How Peer Observation Has Improved My Experience

By: Joseph Harris

Peer observation is one of the most beneficial aspects of the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES) and peer observation has impacted me as a professional. I am proud to report that recently, a piece about my experience with peer observation was featured in Kentucky Teacher.

Throughout the past several years, I have participated in several peer observations. These experiences have pushed me to grow as a teacher and I truly believe that if teachers across Kentucky are willing to open their classroom doors and allow others to learn by watching them teach and vice versa, then a powerful movement can be created. This is exactly what Ms. Connie Huff, a Biomedical teacher, did for me this school year.

Ms. Huff allowed me, an English teacher, to step inside the world of Biomedical Science and learn from a 22 year teaching veteran. Not only did I observe students analyzing a mock crime scene and designing their own experiments, I was able to participate in the different stations around the room. Ms. Huff was acting as a facilitator and I noticed that in each station, students were owning their own learning and were deeply engaged.

When I entered Ms. Huff’s classroom that day, I was looking for formative assessment ideas and classroom management techniques. I walked away with ideas for these, but I also walked away with the encouragement to find ways for my students to own their learning in my English classroom. I’ve been working on this concept since that peer observation. I stepped out of my content for a class period to observe another content area and I highly encourage others to do the same. It made a difference in the way I approach lesson planning.

This is a guest blog written by one of the teachers in our Innovative Teacher Leader cohort to share about an innovative teacher or practice from their area of the state. To learn more about the work happening in the Commonwealth from these Innovative Teacher Leaders, who are working to redefine teacher leadership in Kentucky, check back throughout the month of March. We’ll be sharing guest blogs all month long.