April 28, 2025
It’s our second year back, and I am proud to announce that 24 Fellows completed the TIFT program—a 33% increase from last year! Our Fellows come from several grade levels and school sites, with 6 elementary schools represented, 5 middle schools, and 6 high schools. Twelve of our Fellows are mid-career and veteran teachers at TPS, 7 are in their first three years of teaching in the district, and the remaining 5 are new to the district. Suffice it to say, this year’s TIFT Fellows make up a diverse and representative cohort of teachers in the district.
As a former teacher, I know that there is no more demanding job than teaching public school. Teachers routinely report that they work over 50 hours a week. And so, teacher time is an incredibly sparse and valuable resource. We’re honored that so many educators are dedicated to improving their craft with us. I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Fellows for giving us your time by collaborating with colleagues in seminars, researching for your units, and writing and refining your ideas.
It’s this time investment, after all, that makes TIFT a unique and worthwhile professional development opportunity. The very process of sitting down to write, slowing down your thinking and weaving it together with credible research is what helps our Fellows develop the expertise necessary to teach something fully and to teach it well. I sincerely hope that this program not only gives Fellows a well-developed unit they can be proud of, but a template for what the best practices for course preparation look like. At its best, our program translates to habits of teaching that emphasize research, planning, and writing before beginning to teach.
As the school year comes to a close, my job is just getting started. In the coming weeks I’ll read through each unit, formatting and editing them to make sure they are ready to be uploaded in our curriculum unit database. Here they will be available for other teachers to use and embrace in the upcoming school year and beyond.
For me, it’s this process that is the most rewarding because I get to see all the hard work that has been put into each unit. I can feel the confidence in the writing, the focus of the ideas, and the well-developed sequence of learning that each Fellow has forged for their students. It really is incredible what teachers can do when given the time and resources to develop rigorous, engaging, and standards-aligned curriculum for their students.