Time Travel With Ruben Brosbe

Over at Gotham Schools, Educators4Excellence Blog Monkey™ Ruben Brosbe is at it again. This time he is whining and kvetching about his evaluations or observations, or other piddling stuff. But, he said two things that did grab my attention.

He shares with us his work as a policy wonk and explaining that traitorous views are all as an advocate to for the greater good;

The work I did as a member of Educators 4 Excellence’s teacher evaluation policy team was an effort to advocate for such a system.

And next, he shares his pride, his joy, his crowning achievement in life;

The student surveys, which will only work if they are creating in a way that is meaningful and authentic for children of all ages from kindergarten to 12th grade, are my favorite suggestion, however.

Yes, Ruben having Kindergarten students evaluate their teachers is such a no brainer. The problem behind this, and all student evaluation is that in the E4E manifesto, there is no there there. How will the students, and in particular the wee ones, actually evaluate their teachers?

The crack team here at SBSB took the first step to attempting to have a student evaluate their teacher when we chose Ruben to be a subject of such an evaluation and a student to share their thoughts on Ruben. But what to do about Kindergarten? This is the one grade at which we here at SBSB have the most consternation with in evaluating their own teachers.

Should K students draw a picture, which can be open to interpretation? Should K students write a sentence? Fill out a form? None of these options seemed feasible to the crack team.

After many a night wracking out brains we came up with a solution. A sort of "exit interview" with K students put forth by a disinterested outside party. But something like this should be tested before it becomes official? What to do?

We decided to yet again use Ruben Brosbe as our guinea pig. Yes, you are correct. Ruben is a 3rd grade teacher. We found a way around that. The crack team decided to interview Ruben as a Kindergarten student. For this we needed a way to go back in time to 1990. But first we needed a way to go back.

The crack team decided to use the slingshot theory most memorably seen in "Star Trek IV The Voyage Home." Crack team member Hank volunteered to go since he was the only one that had no family nor ties to 2011. We also debated whether or not Hank, after finishing the interview with 6 year old Ruben Brosbe, should kidnap Ruben and send him back to 17th century America. But, unfortunately one can;t change time. Mr Spock said that once and I believe him.

It seemed to have taken all of 5 minutes for Hank to go to 1990, interview Ruben and report back here. Here now is the transcript of the Kindergarten exit interview that Hank did with Ruben.

Do you like your teacher?

Yes.

Why?

Yes.

No, why do like your teacher?

She is my teacher.

Did you learn anything special from her?

I poop my pants.

You poop your pants?

No.

OK Ruben, please concentrate. What did you learn from your teacher.

Read.

OK, what did you read?

Books.

What kind of books did you like?

Books. I poop my pants.

Did you learn letters?

Yes.

Which letters?

My ABC song

What else did you like in Kindergarten?

Snack time, nap time, I pooped my pants.

Is there anything about your teacher you did not like?

One time...once...I...I....my teacher did....she had Corey........be line leader and I wanted......she didn't let me be line leader.

Thank you Ruben.

Bye. I pooped my pants.

And there you have it. Hank came back safe and sound and with a $5,000 check for the interview. He told the principal at Ruben's elementary school he was an outside consultant hired in a no bid process to conduct this exit interview. Hank is sharp!