WEBVTT

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My name is Nancy Pulkrabek. I teach first
grade at Laura MacArthur Elementary School

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in Duluth, Minnesota.

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My name is Rhonda Erie. I teach fifth grade
at Laura MacArthur Elementary in Duluth, Minnesota.

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Pulkrabek: Our principal Nathan Glockle comes
in and does walkthroughs. And, of course,

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we never know when they’re going to happen.
And they’re strictly observations and they’re

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strictly to help us be better teachers. I
appreciate his walkthroughs. He comes in and

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sits down and watches and listens to what
we’re doing. He focuses in on “home runs”—that’s

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what he calls them. What are we doing great?
He asks some questions of us, wondering what’s

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happening if he doesn’t understand what
we’re doing and why we’re doing it. And

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then the last thing he does is, he puts down
some things for us to reflect on, how we could

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do this better, or some questions to say,
“What do you think you could do when so

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and so does this in your class?” Or “How
do you think you could do that in a better

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way?” So, basically, when he does a walkthrough
he leaves us some feedback. He leaves for

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a little while, fills out his feedback sheet,
and then leaves it with us.

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Erie: I totally appreciate the feedback sheet,
which is so helpful, because as long as we’ve

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been teaching we’ve always been told: reflect,
reflect. And we do with ourselves. I mean,

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I can say, “How could I have taught that
better?” But when you have somebody that

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you respect that comes in, and can just get
a snippet of what you’re doing and just

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give you ideas. So, it’s things that he
just notices; that we’re so busy during

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the day that things you maybe don’t really
think about. So, they’re very, very helpful.

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Pulkrabek: It’s good for us to look at for
ourselves. “Hmm, he was wondering that.

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I’m wondering why I did that, too.” But,
of course, we like the pat on the back, the

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homers, and I like the reflection piece of
it. It’s very good information. He bases

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a lot of it on our practice profiles to see
if we are practicing what we’ve been talking

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about, and to make sure that we’re teaching
the way that the kids are going to learn.

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Erie: I think our students deserve to get
the best teachers in Duluth. They deserve

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that. And walkthroughs are one piece of me
becoming a better teacher. There are so many

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things I can learn, there are so many things
I can do better. And I have learned a ton

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from my principal. And that’s because of
walkthroughs.