The presenter and supervisor should continue their support of the participants by asking how they can be of help and providing other follow-up activities. I think there is a change in the basic orientation or structure of what the professional development providers do and how they think. Providing teachers with an overly long menu of professional development opportunities can dilute the impact of those activities. For example, when you go to a restaurant, the waiter recites two or three specials. Those are supposed to be things that are really good and available now, but the menu contains a much longer list.
Professional development needs to be relevant to the real needs of students and teachers.
In Achieving Your Vision , you devote an entire chapter to the concept of schools as learning communities. The idea of a learning community is probably the single most powerful concept that a school or district can employ in a professional development program. I think that's a very effective practice that's a little bit against our culture. When we work in isolation, we rob ourselves of the resources around us. I see tremendous value in the rich comparisons that take place when we let other teachers see into our classrooms, share our students' work with them, and look at their students' work.