A (sort of) informal observation

Yesterday morning when I came into school I saw a memo in my box stating that I was going to be informally observed during fifth period and to have a lesson plan on hand for "perusal". I noticed it was dated a few days before and asked the principal when on Friday she had put it in my box since I check it several times a day and did not see it. She said that she put it in on Saturday. I told her that I have lunch during that period so couldn't we do it tomorrow? She said it HAD to be done today. I told her that the only afternoon classes I had were the 4th graders who were taking a science test and the 8th graders who were finishing up writing an essay that they've been working on for weeks so there is no lesson plan. She said she would just look at the original lesson plan for that day and not to worry since it was just an informal observation anyway.

So, she came in 8th period and I had my lesson plan out with a post it note giving her some more background on the lesson and all of the chart papers posted that we had created that day. By some small miracle all of the 8th graders were actually working to revise when she came in. She watched the lesson for about twenty minutes and when class ended she asked if she could have the copy of the lesson plan.

Today she comes by my room asking me to sign some papers. I say, "OK. What am I signing?" She says that they're my observation reports but don't worry I'll like what she wrote. After class I read the report and I got an "S" and all of the comments she put down were really good. She used my lesson plan to explain what had gone on in the original lesson and that she actually observed me in the conferencing portion of the lesson. Under "area of improvement" she said she would order me some thesauri so that the 8th graders can use them in the revisions of their essays.

So I guess I can't complain that I was sort of tricked into an observation since she really liked my lesson.