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Professional Development Tools

Whether you’re looking for something as simple as the perfect icebreaker, or a plan for a full-day in-service session for 100 teachers at many grade levels, this is where we share our tried and trusted tips for successful professional development sessions.

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Choice Professional Development Sessions

Melanie Meehan tackles a professional development session scheduled at a tough time of year by turning it into an opportunity for participants to share their growth and learning.

Improving Professional Learning for All

Matt Renwick explains why the work before and after any professional development session is crucial in helping teachers become invested in the work.

The Power of Mini-Charts

Melanie Meehan finds that the effectiveness of the charts she uses in coaching is magnified by shrinking them down and sharing them with many teachers.

Professional Development Choice and Follow-Up

Melanie Meehan finds that including choice and reflection in professional development options leads to more classroom changes over time.

Word Study Kick-Off

Julie Wright details a half day (2-1/2 hour) professional development session to build interest and skill in word study among teachers.

A Chartbook Tour

Melanie Meehan gives a “tour” of her chartbook, explaining how she organizes the sketches to use in her classroom coaching.

Professional Development with 10 for 10

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain how to use 10 for 10 online book celebrations as a professional development tool. Now is a good time to start planning for the next event, in February.

PD Playlist

Music is a potent and often overlooked tool in setting a mood in professional development settings. Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share some of their new favorite tunes for PD.

Using Wait Time in Professional Development

Dana Murphy shares suggestions for both embracing and powering through those awkward silences during professional development sessions.

A Quilters’ Workshop

Terry Thompson leads a quilters' workshop for teachers on a lark over the summer, and everyone makes some powerful connections to reading and writing instruction.

Coaching Tool: Presentation Binders

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain how they organize on-the-go resources for presentations in this second installment in the coaching tools series.

Coaching Tool: Digital Books

In this first installment in a series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share one of their favorite coaching tools: digital books.

Unintended Benefits of Recording Minilessons

Melanie Meehan explains the value of recording minilessons when coaching, and also shares some tips if you are new to the practice.

Coaching Collaboration: Visual Note Taking in First Grade

Heather Fisher and a first-grade teacher collaborate after an embarrassing classroom observation reveals that students need to develop note-taking skills.

What’s in Your Bag?

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan open their coaching bag and share every item on their “must-have” list for traveling from classroom to classroom.

Professional Development Planning

Melanie Meehan reflects upon what went well in a full-day professional development session early in the year as she plans for follow-up midyear.

CoffeeEDU

Are the teachers you work with too overbooked for more professional development time? Literacy coach Brian Sepe finds that voluntary 15-minute sessions before school are wildly successful. He shares tips for implementing these lightning-fast workshops.

The Power of a Hashtag for Districtwide Reading

Bill Bass shares the power of creating a hashtag for celebrating reading in the school community and beyond all year long.

Collaborative Brainstorming

Bill Bass shares a creative way to integrate an online tool for brainstorming into professional development sessions. This tool is especially useful for including introverts in conversations.

The Honeymoon Is Over

The warm, fuzzy feelings of back-to-school goodwill are gone by this point in the fall. Melanie Quinn designs a professional development session to help teachers reflect on classroom needs and develop some new strategies for strengthening classroom communities.

Fostering Change with Student Work

Heather Fisher has a secret weapon for nudging teachers toward change: student work samples. She explains how she finds opportunities across the day for sharing them.

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