The growing acceptance of collaboration as a necessity in high-quality learning has fueled the rapid growth of online tools to better support educators. Technological tools require an investment of time and energy to properly explore and evaluate. Unfortunately, the number of collaboration tools that have appeared in recent years makes it almost…

Even the most efficient team of teachers can become ineffective. Conversely, even the most ineffective team can be made more efficient and productive. The keys to refocusing a committed team on the instructional goals originally established by the group are through reality, relationships, and reflection. These critical components of effective…

For middle and high school teachers facing the challenge of implementing the Common Core State Standards, disciplinary literacy instruction is a critical element--and one for which many are unprepared. Disciplinary literacy focuses attention on the reading, writing, and communication skills unique to each discipline (Moje, 2008; Shanahan &…

A teacher can be the most important resource in a school. When the teacher's attitude derives from asset-based thinking, positive impact can occur for both teacher and student. Asset-based thinking is defined as "a way of viewing reality." Those who embrace this model approach things from a positive as opposed to a negative perspective.…

Leadership by teachers is essential to serving the needs of students, schools, and the teaching profession. To that end, the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium has developed Teacher Leader Model Standards to codify, promote, and support teacher leadership as a vehicle to transform schools for the needs of the 21st century. The Teacher…

The discovery of DNA is a classic example of the importance of working across content areas. Conceptually, interdisciplinarity can be fuzzy. Thankfully, scholars like Allen Repko and Julie Thompson Klein offer definitions one can build on. Klein (1990) sees interdisciplinarity as a bridge that links different disciplines while restructuring and…

Web 2.0 is a widely used term to describe web-based tools that rely on user input and collaboration. So what would professional learning 2.0 look like? When educators are asked to do more with less and still reach ever-rising benchmarks for student achievement, leaders must begin to think differently about how classroom teachers are supported. Now…

This article presents an interview with Judith Warren Little, the Carol Liu Professor of Education Policy at the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley. She is a sociologist whose research and teaching interests focus on the organizational and policy contexts of teaching and teacher learning. She concentrates especially…

There is no denying that combining two schools, or even opening a new school, is loaded with challenges and frustrations as well as high expectations. Principal Tracy Shafer saw a rural school consolidation as an opportunity to use professional development to create a community focused on student learning, meeting the need for high-quality…

Staff development at Starlight Professional Development School (Watsonville, California) aims to stimulate every teacher's personal and professional growth. Collaboration is the signature piece of a very comprehensive program. In fact, collaboration among teachers and other professionals at Starlight is the vehicle that drives staff development.…

"Is this design powerful enough to get the results we intend?" This question is the logical place to start evaluation of a professional development program. Planning groups often pass the draft plan to a few stakeholders to peruse, but don't typically assess the draft's potential in any systematic way. This article deals with the "Level 0"…