What Informal Classroom Visits Teach You with Justin Baeder (Summit Teaser)

This is a short teaser for the Transformative Leadership Summit, featuring Justin Baeder. He talks about classroom observation from the principal's side: he learned a ton from informal visits and still sees value in formal observations. If you feel pressure to leave a suggestion every time you walk into a room, his story may change how you visit. Baeder says he was led to believe an informal visit meant a compliment, a suggestion and another compliment. With his best teachers he often had nothing helpful to say and felt like he was nitpicking. When he dropped that requirement, he became a better listener and a more effective decision maker. What you'll learn Visit classrooms to learn, not to hand the teacher a suggestion every time. Skip out-of-context nitpicking after two minutes of a lesson, because you do not know what came before or after. Treat what teachers show you as input for whole-school decisions such as PLCs and professional development. Chapters 0:00 Why informal visits feel weird to teachers 2:03 Learning from visits instead of giving suggestions 3:21 The problem with out-of-context nitpicking 4:13 Letting teachers shape whole-school decisions Times are for the episode without ads. Your player may be off by the length of any ads. Questions this episode answers Should a principal give feedback after every informal classroom visit? Justin Baeder says he felt pressure to give a compliment, a suggestion and another compliment on every visit, and with his best teachers he had to nitpick. When he let go of that requirement, he says he became a better listener and decision maker. What can principals learn from informal classroom visits? Baeder says he learned a ton just by showing up and paying attention. Teachers often gave him feedback about what the school needed, such as whole-school professional development or PLC work, rather than a suggestion for that one teacher. Links and resources Sign up for the summit Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start. Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more: Simplify and streamline technology Save teachers’ time Reliably meet Tier 1 standards Improve student performance on state assessments 🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.