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TREC Teacher Leader Program — Cohort 5

August 6, 2024

TREC Teacher Leader Program —Cohort 5 (2024-2025)

The TREC Teacher Leader Program is a cohort-based opportunity for birth-12th grade educators to build key leadership competencies, create spaces to reflect on their instructional practices, and provide social/emotional support for their fellow teachers.

This program is a core feature of the Tucson Regional Educator Collaborative (TREC) — a partnership of Tucson-area schools, districts, community organizations, and the University of Arizona — and is designed to promote high-quality professional learning that is both made for and led by classroom educators.

We seek to build cohorts that reflect the diversity of identities and experiences present in the Tucson educator community, and consist of teachers who are, or are motivated to become, leaders in their schools and districts.

TREC Leadership Competencies

TREC recognizes that a Teacher Leader must develop competencies in the following areas to have an impact on their professional communities, and it is the work of this program to frame participants’ efforts in terms of the following areas:

  • Professionalism
  • Communication
  • Advocacy
  • Professional Learning

Learn more about the TREC Teacher Leader Competencies.

What do TREC Teacher Leaders do? 

The TREC Teacher Leader Program is a two-year commitment, with cohorts focused on identifying and addressing key professional learning needs for teachers in the Tucson region.

During year one of the program, teachers first work to build community within the cohort, develop communication skills, and explore different professional learning topics.

By year two, the cohort will have identified professional learning needs specific to Tucson teachers and works to meet those needs through a lens of professionalism and advocacy.

At the end of this two-year commitment, Teacher Leaders organize our culminating event, TRECTalks, an opportunity to showcase their development as a teacher leader and share what they have learned with other educators.  This can serve as a springboard for future opportunities across their respective schools and districts.

Click here to access the General Schedule for the TREC Teacher Leader Program.

There have so far been four cohorts of TREC Teacher Leaders:

  • Cohort 1 engaged in inquiry cycles with the goal of leading mini-inquiry cycles with teachers from throughout the region.
  • Cohorts 2 and 3 supported a variety of Communities of Practice (CoPs), including those centered on educator resiliency, trauma-informed teaching, languages of learning, visual art community, and leading while female.
  • Cohort 4 is facilitating CoPs on mentoring, math literacy, equitable grading, and educator emotional resilience.

Cohort 5 can continue these efforts or go in a different direction — either way this is for the Teacher Leaders to decide!

What are the commitments and responsibilities for TREC Teacher Leaders? 

The time commitment for TREC Teacher Leaders is approximately five hours/month and an additional 10-20 hours for TRECTalks.  The leaders will meet monthly between meetings to work on a variety of assignments.

The stipend amount for completing this program is $1,000 per year.  To receive this stipend, program participants must attend all scheduled meetings and collaborate with their cohort on the program’s different projects/assignments, including TRECTalks

The TREC Teacher Leaders will meet the first Tuesday of every month during the school year from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM, starting Tuesday, August 6, 2024.  Ideally, these meetings will occur in person, though virtual meetings may happen to accommodate participant availability.

Who should apply to the TREC Teacher Leader Program?

We are looking for 10 – 12 birth-12th grade teachers who have three or more years of teaching experience and spend at least 50% of their contract time teaching students in a classroom setting.

Please note: to access the Register/Apply button, you must be logged into the TREC website.  Educators in partner districts and early childhood teachers can create an account for free.  TVT is providing scholarships for Tucson regional educators who do not qualify for a free profile.

 Deadline extended!! Applications are now due Friday, March 29, 2024, at 11:59 pm.  For any questions, please email Alicia Durbin, TREC Project Coordinator, at adurbin@arizona.edu.

  • For questions regarding this resource, please contact Tucson Regional Educator Collaborative.
  • Contact Name: Alicia Durbin
  • Email Address: trecarizona@arizona.edu