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How 2gnoMe Saves Me Hours of Work!

By Dr. Mercia De Souza
Professional Development Coordinator

March 10, 2023

I am in a unique situation at my school when it comes to professional development. For my PhD dissertation, I developed a personal platform for professional development that we have been using at our school for 10 years. At the beginning and end of each year, our teachers evaluate themselves using the Danielson framework. Everyone is placed in a Professional Learning Community, managed by PLC leaders, of 5-6 people, and the PLC leader (referred to as a “master teacher”) discusses areas of improvement with the teacher.

Following this, each teacher completes three experimental lessons per year where they are required to use a new methodology, a new way of teaching, that will make them improve. It’s job-embedded professional development. If these experimental lessons work, we post them on a shared drive so that other teachers can use them as a resource and inspiration. Our teachers also peer review each other so that between peers, self-evaluation, and supervisor evaluations we can see any discrepancies.

Before I discovered 2gnoMe, as much as we liked our process, there were a few downsides. One was that the rubric allowed teachers to rate themselves in a way where they could easily mark themselves “distinguished” across the board. So, it would be a bit of a shock when the HOD observed them and handed out no “distinguished” marks. With the 2gnoMe platform, there’s no simple box for teachers to mark themselves “distinguished.” Teachers now have to mark what they’re actually doing in the classroom. They can’t just click “distinguished” (perfect teacher); they can’t just dismiss a question. They have to ponder their answers. It gives a much more realistic evaluation, because some teachers will always overestimate their skills, and others will always underestimate their skills.

Before the 2gnoMe platform, the word “evaluation” made teachers think, Oh, I better do well, so they’d sometimes score themselves higher than reality. Now the evaluations are practical and useful. As well, instead of teachers taking the evaluations home with them, where they were often set aside time and again, they all do the evaluations together in one space from computers. This helps create a collaborative and supportive atmosphere.

The second downside was that evaluations were completed on paper and the results were tracked in a Word document. Through 2gnoMe, what we had been keeping track of this way for 9 years we could now do online. Click, click, click … results for every domain! Before, comparing results required separate meetings for the teacher and PLC leader to review numerous documents. Now, each person can access results at any time. When I need to, I can immediately see what areas of support a teacher needs, and assign them specific resources for those needs. Essentially, we were already doing what the 2gnoMe platform now allows other administrators to do, but it was inefficient. 2gnoMe made it easier for us; it is a perfect marriage.

2gnoMe has put the cherry on top.

We now have a vehicle for us to easily see how teachers evaluate themselves, how their peers evaluate them, and how supervisors evaluate them. All the information is there, and they all have access to it. It’s an invaluable snapshot of the teacher from three different points of view.

Everyone involved in the program is very excited. 2gnoMe has saved hours of work for PLC leaders. It’s saved hours of work for me! Previously, at the end of the year, when I received all the Danielson rubrics, I only had time to complete spot checks for each teacher. There was no way I could look at everyone’s results. Now I can check everyone’s results because it’s all in one place. And it’s beautiful when, at the end of the year, we do the process all over again and see demonstrated improvement.

What we’d been doing for 9 years in a cumbersome way, all of a sudden came together. There is absolutely no way I would go back to the old way of doing things. For us, it’s a perfect fit.