How can we make TPEP our own? A collection of guidelines that inspire us, rather than scare us into compliance? 

Take Learning Targets for example. We're supposed to clearly state the learning target at the beginning of the class, provide activities that teach toward that target, and then review the learning target at the end. But here's how I see it...every one of us already does that, but we do it in our own unique way! What if instead of reinventing the wheel and letting TPEP dictate how we teach, we started by reflecting on how we already, naturally use the concept of learning targets? One teacher might explicitly say to their kids "Today we're going learn to use X brush strokes used by Picasso's in 1910," while another teacher might ask kids to log onto the class website and read the day's lesson plan, which outlines the purpose of the lesson. Two different strategies, already in place. No need to start from scratch just because TPEP says so. Then, of course, we can tweek things to fulfill the requirements, or document appropriately, but the foundation comes from who we already are as teachers. 

That way TPEP provides an opportunity to celebrate (and document) the amazing things we already do as teachers, plus it offers a few new ideas to help us grow and improve our classes. Rather than a bunch of rules we are forced to follow, it becomes a set of guidelines meant to inspire us.

Please share other ways you think we can use TPEP to inspire our teaching practices!