The PD Curator: How to Design Peer-to-Peer Professional Learning That Elevates Teachers and Teaching

One of the best ways to learn how to be a better teacher is by watching, listening to, and experimenting with the practices of great teachers, including those in your own school.The PD Curator is about how professional learning experiences can become more inclusive, participatory, cohesive, and effective-and about the role teachers and leaders can play in creating those experiences. That role isn’t so much administrative as it is curatorial. Just as art curators can legitimize artists by including their work in a gallery or exhibit, PD curators have the power to legitimize the work of an array of teachers. They help create immersive intellectual, emotional, and social experiences-all while caring for the professionals and the profession.

In this book, Lauren Porosoff explains how PD curators

* Structure teachers’ schedules to make time for in-house professional learning. * Select content and create a process for how people interact with it. * Fit the often disparate pieces together into a meaningful whole. * Discover whether the event has been successful.

The practical tools and protocols in each chapter will help you plan professional learning that taps into the expertise and interests of a diverse staff. Canned sessions that don’t connect with teachers’ actual needs will be a thing of the past. Instead, you’ll discover ways to support teachers in sharing ideas and trying out new practices that advance student learning. In doing so, you’ll empower teachers and students alike.