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Professional Development

Here's What WIDE World Offers:

Our innovative professional development solutions build on more than 30 years of research and effective teaching practices of top educators around the world.

Online courses: WIDE World's interactive online courses bring together teams of teachers supported by expert coaches who help them adapt their practice to meet the needs of every student. We offer courses on Instructional Strategies, Differentiated Instruction, Multiple Intelligences and Technology Integration, as well as subject-specific courses and in-depth programs of study. Our course catalog provides a comprehensive overview of all WIDE courses. We will work with you to conduct an initial needs assessment in your school or district and to design a customized solution.

Face-to-face sessions: We supplement our online programs with onsite consultation to support and engage teachers as instructional leaders, build a program in your school or district where teachers regularly meet face-to-face in small learning teams, and help administrators guide lasting improvement in your school or district. Face-to-face sessions connect online courses to your local priorities and resources and can include "kickoff" sessions, mid-point check-ins and ongoing development sessions for teachers and administrators.

An online professional community: WIDE World provides a warm, supportive online community to all course participants where they continue to share expertise and sustain teacher development even after courses have ended.

An Extensive Coaching Development Program: WIDE World is committed to supporting schools and districts that wish to prepare teachers as in-house, instructional experts that can mentor others. WIDE World's Coach Development Program deepens teachers' content expertise and develops their leadership, coaching and mentoring skills.

WIDE's comprehensive approach to developing teachers as instructional leaders and coaches takes place in "phases." Typically, an initial cohort of teachers enrolls during a particular semester (phase 1) and then a second cohort of teachers enrolls during a subsequent semester (phase 2), and possibly a third and fourth cohort of teachers would enroll after that. The participants from the earlier phases are developed as coaches to support subsequent cohorts of teachers either from within the same district or from other districts.

Phase 1: The first cohort of teachers participates in a course or courses. The WIDE course instructors identify any participants who show promise to become online coaches based on their understanding of the course content and the quality of their interactions with other course participants throughout the semester.

Phase 2: Those high-performing participants from Phase 1 who have been identified by the course instructor are then invited to participate in WIDE's online Coach Development Course, during which time they will deepen their content knowledge and further develop their coaching and mentoring skills by testing out protocols for giving feedback and other coaching techniques.

Phase 3: WIDE selects participants from the Coach Development Course to become "coaches-in-training." Those coaches-in-training then work with a second cohort of teachers from either their own school district or from other districts (if their own district doesn't enroll more teachers). Typically, WIDE coaches work with study groups of approximately ten participants or teams; coaches-in-training work with a smaller number of participants (typically five participants), while being guided and supported by an experienced "mentor coach."

Phase 4 and beyond: Selected coaches-in-training become full-load coaches. As full-load coaches, they will each coach a study group of approximately ten participants or teams from either their own district or another district. As a full coach, they are paid a stipend by WIDE World for coaching/mentoring others.