culture. Better yet, have your students be able to describe your classroom culture to your observer. Professional Practice and Responsibilities Dimension 4.1: Professional Demeanor and Ethics: Our TMEA Code of Ethics says it all. If you haven’t read it recently go to www.tmea.org/code for a refresher. Dimension 4.2: Goal Setting: “The teacher reflects on his/her practice.” As mentioned in the introduction to this column, reflecting on our accomplishments
and challenges will help us establish meaningful goals for our future. Involve students in this reflection to ensure a genuine review and to give them ownership in their learning. Dimension 4.3: Professional Development: Join professional organizations—if you were mailed this magazine, we know you are or have been a TMEA member already! Stay current and share your training accomplishments with your administration! This is not egotistical, this is job security! Be your own (humble) PR person!
HIGH SCHOOL AND MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS! ENTER ONLINE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A Q SERIES OR AMADEUS FLUTE!
Dimension 4.4: School Community Involvement: Don’t get confined within your own four walls. Be seen. Be a leader on your campus and in your community. Showcase your students and your school. Share your strengths. The T-TESS rubric, although not written specifically for music educators, does give explicit examples of mastery. It is imperative that you, as the music educator on your campus, implant buzz words and imprint the right picture of what an evaluator should see upon entering your classroom. Sam Harris, Director of Academic Enrichment and Fine Arts for Galena Park, published an excellent set of rubrics for expected activities in music classes. Giving these rubrics to your campus administrators will help them participate in a more informed observation of your class. I would also suggest sending brief updates each six weeks (following the expectations found in Dimension 1.2 of the T-TESS rubric) of SLO goals and progress to your administration. Find time to meet with all other Fine Arts teachers on your campus to review and align your language with that of your administration. Help your administrators and evaluators help you! Student assessment is one of the controversial aspects of the T-TESS and is feared by many classroom teachers. This, however, is a common practice for music educators. The idea of basing teacher evaluations on student performance describes every UIL Concert & Sightreading evaluation, every performance, every studentteacher evaluation, and every elementary music classroom or performance. Monitoring student understanding and progress and individualizing instruction to ensure 100% student engagement is an everyday occurrence for music teachers. I hope that some of the suggestions laid out here will help to assuage some concern about the T-TESS. Share your own ideas and tips to help all of us survive this first year of new evaluations. I believe we music people are way ahead of the game!
TMEA Clinic/Convention Housing Reservations Available October 4, 6 A.M. CT WWW.TMEA.ORG/HOUSING
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Southwestern Musician | October 2016