Leaders Lounge   /   Category

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.

Latest Content
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.

Screencasting Professional Development

Bill Bass explains the nuts and bolts of creating screencasts to replace professional development sessions.

Coaching Minute: The Walkaway

Amanda Adrian shares the importance of the "walkaway" — narrowing the focus of professional development planning to one critical question in this quick video tip.

See Their Stories, Not Their Misbehaviors

Ruth Ayres finds that most negative behaviors in writing workshops are rooted in unmet needs. Here is how she demonstrates this truth with teachers, using a simple glass jar and some tape.

Implementing New Mandated Initiatives

As Jennifer Allen helps implement a new mandated teacher evaluation model, she makes connections between the mandate and the negotiation process.

Picture It: Reorganizing a Professional Book Library

In this quick tip, literacy coaches Heather Fisher and Kathy Provost reorganize their professional book library in a simple way that will save hours over the year of hunting for texts.

Taking Breaks

This quick tip from Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan will ensure you don’t overlook one of the most important elements of successful meetings: breaks.

What Am I Doing Here?

Dana Murphy questions the value of her participation as a literacy coach in professional development sessions designed solely for teachers, and discovers unexpected benefits.

Integrating the Bookroom into Professional Development Sessions

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain how bookrooms can be at the heart of professional development sessions that are designed to help teachers explore resources. This is another installment in their bookrooms series.

Brain and Movement Breaks for Teachers

Heather Fisher explains why breaks are important for learners of any age, and how to incorporate them into professional development sessions.

An Open Apology

Jennifer Schwanke crafts a letter (never to be sent) to parents of her students from years past, remembering all her early blunders as a middle school teacher. This would be a fun piece to share at a new-teachers orientation, or as a workshop icebreaker for chatting about how teachers have changed over the years.

Empowering Teachers to Share: Leading More Powerful Professional Development Sessions

Ruth Ayres provides more time and opportunities for teachers to share learning and artifacts from their classrooms during professional development, and is amazed at the results.

Professional Development and Personality Types

Jason DiCarlo revisits a classic activity for uncovering personality types and building a stronger professional development community.

Talk to the Text Discussion Activity

Amanda Adrian and Heather Sisson lead a literacy coaching group discussion of an article using the “Talk to the Text” protocol. This is an excellent activity for fostering contributions from introverts. The video is Part 1 in a two-part series.

When Guided Reading Goes Wrong

Shari Frost has suggestions for coaching teachers when guided reading isn't working in their classrooms.

Choice Literacy Membership

Become a member for full access to Articles & Videos plus member-only Product Discounts

Membership

Explore More
Getting Organized
Guiding Teachers
Working in Classrooms

Choice Literacy Membership

Articles

Get full access to all Choice Literacy article content

Videos

Get full access to all Choice Literacy video content

Courses

Access Choice Literacy course curriculum and training

Membership Options

About

Choice Literacy is a community of passionate educators who lead. Come join us!

Learn more

Contact
Subscribe

Get free articles and insights delivered to your inbox every week with the Choice Literacy "Big Fresh" Newsletter!

Learn more

© 2025 The Lead Learners. All rights reserved.   Privacy Policy   |   Terms and Conditions

Website built by MemberDev

Loading...