Instructional Rounds at HMS

Often times as educators we use "educational terminology" that is foreign to most people who are not in the educational field. As I thought about how to best celebrate the great things we saw today at Haleyville Middle School during our instructional rounds, I remembered that for some, the term instructional rounds might be new. Instructional rounds are one of the most valuable tools that a school or district can use to give teachers an idea of what is going on in the classrooms around them. Some educators call these classroom walk-throughs- same thing. For instructional rounds, a team of teachers is selected to walk through classrooms with a group of administrators or curriculum and instructional professionals. There are usually 2 goals of instructional rounds: 1) provide feedback to the teacher being observed and 2) for the teacher walking through to compare their own instructional practices with those of the teachers they observe. The benefit of this approach is that following the rounds, we gather to discuss and reflect on the teaching and learning that was observed. 

As a district, Haleyville City Schools have developed a new Teacher Effectiveness Observation Tool which focuses on 8 standards that we will use to improve teaching and learning as a district. Our first standard is Preparedness. Teachers have been given a rubric with the expectations of the district clearly defined. During instructional rounds today, the main focus was on determining the level of preparedness of our teachers. 

As we visited all of the classrooms at the middle school today, it was evident that teachers are prepared for the lessons and activities taking place. There were so many engaging activities going on and teachers were allowing students to take an active role in their learning while also letting them have fun. HMS was on target today with preparedness and I look forwards to many other visits in the future. Below are just a few of the pictures I took as we visited classrooms.