, you know, doing almost like a little review. I was going over the criteria, I was we were discussing the essential questions. We might do um a high engagement strategy, like a turn and talk or um a simul or a round table, where we went around the table and talked about what we learned previously, you know, maybe what we want to learn, even something like that. And then moving into the lesson, everything was really structured. So moving into the lesson, making sure that I was using again high-yield strategies. So I didn't want just one child raising their hand. I wanted my administrator to see that more than one person was working at a time. That if a pair a turn and talk is 50% of your kids are engaged. It actually it's a hundred percent. You've got 50% talking, but the other 50% are actively listening. So it's a hundred percent engagement. If you have, you know, teams working together and you've got one person reporting for the team, you know, one with the four groups, you're talking about 25% of your class actively engaged rather than one percent. So I think that can be really important. I also think it's really important to remember this isn't a test of you, it's a snapshot of a moment and time. And sometimes those moments are great and sometimes they're not so great. I also am not I'm not above bribing my students. I will tell you that right now. Yes, I'm like, if we can get through this lesson with, you know, so-and-so is coming to see you and see how you do and how you're working, and I've been telling them how great you are. I don't scare them. I'm not trying to make them feel afraid they're watching you because that and that intimidates me. Why would I want to intimidate my students? I I want to say I've been bragging about you all, and I can't wait for them to come see. And I can't wait for them to see that yes, I have the best second grade class, or yes, I have the best students in the school, or whatever. A little, a little flattery, a little bribery works. And if you can show them that, if we can get, you know, cubes to the top of the jar, we're gonna have a pajama party, or we're gonna have 10, 20 extra minutes at recess, or whatever you have to do. It's it works like magic. It really does, and it really matters. The other thing is I will hear people say things like, I don't want to put on a dog and pony show. And you know, there was a little bit of time in my teaching career where I felt that way too. I was like, you know, I don't feel like putting on this big display of whatever and it's so overwhelming, it feels competitive and this and this and that. But then then somebody said something to me that I thought made so much sense. And they said, if you had company over for dinner, would you just leave everything like you normally have it? Mail on the dining room table, maybe a cabinet open, haven't, you know, cleaned up dog toys by the couch, or would you straighten up? Would you put the dog toys away? Would you fluff the pillows? Would you put the mail in your office? Would you, you know, would you open the door with your workout clothes on? Are you gonna have your outfit for your friends or family that are coming over? That's how you kind of want to think about it. Like, I gotta clean up for my family to come over and have whatever you're having, you know, dinner, you know, pizza and game night. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna have it, and they're my family. It's okay if they show up and I'm and I've got stuff out. That's that's fine. But if I plan a night for them to come over, I I want to show up. So that's one way of thinking about it. So you don't feel like you're putting on a dog and pony show. You're actually cleaning up for company, and there's nothing wrong with that. Okay, the other thing is you want to be prepared for the observation because you're if you're not prepared, you're gonna feel frazzled and discombobulated and frustrated and easily like triggered, or at least that's what happens to me. So be prepared. Know your lesson, know your content, know what you're gonna do, know what you're gonna say, know how it's gonna roll out, go through it in your mind, move through it with your with like everyone's at PE. Stand in front of the room, think about how you're gonna ask questions, think about making sure they're higher level questions, about you know, ways that you can show that kids are also asking questions or that they're supporting one another. I know that was another area on the rubric or teaching each other something. That's a really helpful one to do. Um, I remember one time I had one of the things on the lesson was about classroom community. I mean, on the rubric. And it was if you had, what was it, kids taking ownership of their space and um showing like leadership. And I'm and I'm like, okay. So I made a, I'm like, how can I meet this objective on the rubric? How can I be highly effective? That's what I wanted, highly effective. How can I be highly effective? And I made a safety captain. So that was one of the classroom jobs with safety captain. That way, when in my observation, there was somebody, and this happened accidentally, but this was because I had thought through things. But someone left their chair out, and the safety captain is like, so-and-so, you left your chair out, and someone might trip. And they came back and they did it. And I was like, let's say thanks to our to, you know, Timmy, our safety captain. Check, highly effective on that part. So that's what I mean. You're thinking things out, you're kind of brain, that's a great thing to do with your team. Brainstorm, you know, things, scenarios, questions, lessons, whatever, with your team to figure out what I can do, what can I show for that particular part of the rubric. That's just one idea. Another idea I have, besides if you need to take a day for sub, I do have my fairy tale unit is actually written with all the like essential questions, higher-level thinking, scaffolding framework, um, specific questions inside the unit. I did that. It was like written for a highly effective lesson, which I got repeatedly with those lessons. So if you need a framework, use that as a framework. Use the fairy tale, folktale, fable unit as a framework. Um, I'll drop the link to that in the show notes as well. Remember, control what you can. Plan a lesson that's it's true to your teaching style. So if you do use mine as a framework, make sure you make it yours. Like you, I don't mean steal it. I mean make it do what you naturally do. Because when you're trying to do what someone else tells you to do, you don't, you don't have ownership over it anymore. And then you feel like you're, you feel like you're not authentically you. So so be I remember that too as my first year teaching. And my mentor teacher was like, do this lesson on was something about using glue and cult food color and whatever. And I'm like, what is the objective? I couldn't get my head around it. And I'm like, I can't do this lesson. This isn't me. This is you, this isn't me. So just keep that in mind too. I think that I do think that matters. Um and also just remember, you are not a score. You're doing the very best you can. It is good enough. And if something doesn't go right, show how quickly you respond you can respond to that, how quickly you can pivot, how quickly you can address it. You have a behavior issue, address it because that's that's on the rubric as well. So I haven't looked at the rubric in a long time. I just remember all these parts of it because in the end, towards the end of my like in the school system, I was a student support specialist and I went with my principal on all these evaluations and helped him. And honestly, I was constantly in his ear pointing out things he missed. I'm like, you missed this. Did you see this? This was happening. Look, this is on the rubric. And I 97% of the time I helped the teacher. I can think of one time that I was like, oh, but and I'm not proud of that because it it's a weird system. It does something weird to you where you feel like, oh my gosh, was I looking for the negative? So you have to be really intentional as the administrator and as the teacher, because it's doesn't feel like a system that's meant to celebrate your strengths, but you can celebrate your strengths, and you can point out things that you do that are intentional and always go back to that rubric because they can't argue the rubric. Just keep your head up. Remember who you are, remember what you do. It all matters, and if you've got something to work on, that's okay. You can work on it. Or not, that choice is yours. You are a great teacher, even if no one comes in and notices. How many times has that happened? We have the best lesson ever, and they missed it. They miss it all the time. Sometimes you just have to show it to them. I hope that helps. Until next time, sweet dreams and sleep tight.