1. Office of Human Resources
MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Rockville, Maryland 20855
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH SYSTEM
FINAL EVALUATION REPORT:
Teacher
INSTRUCTIONS: Evaluators complete a narrative description based on the following performance standards. The description includes
classroom observations, analysis and review of student results as described in the shared accountability system, contributions to overall school
mission and environment, review of student and parent surveys, and review of professional growth plans and implementation results, and any
other documents collected by the evaluator and/or the teacher during the full length of the cycle.
Teacher: Daniel S. Herschler Employee Number: 59505
Principal: Michael Doran Years of MCPS Experience: 9
Type: _____ First-year Probationary _____ Tenured (3-year cycle)
_____ with CT _____ without CT __X__ Tenured (4-year cycle)
_____ Second-year Probationary _____ Tenured (5-year cycle)
_____ Third-year Probationary _____ Special Evaluation
School: Wootton High School
Subject or Grade Level: Social Studies
Performance Standards:
I. Teachers are committed to students and their learning
II. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students
III. Teachers are responsible for establishing and managing student learning in a
positive learning environment
IV. Teachers continually assess student progress, analyze the results, and adapt
instruction to improve student achievement
V. Teachers are committed to continuous improvement and professional development
VI. Teachers exhibit a high degree of professionalism
Dates of Formal Observations: 01/11/12 05/02/12
Dates of Conferences: 01/17/12 (post) 05/01/12 (pre) 05/08/12 (post)
Final Rating: ( X ) Meets Standard ( ) Below Standard
Evaluator’s Signature______________________________________________ Date____________________
Principal’s Signature_______________________________________________ Date____________________
Teacher’s Signature________________________________________________ Date____________________
(Teacher’s signature indicates that the teacher has read and reviewed the final evaluation summary, not necessarily that
the teacher concurs with the contents. Teachers may choose to attach comments.)
MCPS Form 425-39 Rev. 9/02 DISTRIBUTION: COPY 1/Employee; COPY 2/Principal; COPY 3/Office of
Human Resources

2. Daniel Herschler is in his ninth year of teaching in Montgomery County Public Schools and fifth
year at Wootton High School. He previously taught at the middle school level, one year at
Banneker Middle School and three years at Farquhar Middle School. Mr. Herschler is currently
teaching three AP NSL classes and two Honors Modern World History classes.
Standard I: Teachers are committed to students and their learning
Mr. Herschler plans and delivers lessons that challenge students without overwhelming them.
He was helping students prepare for the semester exam and found a fun, interactive way for
them to test their current knowledge of the material. The scavenger hunt allowed and forced
the students to get up and move around, interact with many of their peers, and gain knowledge
by using their peers as resources. Instead of talking at the class, the teacher had the students
teach each other. Students were expected to have the scavenger worksheet completed. Once
completed, they were able to use the worksheet as another study guide for the exam. Students
in Mr. Herschler’s class did well on the semester exam. As a class the grade distribution was
the following: 5 A’s, 15 B’s, 4 C’s, and 2 D’s. Thus, students were able to master a challenging
curriculum with the appropriate accommodations, activities, and instruction. (01/11/12)
Mr. Herschler teaches students strategies for exerting effective effort, e.g. study skills,
knowledge, and use of resources. Students were expected to find information in the Scavenger
Hunt on their own and by using their peers as resources. At the end of class, he asked each
student to list three topics that was still confusing. The homework assigned to the students
was to actively think about the material and use the scavenger hunt worksheet to specifically
study. He stated to the students, “Specifically study tonight. I know you have priorities for
other subjects but this [scavenger hunt worksheet] helps you to be specific.” He talked with
the students at the end of class about how to organize their materials and what to bring with
them to class the next day. As a result, students are held accountable for meeting the
objectives of the class. (01/11/12)
Mr. Herschler effectively understands how students develop and learn.
• Mr. Herschler plans and delivers the lesson that challenged students without
overwhelming them. “We’re going to start with a pre-assessment; it’s not an actual
quiz; you may work with a neighbor… it’s not a quiz – it’s just an idea of what you
know…(after 5 minutes) lets go over this as a class”.
• Mr. Herschler motivates and inspires in all students the willingness to learn, self-
confidence, and perseverance when he engaged in a class discussion. “Emma? Okay,
good … Ralph, what do you think? Okay, yeah but remember socialism is communism
and the US was dumping money to overthrow leaders…”.
• Mr. Herschler uses differentiated assignments and learning activities that reflect high
standards for all students. “Today, we’ll start with a pre-assessment (not an actual
quiz); we’ll follow up with analysis and discussion; we’ll look at 2 case studies – Brazil
and Chile and watch some videos – one from the CIA and the other a music video. You’ll
answer some questions on those and we’ll discuss them after. Don’t forget you have
homework tonight – notes on China and India and a current events on Latin America”.
As a result, students are well prepared for the unit test. (05/02/12)
MCPS Form 425-39 Rev. 9/02 DISTRIBUTION: COPY 1/Employee; COPY 2/Principal; COPY 3/Office of
Human Resources

3. Standard II: Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to
students
Mr. Herschler anticipates student misconceptions, difficulties, and confusion and adjusts
instruction accordingly. He chose topics for the scavenger hunt that were important for the
students to master for the semester exam and some that were typically more difficult for
students to understand. He modeled for the students how to complete the scavenger hunt
instead of just turning them lose without any direction or modeling. Mr. Herschler stated, “I
will model the first one for you” and he did. He also set expectations on how the information
should be passed from student to student by saying, “Explain it to your peer; don’t do it for
them.” By having the students fill out the index cards at the end of class, the teacher was able
to plan for the next day. He took the students’ questions and used that information to create
the next day’s lesson. Instead of going over each item of the review, he focused the next day’s
lesson on areas of confusion for the class. As a result of the teacher’s planning skills, effective
instruction was focused on student mastery of curriculum goals. (01/11/12)
Mr. Herschler demonstrates subject area knowledge and conveys his knowledge clearly to
students.
• Mr. Herschler asks questions that are appropriate to the mastery objective. “Shoshana,
do you remember why the US was in Latin America in the 1970s?...is there a connection
between Chile and the USSR?...How are these countries different than what we studied
in India”?
• Mr. Herschler uses a variety of instructional materials, including technology. “We’re
going to look at a clip I found on YouTube. It is about Chile and it’s a clip from the
Secretary of the CIA….in your text, you’ll find a good timeline of Chile today….record
your answers on the ½ sheet I gave you”.
• Mr. Herschler links learning to real-life applications. “The next video on Brazil is really
cool; it is actually a music video not a boring ‘educational’ video. But, it has good
information on the Brazilian rainforest and how it is affected by political decisions”.
As a result, all students are able to engage fully in their learning experience. (05/02/12)
Standard III: Teachers are responsible for establishing and managing student learning in a
positive learning environment
Mr. Herschler promotes positive interpersonal relationships among students. As stated above,
he had the students complete an activity that was more fun for the students and encouraged
the students to interact with each other. When pairs of students met, he did not want them to
copy information off of each other’s papers; he wanted the students to explain things to each
other verbally. He stated to the class before they began the scavenger hunt, “You may not get
the information from me, yet. Tomorrow.” Mr. Herschler also told the students, “Only go to
the same person twice. I should see you up and moving around the room.” Once the class
started the activity, the teacher still saw students sitting at their desks. He encouraged them to
move by saying, “Wait. I still see people sitting” and then the students moved around.
Throughout the twenty-five minute activity, students were engaged and working with each
other to get the answers for the scavenger hunt worksheet. They shifted from one side of the
room to another and students read what the other students wrote before signing their papers.
The small groups formed never stayed the same which showed that students were moving
around to different students. Students were overheard discussing questions from the
worksheet; very rarely were the students’ conversations off-topic. Thus, the students were
MCPS Form 425-39 Rev. 9/02 DISTRIBUTION: COPY 1/Employee; COPY 2/Principal; COPY 3/Office of
Human Resources

4. involved in a meaningful learning activity and used each other as resources to gain knowledge.
(01/11/12)
Standard IV: Teachers continually assess student progress, analyze the results, and adapt
instruction to improve student achievement
Mr. Herschler uses a variety of formal and informal assessment formats and techniques.
At the beginning of class he asked the students to complete a short activator to get started.
Then, the students completed the scavenger hunt worksheet. The worksheet was collected by
the teacher the following day. The teacher circulated around the classroom as students were
completing the worksheet and listened to their conversations. At times he gave encouraging
feedback such as, “There you go! Something like that. Looks like you just defined it.” At the
end of class, he asked students to complete a summarizer. Each student wrote down three
topics that he/she found to be most complex or that he/she still had questions about. The
cards were used by the teacher to create the next day’s lesson for the exam review day. As
stated above, no student in the class failed the semester exam. Thus, the students are
continually assessed during the class period to help the teacher adapt instruction to improve
student achievement. (01/11/12)
Mr. Herschler uses a variety of formal and informal assessment formats and techniques.
Mr. Herschler engages in discussion with students to informally gage their progress. “Tammy,
can you answer number 3? I’ll give you a clue – 13 Days… good, remember the Organization of
American States….good, the answer is E” and has a formal assessment in the form of a
summative assessment a week later “Remember, your unit test is coming up on May 11th
”.
Mr. Herschler assesses student progress before, during and after instruction. “The
pre-assessment is not a real quiz – just finding out what you already know….for the video
analysis, make sure that you have thoughtful responses – when I collect them that will be
important….don’t forget your homework for tonight – I will be checking your answers
tomorrow”! Mr. Herschler makes adjustments to assessment to meet the needs of students.
When students seemed confused about the questions on the video about Chile, Mr. Herschler
reviewed some of the content before moving on rather than collecting without review as
previously planned. “Why would the CIA cooperate with another (terrorist0 group to
overthrow a socialist democracy?....so we thought that they weren’t democratic enough AND
they were talking about land redistribution and redistribution of wealth; what other countries
did this? …. Right, so what’s the connection between the USSR and Chile”? As a result, students
are able to master the objectives for the lesson. (05/02/12)
Standard V: Teachers are committed to continuous improvement and professional
development
Mr. Herschler analyzes the success of efforts undertaken during the professional growth years
of the cycle; initiates reflective conversations with PDP support system team, other peers, staff
development teacher (SDT), or supervisory staff. The reflection he wrote, below, is evidence to
this claim:
“It is part of my personal style and rather meticulous approach to the effectiveness of my
MCPS Form 425-39 Rev. 9/02 DISTRIBUTION: COPY 1/Employee; COPY 2/Principal; COPY 3/Office of
Human Resources

5. teaching that I often spend a lot of time scrutinizing and evaluating my own techniques and
strategies as an educator. Going through the process of an observation year has afforded me
several new opportunities to receive some important feedback from my colleagues and
supervisors, and then attempt to apply it to my work with the students.
For example, after my last observation from my department chair, Laura Parsons, we discussed
some methods to bring my students beyond merely participating and earning high marks in my
Honors Modern World History class. Often, my students in Honors World are taking notes,
completing their assignments, and performing well on assessments. However, that does not
always imply active engagement from students in the class activity. Laura and I discussed the
possibility of more frequently shifting from my style of direct instruction in Honors World to an
approach where I could apply more cooperative assignments and project in order to inspire
more active engagement from my students.
Ever since taking on Honors Modern World again last year, I was always interested in finding a
way to cover the vast amount of information, while also encouraging genuine interest from the
students in the subject matter. My tentativeness of pursuing a more interactive style in the
room had generally been a product of a fear that if I cut or minimized my lectures, then my
students wouldn’t get “enough”information, and consequently not perform as well on
summative assessments. Since Laura explained to me her own teaching style in her AP World
class, I feel much more confident that I would not be corrupting the material by taking a more
creative approach to instruction, but actually enhancing it.
Laura and I also discussed how to revise some of my organizational practices to make more use
of powerpoint, which actually appeals to me. I have already begun to reorganize many of my
lessons and lectures into powerpoint format, much the way I already do with my
AP Government classes. I am anxious to apply these practices throughout next year, since I will
have the rare opportunity to teach AP Government and Honors Modern World a second
consecutive year.”
As a result of his continuous reflection upon his practice, he is able to adjust instruction
accordingly that will be of benefit to the knowledge gained by students. (Portfolio, 05/02/12)
Standard VI: Teachers exhibit a high degree of professionalism
Mr. Herschler participates in required staff, team, committee, and department meetings along
with parent conferences. He has enthusiastically contributed to department and team efforts
to collaborate because he believes that it enriches his own instruction and provides continuity
across classes for students (especially important since our students generally switch from one
teacher to another at the end of a semester). The Modern World History team has worked
extremely well in a collaborative manner to create scores of assessments, review sheets, and
re-assessments based on many hours of reflective discussion about students’ capabilities, test
scores, and interests. Likewise, he has especially enjoyed working with the content team leader
because she incorporates a creative and innovative style in her classroom that Mr. Herschler
MCPS Form 425-39 Rev. 9/02 DISTRIBUTION: COPY 1/Employee; COPY 2/Principal; COPY 3/Office of
Human Resources

6. intends to integrate more into his own instruction model. While every teacher has their own
personal style that works best for their students, he firmly believes that it is essential to learn as
much as he can from his colleagues in order to grow as a professional and enhance his methods
and strategies. For instance, the content team leader gave Mr. Herschler a unique idea to begin
the Industrialization that he successfully modified and incorporated into his classroom simply
because he wanted to try something new with his students. Mr. Herschler finds that when he
can step out of his comfort zone into a creative area, his students are usually more inclined to
feel encouraged to do the same.
At a departmental level, the department members participated in a really useful and interesting
series of activities that encouraged them to observe their peers and evaluate examples of
engagement in the classroom. The general idea was to observe three different people, fill out
an analysis sheet (focusing on examples of engagement), turn the analysis sheet in, and then
discuss the feedback at the next department meeting. Mr. Herschler took the opportunity to
observe at least one course that he does not teach - an Honors NSL class. The other teacher’s
style of actively and continuously probing his students with thought-provoking questions
provided Mr. Herschler with feedback that he knows will be useful as he re-evaluates how he
wants to approach his Modern World History class next year in order to get his students more
personally invested in the subject matter.
Mr. Herschler stated the following: “I am fortunate enough to teach in a department and
school that encourages cooperation, collaboration, and individual professional growth and
development. During the next few years, I intend to take advantage of this environment in an
attempt to take more chances and step further outside the box (and my comfort zone) in order
to find new and innovative ways to make my students successful.”
Thus, Mr. Herschler understands and supports the vision of the school system and that has a
positive effect on students in his classes. (Portfolio)
Summary
Mr. Herschler plans and delivers lessons that challenge students without overwhelming them.
He teaches students strategies for exerting effective effort, e.g. study skills, knowledge, and use
of resources. Mr. Herschler effectively understands how students develop and learn.
Mr. Herschler anticipates student misconceptions, difficulties, and confusion and adjusts
instruction accordingly. He demonstrates subject area knowledge and conveys his knowledge
clearly to students. Mr. Herschler promotes positive interpersonal relationships among
students. He uses a variety of formal and informal assessment formats and techniques. Mr.
Herschler analyzes the success of efforts undertaken during the professional growth years of
the cycle; initiates reflective conversations with PDP support system team, other peers, staff
development teacher (SDT), or supervisory staff. He participates in required staff, team,
committee, and department meetings along with parent conferences.
MCPS Form 425-39 Rev. 9/02 DISTRIBUTION: COPY 1/Employee; COPY 2/Principal; COPY 3/Office of
Human Resources

7. MCPS Form 425-39 Rev. 9/02 DISTRIBUTION: COPY 1/Employee; COPY 2/Principal; COPY 3/Office of
Human Resources