Welcome Packet and Program Overview
Compass Alternative Certification Teacher Academy welcomes you! We are happy to offer you the opportunity to become an effective teacher in Dallas ISD. Our program is designed to prepare effective teachers for Dallas ISD students. Through intensive training and support, we produce a pipeline of effective teachers to reduce district vacancies and place quality teachers in critical need areas. Our training model is designed to prepare you for campuses and students that need you most andwho often start school behind and struggle to catch up.
While enrolled in the program, you will teach under a probationary certificate, an initial certification issued by the Texas State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC).The probationary certificate allows you to teach full time while working towards earning your standard Texas EducatorCertificate.
As part of a large urban district, our teachers acknowledge and accept the immense challenges of poverty but reject its limitations. They believe that every lesson has the power to inspire, every minute in the classroom is precious, and every student can achieve. Therefore, they hold all students and themselves to high expectations and pursue excellence in everything they do.
Please remember that your payment of $370 for pre-service training is due when you arrive at orientation. This payment must be made in the form of a money order or cashier’s check. If you are unable to make this payment at this time, you will be allowed to sign a document to defer this payment to be taken out of your paycheck in one lump sum.
How We Get There
Of course, it is never easy to defy the odds, and great teaching does not happen overnight. We begin to approach this challenge as soon as you enter our program. Our training program is established on a three-pronged approach:
- Field Experience/Practice Teaching includes the opportunity to work directly with strong, experienced Dallas ISD mentor teachers, campus staff and students in a “gradual release” model of owning the lessons and the classroom over the course of your 7 week training; gives you the field experience as a teacher of record during your candidateship.
- Targeted coaching includes four specific coaching actions that your effectiveness coordinator will perform to prepare you to maximize instructional time, to effectively deliver the content your students must learn, and to keep your students engaged and focused on meeting high academic and behavioral expectations.
- Direct training/skill building during pre-service training, focuses on the foundational skills needed to ensure effectiveness, and during candidateship focuses on intermediate and advanced skills needed to sustain effectiveness. These session are practice- (not theory) based and employ the most innovative and effective strategies for adult learning.
Fieldexperience/Practice teaching
During pre-service training, you will spend time in the classroom with actual Dallas ISD students. Daily, you will work on a Dallas ISD campus and closely interact with campus staff and an assigned mentor teacher in a classroom. The focus of this time is to provide you with opportunities to practice the skills you acquire during direct training/skill building sessions and to implement the plan for immediate use. Along with other Compass candidates, you will work to gradually own teaching sessions with students while getting real-time coaching and feedback from your support system.
During your candidateship, as the teacher of record, you will be assigned your own classroom in Dallas ISD. Daily you will work to implement all of the skills mastered and learned during pre-service training and your ongoing training sessions. Your ultimate goal is to effectively teach students to improve academic achievement.
Targeted Coaching[MDS1][MDS2]
To support you in developing your skills, we have identified four core coaching actions that your assigned effectiveness coordinator will use to directly impact your progress and success. These coaching actions are:
- Analyzing data in the field
- Utilizing in-lesson strategies
- Maximizing teacher-effectiveness coordinator interactions and
- Strategically prioritizing and planning
These core coaching actions lay the foundation for the knowledge, skills, and mindsets our effectiveness coordinators possess and exhibit to be successful in their role. The graphic below translates these coaching actions into the cycle of coaching, and outlines what you should expect from your effectiveness coordinator[HME3].
Direct Training/Skill Building
You willhave a lot to learn throughout this training program especially within the first seven weeks. Therefore, you will begin learning new skills on the first day of pre-service training and continue to learn throughout your candidateship year. In order to maximize the learning time available, direct training/skill building sessions during pre-service training will focus on the most essential skills needed to become an effective teacher and will build a non-negotiable culture of practice, immediate feedback, and adjustment. Direct training/skill building session during your candidateship will focus on intermediate and advanced skills while assisting you with maintaining mastery of the foundational skills.
Each direct training/skill building session will follow a standard format. This allows you to exercise a sense of ownership as you become familiar with the format and begin to predict expectations and outcomes while developing a deeper sense of trust and reliability between you, the training instructors, and your training classmates.
In these sessions, instructors facilitate learning and skill development by using session plans that are structured around the following stages of instruction. The objective of each stage is outlined below:
- Introduce: Activate prior knowledge of the technique, set a purpose for learning the technique, and identify areas in which this technique directly impacts student achievement.
- Model and Describe: Observe and analyze each component of the technique through both video and live demonstrations and models of the technique. Guiding questions facilitate discussion.
- Practice:Practice is the primary focus of skill-building sessions: repeatedly practicing techniques, building muscle memory, and internalizing and critically thinking through techniques and their uses. We employ active and metacognitive practice exercises. Our principles of practice allow you to receive feedback from coordinators and peers to make necessary adjustments immediately.
- Plan:Prepare to implement the technique in your classroom the very next day. Critically think through your lesson and insert the appropriate techniques at the appropriate places in the lesson. Develop the skill of aligning the placement or sequential order of the technique within the lesson with the appropriate content or subject matter for the technique. Planning provides an additional opportunity for metacognitive practice and supports your further internalization and repeated use of each targeted technique.
Pre-Service Training: An Overview
Ourseven-weekSummer Learning Lab pre-service trainingprogram is the heart of your development experienceand is designed specifically to ensure mastery of foundational teaching skills before you enter the classroom.
In the mornings, you willget practice teaching experience by teaching in a summer schoolLearning Lab classroom in Dallas ISD schools. You will be observed by effectiveness coordinatorswho will assessyourperformance to ensure that you are continually building proficiency in the foundational skills and who will provide in class coaching and lesson development to support your consistent growth.
In the afternoons, you will learn and practice teaching techniques that foster rapid development of the foundational skills. You will also benefit from personalized skill-building and responsive-coaching sessions that are tailored to address your high-priority development needs.
Day in the Life
No two days of Summer Learning Lab will be identical, and the same will be true when you are the teacher of record in your very own classroom. As such, we have outlined a day in the life of a Compass candidates below. Not only will your days be full, but you will be so mentally engaged, that they will be taxing. Please anticipate and make plans to accommodate very long and rigorous days during your seven-week Summer Learning Lab pre-service training. Stamina and perseverance are two very important qualities of an effective teacher, and this “boot camp” style of training will prepare you to effectively execute your school days upon entering your candidateship year.
Mornings will be spent at your assigned campus; afternoons will be spent at your assigned training site.
Division 2 / Division 5•Mills Elementary School
•OW Holmes Middle School
•Roosevelt High School** / •Seagoville North Elementary School
•Seagoville Middle School**
•Seagoville High School
** Pre-Service Training Site
Each morning, you will report to your campus and begin your classroom experience. While in your assigned classroom[MDS4] you will be responsible for one of the following roles:
Each afternoon, [HME5]you will report to the assigned training location to attend direct training and skill building sessions designed to help you firmly ground and master prioritized skills. Practice is the foundation of all direct training/skill building sessions.
7:30 a.m. / Sign-in @ campus
8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. / Summer Learning Lab/Field Experience
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. / Compass Planning and Preparation Period
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. / Lunch Break
2:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. / Training Session at assigned training site
Time / Task
7:30 a.m. / Sign-in @ campus
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. / Compass Planning and Preparation Period
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. / Summer Learning Lab/Field Experience
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. / Lunch Break
2:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. / Training Session at assigned training site
Evaluating Your Pre-Service Training Performance
In order to successfully complete pre-service training, be recommended for a probationary certificate, and move into your candidateship, you will be evaluated for readiness. The Compass pre-service training evaluation will be based on data from your classroom observations, demonstration of both essential traits and assessment of training performance. You will need to meet all program requirements for recommendation to begin teaching. The graphic below shows the components you must pass to successfully be recommended to begin your candidateship year as a Dallas ISD teacher of record[MDS6][HME7].
Essential Traits
Of course, great teachers are also consummate professionals, and you must exhibit professional attitudes and behaviors to be successful in our program and as a new teacher. We call these behaviors “Essential Traits[MDS8][HME9],” and failure to consistently demonstrate these traits may result in removal from our program without earning certification:
- High Expectations: You believe that you can become an excellent teacher and lead high-need students to high levels of academic achievement, including students with disabilities and those below grade level.
- Application of Feedback: You seek and incorporate feedback to rapidly improve.
- Critical Thinking: You make sound judgments and generate multiple solutions to challenges.
- Professionalism:You are reliable in meeting commitments and deadlines, complying with program and district policies, showing professional oral and written communication skills, and interacting professionally with others.
Orientation June 8, 2015 – June 12, 2015
We look forward to welcoming you to the Compass Alternative Certification Program. Prior to starting Summer Learning Lab pre-service training, you must attend Compass orientation, which is organized by the program as an in-person event. The in-person orientation is scheduled for June 8, 2015 beginning at 8 am. Our orientation will be hosted at:
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School
525 Bonnie View Rd, Dallas, TX 75203
(972) 925-6800
Orientation consists of very specific learning objectives and an outline of clear expectations for pre-service training, the performance screening and program requirements, district and campus resources, expectations and participant evaluation. Below is the schedule for our orientation week.
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
9:00 a.m.– 11:00 p.m.
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. /
- Breakfast
- Compass Pre-Service Training Kick Off
- Training Overview
- Getting to know Dallas ISD
(8-11)
- HCM Processing
- New Hire Experience
- Technology Training
Lunch / Provided (12-1) / On Your Own / Provided (12 -1) / TBD by Campus
1:00pm – 5:30 p.m. /
- Training Modules
Kick Off @
Molina High School
2355 Duncanville Rd
Dallas, TX 75211
12:30 – 4 PM /
- New Hire Experience
- Technology Training
If you need further assistance or haven any additional questions, please contact us at
[MDS1]DP will update coaching cycle graphics to read effectiveness coordinator instead of coach
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