Kudos

Today my instructional aide had her formal evaluation by our principal. Before I proceed any further, I have to say that I have grown to like (and dare I say respect) our principal. He is very supportive of our program, even though he doesn't understand all aspects of it. So back to my aide's evaluation. For some weeks now, I kept expecting to be asked about her job performance, or sent a survey to fill out, or something of the sort. Apparently, my input wasn't needed because she was called into the office to be "evaluated". I wondered to myself what information he was going on (he rarely makes unannounced visits into our classrooms--okay, he never visits). When she came back, she said it went okay. When another aide from our program dropped by our classroom during recess, she shared that she had also had her evaluation today. Both aides got their evaluation sheets out and compared the two. They started laughing. A lot. I went over to see what the big deal was...

Lo and behold--both evaluations were IDENTICAL. All the same numbers were circled. The typed "personal comments" were even the same on both sheets word for word!! I thought it was pretty funny, but it also made me kinda mad. I wouldn't like to be thought so little of that the principal can't even come up with original comments or ask for the input of the classroom teacher! Oh well. What counts is that I know I have the BEST aide I could possibly have asked for. She's a natural with the kids, she works hard, and she goes above and beyond the call of duty in every way!! I've been so blessed...