Sometimes it's what we don't say.....

We talk so much about miscommunications that occur when we say the wrong thing or say too much, but have you ever had the experience of being misinterpreted by what you didn't say?  In using a new evaluation tool to observe teachers, we as administrators are tasked only to write specific evidence in what we observe-----not any interpretation of that evidence (just the facts, right?) in an effort to keep the subjectivity out of the evaluation and keep only the objectivity.  However, imagine how daunting it is to read the evidence as a teacher and wonder "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"  In other words, I think teachers (heck, all of us to be perfectly honest) want to be given feedback that is a bit subjective ----- something along the lines of "WHEN you said 'Bless you' to the child who sneezed, it seemed to indicate a feeling of rapport in the room".  It's hard to hear just the facts sometimes when it comes to our performance.  Maybe we just aren't used to rating ourselves on how we did and we're used to someone telling us "good job----keep working hard".  Maybe, just maybe, we can learn a little something from hearing