Contribute to the school-wide program for teacher growth through observation, analysis of planning

The final standard for International Teacher Leaders is: "Contribute to the school-wide program for teacher growth through observation, analysis of planning and student results, and constructive feedback."

I am very proud of our teacher appraisal system that we use at
the International School of Ulaanbaatar. At many schools appraisal can be a very rote process that becomes more about the routine than the results. Once a year the principal or vice principal pops into a class with a clipboard and a checklist to see if teachers are doing what they have been hired to do. Obviously the flaw in this system is two fold. One a principal could happen to see an exceptional show put on by a struggling educator, or they could also witness an amazing educator who is having a one-off particularly poor lesson. Thus rather than the check list, we have an open-door policy and a friendly system of watching other's work. There is no judgement. Teachers can watch each other and learn and get ideas from their colleagues.

However, where the true brilliance in our appraisal system comes into play is in our form of professional learning communities. Staff work together to identify areas of growth and development and connect their learning goals to our reflections on learning and teaching. This is called our PLEF system - The Professional Learning Engagement Function.

Last year at ISU, we took PLEF to a new level by having a very organic and community focused way of holding all educators accountable. We shared out our learning with each other at a community celebration. The leadership team was unsure how this could work and if teachers would understand the expectations. However, we organized a teacher share out months before the event so that everyone could see what to expect.

Of course, I volunteered to be an example teacher. With the Art and the Design team we focused our PLEF on using AI to increase student learning and one practical tool that we created for other teachers is a Padlet containing links to a variety of AI tools and resources.