Our sustained and complete approach to professional learning is highly regarded and proven effective. Workshops and presentations, like the head of the comet, create interest and shed light on a topic. Although they may be exciting, typically their effects are short-lived. The more sustained intensive follow-up is like the tail of the comet. It extends from the initial workshop sessions, providing professional learning activities and resources to support teachers, as they work toward a more substantive understanding of critical thinking and its applications in the classroom.

Head of the comet

The “head” of the comet consists of a range of provocative workshops and presentations intended to introduce key ideas and to stimulate teachers’ interest in systematically implementing critical thinking in their classrooms. There are two options for these initial offerings:

• core workshops or presentations on the key elements of our approach to critical thinking
• workshops or presentations that extend the principles of critical thinking to a particular innovation or in a subject area of interest

View a sampling of popular themes for our face-to-face and online sessions.

Tail of the comet

The “tail” of the comet is that prolonged period where education innovations take hold and slowly transform teachers’ practice. We offer a range of “building blocks” to support teachers in sustained professional growth through conversation with colleagues, creation of learning and assessment activities, access to professional resources and assisted implementation in their classrooms.

Becoming a TC² Partner is a particularly important step in supporting sustained professional learning, as this provides access to thousands of free resources for teachers and significant discounts on sessions. Consult Teachers and Instructional leaders for ideas on how to extend professional learning between workshops.