When teachers lead professional learning for their peers, it raises a challenge--presenter vulnerability. Porosoff discusses the many reasons teachers may feel vulnerable as they present PD to peers and ways school leaders can help them manage that vulnerability.

A report from TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project) raised eyebrows recently when it concluded that much of the professional development teachers receive does little to improve teaching quality. The report, provocatively titled "The Mirage: Confronting the Hard Truth About Our Quest for Professional Development," examined the…

Two superintendents who are infusing social-emotional learning throughout their districts (in Minneapolis and Atlanta) discuss strategies they've found that help their efforts. They note support they receive through participating in the Collaborating Districts Initiative, a multidistrict effort launched by the Collaborative for Academic, Social,…

To help aspiring teachers better understand their English language learners, New England College invited a group of recently arrived students into a classroom of preservice teachers to share their insights about how teachers can best support them. The future teachers appreciated the students' suggestions about pairing them with a peer, checking in…

Describes a high school English department's successful efforts to define and shape their own peer assistance program. The program succeeded because it is voluntary, has received administrative support, and has evolved slowly and naturally. The program has communication, rehearsal, and awareness benefits and calls for a new kind of professional…

Describes a Sonoma County (California) school district's peer coaching program designed to meet the needs of new, probationary, and experienced teachers. The program succeeded because participation was voluntary, the training empowered teachers and improved their coaching skills, and teachers continued to meet as a group and learn from each other.…

Peer coaching promises to reduce teachers' isolation, create a professional and collegial school environment, and promote skill transfer from training to the workplace. To help peer coaching achieve these results, several guidelines are presented. Peer coaching programs need administrative support, adequate training, participant trust, and…

Outlines how the Writing Response Groups function. This is a cooperative learning atmosphere where trained student peers respond to other students' writing with the Praise-Question-Polish technique. Includes references. (MD)

Important effective coaching components include facilitating teachers' lesson analysis, encouraging alternative approaches, and conducting conferences in a nonjudgmental way. This survey suggests that many of these critical attributes are lacking or of dubious quality for one-third to one-half of PET-trained teachers in the sample. Includes 14…

Students at Walton High School in the Bronx, New York, can enroll in a preteaching academy to study and experience the role of the teacher. (Author/TE)

The Lake Washington School District (WA) has developed a successful peer tutoring program for elementary and secondary students. Identifies the characteristics of successful tutoring programs, how to start a program, recruitment and scheduling needs, selection of tutors and learners, and how to maintain tutor involvement. Includes a table and…

Cooperative learning focuses group activity on preparing all members to succeed on individual assessments. Research findings show significantly greater achievement for the cooperatively taught class. Describes the elements of two comprehensive cooperative methods and proposes a model of a cooperative elementary school. (MLF)

Outlines three teacher coaching models. Technical coaching staff development workshops teach specific methods and pair consultants with teachers or teachers with teachers. In collegial coaching, the teacher's ability to self-coach is developed through teaching in pairs with a coach teacher. Challenge coaching helps teams of teachers resolve…

Describes a staff development project using a coaching model in which teachers team teach in the classroomn. In this model the teacher and the coach (a teaching peer) plan, execute, and evaluate performance in the class side by side. (MD)

Examines the history of peer coaching, describes changes in coaching practice, and makes recommendations for its future. Consultants have found that all teachers must agree to be members of peer coaching study teams, verbal feedback must be omitted, "coaching" must be clearly defined, and collaborative teamwork increases teacher learning in…