Introducing the New and Improved PL Toolbox

We’re excited to re-introduce the PL Toolbox! Back in the summer of 2015, when the PL Coaching and Development rubric was initially created, we immediately knew we needed to unpack what these teacher actions and student actions looked like across proficiency levels. With the help of our school leaders and teachers, we set out to create look-fors for each rubric row, resources, and professional development aligned to each rubric row. Over the past three years we have been working to develop resources and tools to help educators make the shift from a more traditional to personalized environment. After a few fail attempts of sharing this in a meaningful way, the PL Toolbox was born.

To learn more about the rubric and toolbox, make sure to check out the introduction video below:

If you’ve visited and used the PL Toolbox in the past, you’ll notice a few upgrades:

• Look fors and resources are cataloged by action: ​Instead of listing look-fors and resources by phase and then domain, we shifted organization of look-fors and resources to be listed by action vs. phase. Phases were intended to help educators narrow their focus while building foundational skills. In practice and implementation, we’ve seen more and more educators use the rubric rows to create their own “phases”. And, we think that makes a lot of sense!
• Pages that showcase the work in Dallas ISD: ​Over the years, we've begun to use this site to house more opportunities to learn about and plug into the four pathways of personalization in Dallas ISD for Dallas-locals and educators across the nation.
• Coming in April: A Personalized Learning Readiness Continuum: And, what perhaps has been one of the hardest, but rewarding projects our team has recently taken on is to develop a " PL Coaching and Development Rubric" for campuses. We've learned so much over the past three years focusing on the PL classroom, but we believe it's time to take a step back, reflect on, and capture the larger systems and structures that have helped make a personalized classroom thrive in Dallas ISD.

Kristen Watkins
Director of Personalized Learning 

Kristen leads all district efforts to move towards scale, sustainability, and fidelity of implementation of PL districtwide.