Nope, it's not cheese. It's a metaphor to make sense of yet another rubric and set of standards to get one's head around.

Picture the man scratching his head. He is concentrating. He has studied the document before him and attended a training. His task? To observe student teachers in the State of Connecticut through the established rubric and assessment tool of Fairfield University.

Picture the man saying, "okay." The standards and objectives are smart, logical, and helpful to beginning teachers. They should be the aim for a neophyte and will be a nice base for offering feedback, recommendations, advice and compliments.

Now picture this man feeling rather smart about his interpretation of Connecticut's standards, but then give the man the assessment tool created by another mind for taking notes and filling in evidence for how each student meets the standards. Each student needs three observations and to show they are able to reach state objectives (applause applause) throughout the semester. Yet, the form for doing this is not the way this man's brain works.

Then picture this man wondering if this is the fault of New York State and Kentucky, who used different forms that seemed more logical to fill out (at least spatially).

And picture the man throwing in the towel for the evening ready to return to the university tomorrow with a 1001 questions. He will take ethnographic field notes when he supervises. He will then learn to take the way his 'block'head thinks and fit it into the round holes he's been provided.

Holy text, Batman!