Handbook for Professional Learning activities

The Handbook for Professional Learning is a comprehensive resource that offers step-by-step guidance on the stages of planning, implementing, and evaluating professional development at schools. It includes:

• a year-long view of possible professional learning cycles,
• a menu of differentiated professional learning options,
• needs assessments,
• intervisitation guidelines, and
• a checklist for planning professional learning throughout the year.

The Handbook for Professional Learning is designed to be a workbook to be used within each school's specific context.

This template from the Handbook for Professional Learning can be used to help schools organize and track the work of different learning teams.

This template from the Handbook for Professional Learning can be used to help schools' professional learning teams plan and assess their work throughout a learning cycle.

This activity that accompanies the Handbook for Professional Learning moves participants through the stages of conducting a thorough and comprehensive needs assessment to identify professional learning topics for their school.

When considering evaluation remember that the process of developing PL starts with identifying needs and outcomes and defining success. These charts  that accompanies the Handbook for Professional Learning document how an evaluation plan is developed at the onset of the planning process. The example shows the trajectory for a ninth grade teacher team studying formative assessment.