Teacher Apprenticeship Program (TAP)

Through the Teacher Apprenticeship Program, LARC will provide teachers with opportunities and strategies to close cultural and communication gaps between them and students from different cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic backgrounds.

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Press Release (March 23, 2004)

The challenges of social and cultural change

The rapidly changing social and demographic environment of North Carolina is creating significant challenges for the state's teachers, students, and parents. In particular, immigration from Spanish-speaking countries is transforming North Carolina's communities and schools, creating a culturally and linguistically diverse social landscape that holds both new conflicts and new opportunities. North Carolina's teachers are working hard to adjust to these changes, but they often lack adequate resources, time, and skills to meet the challenges of a multicultural, multilingual student population. The Teacher Apprenticeship Program (TAP) is a paid professional development program designed to help teachers respond to these changes with increased knowledge, appropriate resources, energy, and creativity.

A way to respond: The Teacher Apprenticeship Program

The Teacher Apprenticeship Program is being offered by the Latin American Resource Center (LARC), a local not-for-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural communication through dialogue. The program will give a small group of teachers specialized training and a rich cross-cultural experience in partnership with students and their families from a low-income, culturally and linguistically diverse community in southeast Raleigh. Through TAP, teachers will develop an in-depth understanding of the social, economic, and cultural changes that are transforming central North Carolina; they will learn about resources and skills for cross-cultural communication; and they will develop specialized curricular strategies and resources to teach more effectively in a culturally diverse environment.

What is TAP?

Each year, LARC will select five teachers from Wake County middle and elementary schools to participate in the Teacher Apprenticeship Program. Each group of teachers will complete a two-year cycle of training, curricular development, and apprenticeship in LARC's neighborhood-based DIALOGO^TM Summer Academic Enrichment Program, followed by application of their specialized curricula in their own classrooms during the regular school year. The seven-week summer program begins with a three-week orientation and training period that includes lectures by specialists, discussions of social and cultural issues facing North Carolina teachers, and a series of both structured and informal social activities in which teachers interact with students and their families. At the heart of the training period is LARC's award-winning DIALOGO^TM program, a special arts-based workshop that facilitates communication about social and cultural differences.

During the training period, teachers will also develop goals, teaching materials, and lesson plans for an interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum that combines their own expertise with LARC's strategies for cross-cultural communication. They will test and adjust this curriculum in LARC's four-week Summer Academic Enrichment Program, which will take place immediately following the training period. Throughout the curriculum development and testing process, LARC staff and specially-trained student interns will assist and support the TAP teachers.

At the end of the seven-week summer apprenticeship, teachers will return to their schools to adapt their new curricula to the regular classroom environment. During the school year, they will participate in an ongoing communication network with other teachers, as well as parents and students, to maintain and deepen school-community connections. Teachers will also continue to meet with LARC to evaluate the TAP experience, refine their teaching strategies, and develop and share curricular materials.

What are the specific requirements and benefits?

The TAP program includes a total of 250 hours of professional development training, teaching apprenticeship, and program evaluation per year for two years. Teachers who are accepted to the program will be paid at a rate of $20/hour ($5,000/year) and will receive professional development credit from the Wake County Public School System. Participants are expected to attend all TAP orientation and training activities, some of which will be held on evenings or weekends to facilitate the participation of students and their families. The three-week orientation and training period is June 7 - June 26, 2004. Participants are also required to attend LARC's four-week DIALOGO^TM Summer Academic Enrichment Program, where they will teach using their newly-developed lesson plans. The Summer Academic Enrichment Program is held June 28 through July 31, 2004.

During the regular school year (August 2004 - June 2005), TAP teachers will participate in computer-mediated communication with other teachers, parents, and students. They are also expected to attend occasional follow-up discussions and evaluation activities. The curricular materials and resources developed during the Teacher Apprenticeship Program will become the property of LARC and will be disseminated to other schools in Wake County and around the state. Following their first year of TAP training and apprenticeship, returning TAP teachers will participate in a second seven-week summer program (June-July 2005) in which, in addition to furthering their own professional development, they will serve as peer mentors to a new group of first-year TAP participants.

Who is eligible and how do I apply?

Regular classroom teachers with at least two years of experience teaching middle school (grades 6-8) or upper-elementary (grades 3-5) in the Wake County Public School System may apply. Applicants should be highly motivated, open to cross-cultural encounters, and interested in developing new teaching strategies and curricular materials for a culturally and linguistically diverse student population. Applicants are not required to know any Spanish. ESL and Spanish language teachers are not eligible for the TAP stipend but are encouraged to contact LARC about other ways they may participate in the program.

All potential applicants are strongly encouraged to attend the TAP Information Session on Thursday, April 1st, 2004, at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Conference Room on the 2nd Floor of LARC headquarters in the Raleigh Business & Technology Center (900 South Wilmington Street, Raleigh). If you plan to attend the information session, please R.S.V.P. by March 30 (see contact information below). Those who cannot attend the information session should contact the LARC office by phone or email with any questions.

Completed applications and supporting materials must be received at the LARC office by 5:00 p.m. on April 30, 2004. Finalists will be interviewed during the first week of May, and those accepted will be notified by May 15.

For further information or to submit an application, please contact:

Fabiana Julio, Project Director

Latin American Resource Center
P.O. Box 31871
Raleigh Business & Technology Center
900 South Wilmington Street
Raleigh, NC 27622-1871

Email: larc@thelarc.org
Phone: (919) 839-7200

TAP Advisory Committee Members:

• Dee Brewer - Policy Analyst - SERVE and North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
• Ellen Graden - Porfessor - Department of Education - Meredith College
• Matty Lazo-Chadderton - Director, Hispanic/Latino Affairs - Office of the Senate President Pro Tempore
• Eloise Sheats - Assistant Superintendent - Poe Elementary School
• Richard Thompson - Director of Teacher Programs - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Steve Wiley - Assistant Professor - Department of Communication - North Carolina State University - TAP Committee Chair
• Bill Martin - LARC liaison
• Susan Zachary - West Millbrook Middle School