The TAP System

September 2012

Kathy Brown

Leadership and Cluster Meetings:

  • Each site has a weekly Leadership meeting that focuses on one of the following areas: Data, Cluster or Evaluation. Each individual site has their own focus based on where their specific needs are at that time.
  • Each site has Cluster meetings for all their teachers focusing on the rubric indicators and descriptors. Teachers are guided on what each descriptor means and how it should look in the classroom. Each site is focusing on a different indicator but all will have taught the rubric by the end of the first semester.

Master Teachers:

  • Master teachers have been involved in weekly, day long training all month each Friday. They have learned about the Common Core for ELA and math, analysis of data and benchmarks for the pretest and differentiated training. As time has allowed we have talked about different areas of concern and shared ideas the master teachers have brought up. The major emphasis has been on the cluster meeting planning and best practices to use each week in their meetings.
  • Master teachers have been doing support follow up visits to teachers’ classrooms. Some have done demonstration lessons and modeling too. The master teachers have been working hard to establish themselves as a support person for the teachers. It does take time for people to see and believe this is a supportive system.

Mentor Teachers:

  • Mentor teachers are involved in the leadership and cluster meetings. They have been providing follow up visits as their time allows. Since they teach full time, they are learning how to balance their classroom needs with the mentor responsibilities.

Training:

  • The district leadership team has been involved in the final two days of evaluation training. The afternoon of the second day consisted of everyone taking the certification test. We were at a higher level of questions as we went through the training which demonstrated our greater understanding of the rubric and evaluation process. The team was commended more than once by our trainer, Teddy, regarding our focus and hard work. He could tell we were committed to the system and wanted to learn. Although he stressed we would only get better as we continued working with the system. It was evident we wanted to know everything right away.