Administrators: Use iPad to Fill Out Teacher Observation Forms

This past weekend I researched some ways for administrators to assess their teachers with iPads to make the process smoother and easier for them. I found two methods for administrators to document their findings during observations: Google Forms and Pages.

The observation form included the teacher standards from the Virginia Dept. of Education (2012). The form was divided into 7 sections, each including a teacher standards and its benchmarks. 

[I would like to note that the iPad’s Google Drive app does not currently allow tables to be edited so it is not a good option yet. I am sure Google will update the app to a version that will have this feature.]

Pages on the iPad: This method allows you to quickly fill out the observational forms and share it with teachers. 

1. Recommend using your iMac or Macbook to create the document (Tables are great for creating checkboxes)


2. Email the document to your iPad (if you have iCloud, you will not need to do this)


3. Open the document using Pages 


4. Duplicate the document and rename the document (ex. David Lee Observation Form)


5. After completing the form, share document via email to the teacher

Google Forms: This method is best if you want to collect observational data, but will not communicate the results to the teachers.  

1. Create text questions for the name of the teacher and observation date


2. Add two sets of checkbox questions for each teacher standard (one set for completed standards, and the other for incomplete)


3. Provide paragraph section for each teacher standard.

Below shows an image of the “results” from my form. As you can see, it groups all your results into one Google Spreadsheet document which makes it difficult to share with individual teachers. You would not be able to share this information individually, unless you copy and paste each teacher’s results into an email, which would be tedious. 

Below is an image of the option to see your data in bar graph form. As you can see the “teachers” who were evaluated demonstrated the first 3 benchmarks masterfully, but didn’t do well with the other 5 benchmarks.