2. Give praise based on what you saw in the classroom. One of the quickest ways to make teachers feel comfortable when going over feedback is to quick authentic praise from your time in the classroom. Always make sure that the praise is specific and based on what you witnessed in the classroom. No teacher has time for artificial praise that is a not connected to real things that are happening in the classroom. I always like to start this section with starters such as, “I enjoyed being in your classroom while students were…” Then I go into the specifics of what students were doing and connect that back to the standards/objective for the lesson. You could start with discussing the decor of the classroom then go into what the students did well and then how it all ties into the standard in the objective.  I usually start with the elements of a standards based classroom and how it was evident during my visit. I then go directly into the instruction that I witnessed and lastly into the students behaviors while in the classroom.
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That’s really interesting that simple classroom visits are so productive. As a parent to a high schooler I applaud your dedication to kids like mine. Thanks for the good information.