Empowering Leaders

Professional Development

Slaton High School

2021-2022
 Criteria
Instructional Leadership Organizational Leadership Professional Leadership

Developing Pre and Post Leading PLC Meetings Serving on District Assessment
Assessments Committees

Developing Effective Instructional Serve as District Teacher Present Professional

Units Evaluator Development

Mentor Teachers Serve on Interview and “other” Participate in district-level

Committees (Textbook, Beginning of Year Orientation

Field Test Instructional Strategies Evaluate Writing and LIteracy Seek out New Professional
Across Content Development

Conduct Model Lessons Collaborate on Master Schedule Lead Cohort Meetings

Serve on District Instructional Present at District Instructional Facilitate Vertical Alignment

Team Team Meetings Trainings/Planning

The new Teacher Leadership Model Standards defines school leadership by giving a
variety of roles and responsibilities a teacher leader would have to undertake. This list
is not complete but contains areas of leadership currently offered at Slaton High
School. To be an instructional leader would be what we call a Mentor Teacher. The
mentor teacher would assist in developing the pre and post assessments given each
9 weeks, develop effective, research-based instructional units utilizing the
instructional strategies focused on for the year, mentor other teachers which includes
doing their evaluations and walkthroughs, field testing instructional strategies in order
to define critical attributes, conduct model lessons in which teachers come and watch
a new strategy being taught effectively and serve on the District Instructional
Leadership Team where we come together several times a year to discuss the impact
of our chosen strategies and framework on overall student success. To be an
organizational leader would mean to be a campus Master Teacher. A campus Master
Teacher will lead Cluster and PLC meetings (they may lead Mentor Teacher to lead
the PLC meetings but the planning and vision will come from them and that team),
serve as a District Teacher Evaluator and work with mentor teachers to calibrate
before actual observations begin, evaluate writing and literacy across all content
areas in order to evaluate our literacy goals on the Campus Improvement Plan,
collaborate with principal to create master schedule and present trainings and data at
the District Instructional Team Meetings. Moving up to becoming a Professional
Leader, this would be an Instructional Dean or Associate Principal of Instruction. This
role would include being able to serve on District Assessment Committees as the
lead, present professional development district-wide, develop beginning of the year
new teacher and returning teacher instructional professional development after
seeking out professional development, lead cohort meetings to discuss data and
facility trainings and planning for vertical alignment teams. Each of these roles and
responsibilities include the, “knowledge, skills, and competencies teachers need to
become leaders in their schools, districts and profession (Levin and Schrum, 2017).
WIth that being said, these are the things we are looking for when we are going through
the process of choosing effective leaders for our campus.
 Process
Interview Selection/
Positions Posted Interview Deliberation
Selection Notification

Positions posted with All applications will be An interview would be District and Campus Once a selection is
their job description, reviewed and selected conducted in which the Leaders will meet to made, all candidates
role and candidates will be candidate will be asked discuss each position selected will be made
responsibilities as a notified of interview to lead us through candidate and how aware in person with a
member of the and process for what will make them a their leadership skills meeting with the
Instructional preparation which will good leader through would best serve the campus principal and
Leadership Team. All include a portfolio of their portfolio and what role they have applied district leadership. All
campus staff will be student data, their portfolio doesn’t for consideration. A other candidates will
made aware of the instructional strategies, say about them. A rubric would be utilized receive a phone call
posting and ability to evaluations, series of questions will to score each of the encouraging them to
apply through assessment samples be emailed to them roles and continue to strive for
appropriate avenue. and any other material prior to the interview. responsibilities and leadership and doing
they wish to provide. formal criteria. what is best for kids.

The above outlined process will be utilized to select campus leadership. (Read
through each step).
 Coaching Cycle

After being selected, all members of the Campus Instructional Team would attend a
training over our chosen instructional coaching cycle. This cycle would consist of an
Observational Planning Meeting (Pre-Conference). During this pre-conference we
would discuss what the teacher’s learning objectives and mastery objectives were for
the lesson. The observer would ask about what instructional strategy we have used
during Cluster would be utilized and how they would know if students mastered the
learning for the day. The observer would then conduct the actual observation where
they would document portions of the instructional rubric present during the lesson.
The lesson would be recorded with audio for reference before the post-conference.
The observer would then take all of the documentation and audio recordings and
complete a coaching for reflection meeting plan. This plan would include guiding
questions for the teacher in order to have them identify powerful learning moments
within the lesson and challenges the planning and implementation of the lesson
presented. The observer would share my reinforcement and refinement goal with
them and go over the one they wrote for themselves which would turn into an Action
Plan to be evaluated at the conclusion of the school year during their summative
conference. (TAP Career Teacher Handbook, 2017)
 Value of Coach Cycle

This is taken from the 2021 NIET TAP Summer Institute, and I felt it perfectly
articulate why we value a strong coaching cycle at Slaton High School. If we look at
the work we do as leaders as procedural, we are working on the surface level of what
the teaching is doing. Think of this as checking a box. Is their objectives posted. Who
cares if it aligns to anything, it’s there it counts. That is the farthest thing we want to
be away from. Schools that focus on just the teacher do not close achievement gaps.
Then we may see our work as conceptual. We are digging deep into the lesson and
what critical TAP rubric attributes are present. With this we are helping the teacher
understand how and what they are doing as we are focused on what the student is
learning and their work product. If I was to say right now where I think Slaton High
School is, we are conceptual. We have a very firm understanding of how to craft and
deliver great lessons. What we are trying to do this year in Cluster and PLC is move
into the Best Practice portion of our continuum work where we see that transfer and
sustainability in our coaching. Teachers and students see the ownership in their
learning where we focus on driving our instruction based on student work products
and data. We are focusing on how students learning informas our decision making
and that of teachers. We may assume all teachers know how to make data-based
decisions, but we cannot assume that. We must teach that. We are getting into the
analysis of understanding why we are intentionally planning and informing our
instruction to create a system change on our campus. (Chan & Griffis, 2021)
Feedback

The most important part of this whole coaching cycle is the opportunity for us to give
teachers qualify feedback. In order to give this qualify feedback, it must be focused
around a goal. At the beginning of the year, all teachers will set teacher goals and
student goals. Teacher goals will be instructionally focused on strategies and student
goals would be data focused on student work products and growth. We want to write
our feedback for our reflective post-conference based on those goals. Your feedback
should also be tangible and transparent. Tangible in the manner that it is measurable.
When teachers set their teacher and students goals, we use SMART goals that have
a measurable piece attached to them. Did 80% of the students in the class
demonstrate mastery at the end of the lesson? Transparent in the fact that it is
evident. I sometimes suggest that teachers watch or listen to their lessons used in
their observation to get those tangible and transparent moments when they thought
their explanations and strategies were clear. I also have them count how many level
1,2 and 3 questions they asked. Next, I have to ensure that my feedback is
actionable. Is it something they can take back to their lessons and directly impact
student learning. I want to keep this related to our instructional strategies and lesson
framework according to TAP. This is where the value of the feedback really shines
when I can make a direct connection back to the TAP rubric when providing feedback.
This is also a place to push exceptional teachers to those higher levels of the TAP
rubric. How can I push them to score a 5? Another way we can continue to give
quality feedback to our teachers is to make sure that it is user-friendly. If I am
coaching a teacher who is struggling with the basics of our lesson framework of Talk,
Read, Talk, Write, my user-friendly feedback would have to be at that implementation
level and not pushing toward evaluating student products for real-world connections
or exceptional inferences. We need to make sure to meet our teachers where they are
with giving instructional feedback. The feedback also needs to be timely. It is so vital
that we have teachers complete their self-evaluations and we complete our
evaluations within 24 hours of the observation with that post-conference within 2
days. If we want to impact student achievement, the feedback must be within the
scope of the lesson because we know how fast our scope and sequences run and if
we are giving feedback over equilateral triangles two weeks after a lesson was given,
I can guarantee that the lessons have progressed way beyond that concepts with no
intention of circling back. We have to get the feedback to them quickly. For our
feedback to be effective and teachers to see the value it must also be ongoing. That is
why we have teachers evaluate their teachers and student goals each 9 weeks. Once
they have a walkthrough and their formal evaluation, they are able to chart their
progress toward their goals. Finally, our feedback must be consistent. The important
work for that one starts early in the year in our cluster meetings when we identify the
critical attributes of an effective lesson and student work products. The language we
use must be consistent with what was set out at the beginning. We will also use that
common language throughout the year when we evaluate goals and conduct
post-conferences. (Wiggins, 2012)
 Implementation

Example 1:
1st Year Teacher
English/Language Arts
Grade 11

As an example of the implementation of this coaching cycle, let us think of a brand

new first year teacher. He or She teaches English/Language Arts Grade 11. To begin
our coaching cycle, we will have to meet with them in our pre-conference planning
meeting. Since they are a new teacher, I will tell them to bring everything they are
going to use to plan their lesson and a lesson plan according to the TAP rubric. During
this meeting, I want them to talk me through their lesson and together we will identify
all of the critical attributes of an effective lesson according to the TAP rubric and make
sure they have an excellent exemplar of their student work product (User-Friendly).
We will celebrate areas they have planned effectively for and work together to plan for
areas that need some beefing up according to the rubric. During their observation, I
will make sure to video and audio record the lesson. I will ask their to reference the
lesson when she is self-evaluating and scoring before our post-conference reflection
meeting (Tangible and Transparent). I will ask them to identify two major strengths
and two weaknesses after rewatching the lesson. During our post-conference 2 days
later (Timely), I will reference the rubric when identifying how they are scored on the
rubric and provide specific examples from the lesson. This could be scripted our
pointed out in the video recording. I would ask leading questions to help them place
themselves on the rubric in places they did not match with my score (Consistent). This
is where most learning about the rubric takes place because when we are just
learning about it in Cluster, we do not have the actual lesson feedback and student
work to learn from (Goal-Oriented). When we apply what we did and our students did
specifically to the rubic, teachers begin to better understand the tool (Actionable). I
will them leave her with a reinforcement goal and refinement goal with a tool. I will
specifically design an instructional piece for them to take to their classrooms the next
day if they so choose. I will follow up throughout the 9 weeks to see how the tool is
working through walkthroughs and informal conversations during Cluster (Ongoing).
 Implementation

Example 2:
16 Year Teacher
Art
Grade 9

As a 2nd example of the implementation of this coaching cycle, let us think of a

sixteen year teacher. He or She teaches Art to Freshmen. To begin our coaching
cycle, we will have to meet with them in our pre-conference planning meeting. Since
they are a experienced teacher, I will tell them to bring lesson plan according to the
TAP rubric and an exemplar of their student work product. During this meeting, I want
them to talk me through their lesson and together we will identify all of the critical
attributes of an effective lesson according to the TAP rubric (User-Friendly). We will
identify areas they have planned effectively for and work together to identify areas
they can move up the rubric to score a 4 or a 5 where it is lacking. We can brainstorm
but the planning will be on them to complete before the observation. During their
observation, I will make sure to video and audio record the lesson. Just ask with the
first year teacher,I will ask their to reference the lesson when she is self-evaluating
and scoring before our post-conference reflection meeting (Tangible and
Transparent). I will ask them to identify two major strengths and two weaknesses after
rewatching the lesson. During our post-conference 2 days later (Timely), I will
reference the rubric when identifying how they are scored on the rubric and provide
specific examples from the lesson. This could be scripted our pointed out in the video
recording. I would ask leading questions to help them place themselves on the rubric
in places they did not match with my score (Consistent). This is where most
experienced teachers can deepen their understanding of the rubric and what an
exemplary lesson looks like that was able to achieve their teacher and student goal
(Goal-Oriented). We will identify the strengths in the instructional tool we are focusing
on for the year and measure their student success against the campus expectation
(Actionable). I will them leave her with a reinforcement goal and refinement goal with
a tool. I will specifically design an instructional piece for them to take to their
classrooms the next day if they so choose. I will follow up throughout the 9 weeks to
see how the tool is working through walkthroughs and informal conversations during
Cluster (Ongoing).
 References
Chan, J., & Griffis, A. (2021). Pre- and Post-Conferencing Like a Champ. National Institute for
Excellence in Teaching.

Levin, B. and Schrum, L., 2017. Every teacher a leader. 1st ed. Corwin, p.9.

National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. (2017). TAP Career Teacher Handbook.

Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven Keys to Effective Feedback - Educational Leadership. Retrieved 3

June 2021, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept12/vol70/num01/Seven-Keys-to
-Effective-Feedback.aspx