Principal Reads Students' Slang-Filled Script for High School Tour and It's Straight Fire
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Eduleadership show for August 12th, 2025. I'm your host, Justin Bader, and in this episode we'll talk about some eggs that hatched on campus and they were not chicken eggs. We'll talk about what teachers should be evaluated on versus what they typically are evaluated on. And we'll talk about a high school principal who gave a campus tour with a script that was written by Gen Z and Gen Alpha students using their slang, and that was a lot of fun. So let's get to it. First up, I've been asking for your animals on campus stories and so far you have not disappointed. Cheryl writes, I taught at a rural K 12 school and a student brought the science teacher some eggs. He had found the teacher who was a stereotypical absent professor type, put the eggs under the chemical hood and forgot all about them. That is until they hatched, not into chickens, but into several bulls, snakes, which slithered down the hall, creating chaos.
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So if you have had an experience like that, let me know if you have photos or video even better. But we're going to continue featuring animals on campus. Just for fun here on the Edgy Leadership Show. Next up, let's talk about teacher evaluation. I mentioned Charlotte Danielson recently, and anytime I mentioned Charlotte Danielson or teacher evaluation on social media, I get a variety of responses from teachers, some of which seem to believe that teachers should not be evaluated at all, that there should just not really be any system of teacher evaluation. And I get that response because I get that lots of people have been treated in ways that they perceive as unfair. It's never fun to be evaluated, and evaluations, frankly, are not always done well, and that is not a secret or a mystery to Charlotte Danielson. And I've worked with her, I've had her as a professional developer in my school district and have learned from her and seen her speak many times, and I think she has one of the best systems out there.
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But she is very aware that her system is not always used in the most constructive ways. And really, she even designed it originally for reflection and professional growth, not for teacher evaluation, but then it ended up being kind of the best framework, the best rubric for teacher evaluation. And now it is the most popular framework out there, but I think it's worth asking what really should teachers be evaluated on? Because a lot of people feel like the Danielson framework is unfair, especially if they're working with less privileged students. And I personally used the Danielson framework in my professional certification portfolio fairly early in my career, and one of the things that I found was a little bit unfair was the description of level four, right? If you wanted to be at the very top of the rubric, not just satisfactory but exemplary or whatever your organization calls it, beyond satisfactory, there are some things that feel like they're a little bit outside of your control.
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As a teacher, you can control what you do, but level four requires students to take ownership, requires students to do things, and I think a lot of people feel like those are not always possible no matter what they do. I think they're a good vision to strive for. I think that level four practice is a good vision to aim for, but I think if you feel like sometimes you're really going to have a realistic shot at being able to reach level four, just because of where your students are coming in from, how far you can get them is not going to get to level four practice. So I think we need to think about this question of what should teachers be evaluated on? And there have been different takes on that over the years. There have been the four domains and more recently the Danielson clusters, and there are lots of other systems.
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Marzano has a system, Kim Marshall has a system, strong has a system, and your organization may have its own system of criteria for teacher evaluation. And I think on one level we can look at the domains, we can look at the criteria and say that's what we're evaluating people on. But I think at the heart of what we're doing in teacher evaluation, what we're examining, it's not so much the song and dance. Like yes, there may be things like do you explain things clearly? Do you manage the classroom? Well, there are some outcomes, but ultimately what I think we need to be getting at in teacher evaluation is professional judgment. Is this teacher making decisions that were the right decisions for the moment? Because the moment is not always ideal, right? It is not always the perfect lesson where everything is going well and you can just teach it without interruption.
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And students learn it, they understand it, they have the background knowledge they're expected to have, and everything just goes smoothly. Teaching often requires making the best of the circumstances. Maybe you had a really great lesson yesterday and half the class missed it so they didn't get what they were supposed to in order to be ready for today's lesson. That's the type of situation that teachers are in every day and that they have to make the best of. So I think we need to look for ways to evaluate teachers based on professional judgment and what they did given the circumstances, not just the outcome, not just the test score, not just the did students take leadership of everything, but did the teacher make the best possible decision under the circumstances? Lemme know what you think. Lastly, today on the Edgy Leadership Show, you may have seen that a high school principal, Mr. Martin at East Forsyth High School did just a fabulous campus tour video using a script that was written by students. This was featured on the Today Show, and he said, I don't know what most of this stuff means. I hope I'm not saying anything too bad. I want to share this with you because I think it is just terrific, and I just really appreciate Mr. Martin being such a great sport here.
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Hey, besties. Welcome to Eastery where we serve looks. And lunch. I'm your principal, Mr. Martin, and today I'm taking you on a tour that's busted respectfully. Let's wrap. Flex on all the haters in the weight room. Our students don't skip leg day or class period. The barn is where it's at. Stack up on East Drip in that bold, blue and orange. Plus all the spirit wear. You need to stay repping hard with your fit on point.
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Go touch grass out in the courtyard. Don't be sleeping on this chance to soak up the sun during lunch. Low key, obsessed with the food capture table. Be a real one and drop off your UNE food here. How many letters are end of our, you won't drip on a budget, say less. Come to the thrift store to pick up a fit that will give you plus 1000 oral points. Food's down. The Bronco market is my Roman empire. The grub is delicious and affordable. Hashtag free theater has been straight fire lately, drama band and chorus are all slaying every performance. This is the eSports room where our gaming team full of sweats, collaborate. Strategize and bring home the dumps. Jess. Here we have the Google rooms where you and your fam can escape the brain, right, and work together peacefully, no cap. So you about to cook or get cooked on your next test.
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Cooking.
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I'm in my self-care era. The wellness space is super demure, super mindful. Come on in. For support groups, breathing and straight vibes want to lock in on your future college and career room is getting academic chance. Whether you're clocking tea or sipping on it, the Bronco place is the perfect area to hang with. Homies, catch me spending my whole paycheck on coffee. When you're feeling pressed or even shook, these chat rooms are the perfect place to get in your fields.
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If you know
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I'm a full-time Bronco's care stand, catch me clocking volunteer hours like it's my nine to five I high key. Love when we help out a school like this. Okay, sigmas, we're nearing the end of our tour. Mad props to you for following me along all of your Bronco loves got me shook. Stay rizzy, Mr. Martin out. Stay repping hard with your feet. Fit on wellness space is super demure. Super. How do you say that word makes no sense. Okay,
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I do that again, we got to do that again. Alright, so kudos to Mr. Barton of East Forsyth High School for being just a great sport and playing along with students who wrote him. I'll say a very challenging script and hopefully everybody had a great time. If you have other stories like this, send them my way and I'll feature them on an upcoming episode of the Edgy Leadership Show. If you'd like to learn more about teacher evaluation, I want to encourage you to join me for the Evidence-Driven Teacher Evaluation Certification program. This is a program that you'll find is compatible with any teacher evaluation system and process, but that focuses on evidence and focuses on professional growth through conversation. So if you're interested in having a greater impact through the teacher evaluation work that you do without having to redesign your process, check that out at Principal Center dot com slash evaluation. That's it for this episode of The Edge of Leadership Show. I'm Justin Bader and I'll see you next time. You can subscribe for full episodes@eduleadership.org.
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