Ongoing professional development is a major principle of our project. The project aims to provide teachers with not only a comprehensive computer skill set but, more importantly, a framework within which they can successfully apply their skills.

Professional Development Design Principles

• continuous and supported
  - intensive 1-2 week summer sessions
  - brief mid-year sessions
  - ongoing contact and support
  - provision of teacher resources
   
• theoretical understanding
  - practice using curriculum and supporting materials
  - teacher training in new subject matter
  - subject matter review
   
• collaborative problem solving
  - group programming activities
  - collaborative design projects/discussions
   
• teacher involvement
  - help plan session agenda stating interests/needs
  - encouraging professional community of teachers
  - development of student activities and standards
   
• explicit goals and student performance
  - development of student assessment standards
   
• school based
   
• information rich
   
• part of a comprehensive change process

These principles are defined by Willis D. Hawley and Linda Valli in "The essentials of effective professional development: A new consensus" from Teaching as the Learning Profession: Handbook of Policy and Practice, edited by Linda Darling Hammond and Gary Sykes. (1999).