What I Learned In School Today: Communicating before an observation is important to make the observation process as valuable for everyone as possible.
Now that we are about three weeks into the school year, the formal observation process is officially up and running for several students. At our school, this means planning the lesson, meeting with the administrator to discuss the lesson, teaching the lesson, and meeting with the administrator again to review the observed teaching.
Today I held one of my first pre-observation meetings of the year. When holding one of these meetings, I always ask if there is anything specific the teacher is currently working on around which they would like feedback. This is not a roundabout why of finding where a teacher finds he or she is weak, but instead is an attempt to give the most informative feedback possible. Unfortunately, when I ask this question prior to an observation, I am often told that there is no specific area onto which they would like me to focus.
How do other schools work to maximize the observational process? What kinds of questions are asked or information is required prior to the observation?