Teaching is hard. Being a principal is hard.

By now, you’ve probably seen the Rand Corporation study that says that 73% of teachers are dealing with job-related stress. If you work in schools that may seem normal to you. But when you consider that an average of 35% of employees from other industries report undue job-related stress, such findings put the pressure-cooker of schools into perspective.

Even more troubling, in the same study, 85% of school principals said their jobs are overly stressful.

Site-based leaders are responsible for helping educators build confidence, improve their skills and deliver great teaching. That’s not easy to do, especially when you’re playing catch up.

Former Boston principal, researcher, author and founder of the Marshall Memo Kim Marshall suggests one way to reduce stress levels and lower the temperature for both teachers and principals lies in your ability to rethink the traditional teacher supervision, coaching and evaluation process.

“Traditional teacher evaluations aren’t effective when it comes to building rapport, building trust and improving teaching and learning. The process is overly formal and official and bureaucratic — that just creates more stress,” says Marshall on a recent episode of The RocketPD Podcast.

Rather than conduct teacher evaluations in bunches at the end of year, complete with long write-ups, Marshall proposes shifting to a series of mini-observations, consisting of short, more frequent, face-to-face meetings. These meetings might last 10-15 minutes each, and occur 10 times throughout the year. As opposed to a long four-page writeup and appraisal of the teacher’s skills, the principal might compose a short 150-word evaluation at the conclusion of each meeting to put in the teacher’s file.

By slicing and dicing the teacher evaluation process, Marshall says principals are able to free up time to meet on a more regular basis with teachers. Where it once took maybe four hours to do a single traditional evaluation, a single mini-observation could be completed and delivered in 30 minutes.

Tease that timeline out: As many as eight mini-observations could be conducted in the same time that it would take to conduct one traditional teacher evaluation.

The thinking goes that shorter, more frequent observations can be used to build rapport and confidence, while giving classroom educators advice and feedback they can use to help students during the year. It also frees up principals to focus on their core objective: delivering quality teaching and learning in their schools.

Of course, the traditional teacher evaluation system is well-entrenched. We know getting teachers and other staff to adopt a new process isn’t always easy, or even possible. So, if you’re a principal or a school-based leader, where to even start?

Here’s what Marshall and others who advocate for these changes in schools suggest out of the gate:

Start small (with a few teachers)
Not everyone likes change. But, when people see the benefits of change, word quickly spreads. Identify a handful of teachers to test your mini-observation possess with. Get their feedback and ask them to communicate their honest anxieties with you ahead of time. Encourage them to give the process time and observe how their opinions change as you start to have more productive face-to-face meetings about genuine teaching and learning in their classrooms. As support for the initiative grows, roll it out wider. Keep in mind: this system of mini-observations would replace entirely the old teacher evaluation process, except in rare instances where teacher dismissal or discipline in a question, at which point something more formal may be necessary.

Aim for two observations a day
As a principal, the thought of conducting as many as 10 observations and face-to-face interviews with each teacher, might initially feel daunting. Rather than focus on the end number, try to aim for two observations per day, with the knowledge that there’ll be days when none happen at all. As you get into a cadence and work these meetings into your routine, Marshall says, you’ll soon find that the different interactions give you energy and get you out into classrooms, creating more time for conversation, relationship-building and face-to-face leadership as opposed to administrative work.

Focus on one coaching point
Because, as Marshall states, with min-observations “you’re going to get more at bats,” meaning more meetings with teachers, a single observation doesn’t need to be all-encompassing, or wide ranging. Use this as an opportunity to focus on one coaching point observed during the lesson and really drill down to provide examples and ideas, giving your teachers and staff something they can turn around and use to help their students, or deliver a concept differently the next time around.