Work with your teacher team to develop an acceptable timeline for the development, implementation, and evaluation of the learning module.

   Experiences:

The Consortium for Education grants were awarded in the late Spring. Most of the teams found that beginning a project at this time was less than ideal. Teachers plan their summers early, many signing up for professional development workshops or planning travel. The earlier they received notice that they would be working on the team, the easier it was to plan for summer face-to-face meetings.

School calendars and prescribed curriculum for certain grades and times of year made it difficult for some of the teachers to develop and pilot the lessons in a timely manner. Many schools will plan professional development activities for their staffs to precede a three-day weekend, giving an extra day off to the students. This became relevant when planning face-to-face meetings during the school year.

Generally everything took longer than anticipated, and timelines were constantly being revised. Teachers found they had little time during the school year to write the curriculum and pilot test it. Although nearly every team had planned to pilot their lessons in schools before posting them, in some cases this turned out to be impossible.

   Recommendations:

• Build a flexible timetable—understand that everything will probably take longer than you expect.
• Build in time for development, review, pilot testing and evaluation.
• Consider asking alternate members to pilot test the lessons, or work as a partner to an active member.
• Pay attention to the school calendars for testing schedules, holidays, professional days, and school activities.
• Correlate with your agency schedule of events.

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