Open Door – Kathy Hill

The title already sounded inviting, so I just made myself comfortable in Auditorium 2.

Kathy started by showing a photo on a ppt slide and eliciting thoughts/words it brought to our minds. ‘Scary’ was the recurrent word, and this was to introduce the feeling most teachers experiment when they are going to be observed. Being a teacher myself, I somewhat share the thought, but as a manager, one of my duties is to observe the teachers working at the branch, so, what did she have to say?

In very simple words, she explained a project she developed while working in Chile, where, mind you, the walls of the school were made of transparent glass! Even if you didn’t want to, you were observed all the time. Fancy that? As a result, people working there were very edgy towards class observations, and something had to be done.

She proposed a new Scheme called “Open Doors”, which is totally controlled by teachers themselves – in her words, “paws off, managers.” Teachers literally invite other teachers to attend their class, by posting a notice on a noticeboard reserved for that purpose in which they specify when a specific classroom door will be open to peer observation. It’s a no-frills system, where teachers do so at their own will and have the right to not open doors if they don’t feel like it.

According to Kathy, what happened in her school was that teachers gradually felt the stress of observation lift from their shoulders and some even welcomed fellow teachers in their classrooms.

The one and only purpose of the scheme is make teachers more comfortable with class observation, and there’s a set of Golden Rules for that to work properly, such as

1) don’t police it… let it go…
2) feedback is not given
3) open your door when you want
4) listen to your staff and observe the little details in your environment – the discomfort may come from another area
5) it’s “for teachers by teachers”.

An interesting scheme, which has all it takes to be a success in de-stressing our teachers.