We had lots of new faces at the TAGAC meeting last night. I'll post the minutes when they're approved, but here's a quick recap of Director of Instruction Kimberly Matier's presentation -
-The TAG Coordinator role will no longer be primarily clerical. Clerical responsibilities have been shifted away to other staff. The TAG Coordinator will attend five mandatory professional development meetings on how teachers are expected to meet TAG students' learning rate & level needs in the classroom. The meetings will be Sept. 26, Oct. 24, Jan. 23, Feb. 27 and April 24. The information will be shared with all teachers at staff meetings. The TAG Coordinator will also help teachers write individual instructional plans.
-Final approval of TAG enrichment budget items - which are now totally separate from the TAG Coordinator budget - now rests within the TAG department. Since these are TAG funds, schools are not supposed to use the funds for general schoolwide enrichment/clubs as they have in the past. If schools neglect to use the funds, which has been a problem over the past four years, they will lose control over how to direct the money.
-Schools have until Oct. 30 to plan how they will use their TAG enrichment budgets. Kimberly Matier has negotiated attractive group rates with Saturday Academy and OMSI for differentiated group instruction, which can happen during the school day. I'll post the menu of class choices as soon as I have a digital copy. TAG-identified students and students working at the appropriate rate/level & nominated by teachers can participate.
-The acceleration policy for math and for english language arts will be posted on the TAG website this Friday.
-TAGAC Communication head Brenda Ray Scott is now able to make changes to the PPS TAG website, which should result in a more user-friendly and updated site.
That's it for now - please email me or Virginia LaForte if you have any questions or ideas about TAGAC. Your child's teacher is the best point of contact for individual instructional rate/level and individual TAG plan questions. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment