Regional Professional Development
Communities of Practice
To provide opportunities for California adult educators to interact regularly and to engage in extended collective learning, CALPRO is offering regionally based professional learning opportunities using a Community of Practice (CoP) model across subject matter and topics essential to meeting the goals of the California adult basic education system. In the blended-learning CoPs, participants meet for two face-to-face (or synchronous online) sessions. As part of the CoP activities, participants access online resources via Moodle before, between, and after their face-to-face/synchronous training sessions to participate in activities designed to extend their learning and support their implementation of new practices with their students. Fully virtual or HyFlex CoPs may be offered on selected topics.
Tailored Regional Communities of Practice
Tailored Regional CoPs support the unique needs of educational agencies, districts, or consortia and offer a responsive, flexible, and engaging approach to professional development. The available topics are highly relevant to California adult education agencies, from instructional strategies to career pathway development. When tailored to the specific needs of an educational agency, school district, or regional adult education consortium, these CoPs offer targeted support that aligns directly with organizational objectives and encourages meaningful change and growth. Tailoring can be done by adjusting the overall training length, modality (e.g., in-person, online, or HyFlex), focus areas depending on the target audience, or by integrating multiple topics to address intersecting priorities. This tailored approach allows CALPRO to help educational agencies balance professional development with operational needs, ensuring minimal disruption while maintaining the quality of learning.
Regional Training
CALPRO also offers 1–2-day, 3+ hour on-site workshops on an available topics below.
If your consortium or agency would like to host a regional professional development event, please contact calpro@air.org.
What You Need to Know
Host a CALPRO Training
For more than a decade, CALPRO has trained California adult educators to deliver professional development on various topics.
CALPRO will:
- Identify and pay for the workshop facilitator’s travel and honorarium when your agency hosts a regional community of practice.
- List the workshop on the CALPRO Event Calendar.
- Advertise the workshop.
- Manage registration.
- Provide copies of the participant handout packet for the number of registered participants.
- Provide blank sign-in sheets and evaluation forms for facilitators to distribute and collect.
What are the responsibilities of the hosting agency/site?
- E-mail certificates of attendance to participants.
- Open registration to teachers and administrators from other eligible agencies.
- Register at a minimum 8 participants from your agency and/or other eligible agencies in your region prior to the start of the training.
Which training topics are available?
New!
- Fundamentals of Adult Education Instruction
General Instructional Strategies
- Universal Design for Learning: Developing Programs for Adults with Learning Disabilities
- Motivation and Persistence for Adult Learners
- Civic Engagement through Democratic Literacy
Adult Basic Education/Adult Secondary Education
- Using Questioning Strategies to Improve Instruction Adult Basic Education/Adult Secondary Education
- College and Career Readiness Standards: English Language Arts (ELA) Implementation and Application
- Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in the ABE Classroom
English as a Second Language
- Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in the ESL Classroom
- Managing the ESL Multilevel Class
- Mastering the English Language Proficiency Standards
- Optimizing ESL Instructional Planning: Management, Monitoring, and Reflection
- Supporting Immigrant Integration through Civics Education
Workforce Skills and Career Pathways
- Supporting Student Transitions to Postsecondary Education and the Workforce
- Accelerated Learning to Facilitate Career Pathways
- Collaborative Curriculum Alignment
- Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ABE/ASE Classroom
- Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ESL Classroom
- Integrated Education and Training (IET)
Community of Practice
Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (Wenger-Trayner, 2015).
Blended Instruction
In regional CoPs, participants meet for two face-to-face (or synchronous online) sessions. Before, between, and after their face-to-face/synchronous training sessions, CoP members access additional online resources via Moodle and participate in activities designed to extend their learning and support their implementation of new practices with their learners. Fully virtual or HyFlex CoPs may be offered on selected topics.
Time Commitment
CALPRO’s CoPs require an average total of 16-20 hours of professional learning.
Shift in Culture
Communities of Practice place a strong emphasis on supporting educators in implementing new skills. This greater emphasis on implementation may involve one or more shifts in culture.
Benefits of Participating in a CALPRO Regional CoP
- Opportunity to interact with other teachers or administrators and trainers online and in-person to share classroom experiences and problem solve
- Support and help to implement training in the classroom
- Ability to identify and serve the needs of students
- Ways to help students improve their skills and meet their personal goals
- Increase of professional knowledge in targeted topic
- Access to additional resources that extend the learning beyond the CoP
- Working together as a school team to make changes, identify challenges and solve problems
On-Site Regional Training
CALPRO also offers 1–2-day, 3+ hour workshops on an available topic below. CALPRO will send a trained facilitator to your agency/consortium site.
ABE/ASE
- College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS)
- CCRS 2: ELA Implementation and Application
- Evidence-Based Writing Instruction for ABE/ASE
- Math Instructional Strategies
ESL
- Mastering the English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards
- Optimizing ESL Instructional Planning: Management, Monitoring, and Reflection
- Managing the ESL Multilevel Class
Instructional Strategies
- Motivation and Persistence for Adult Learners
- Universal Design for Learning: Developing Programs for Adults with Learning Disabilities
- Using Questioning Strategies to Improve Instruction
Transitions
- Supporting Student Transitions to Postsecondary Education and the Workforce
Workforce
- Accelerated Learning to Facilitate Career Pathways
- Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ABE/ASE Classroom
- Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ESL Classroom
- Integrated Education and Training (IET)
Teaching Adult English Learners: Principles and Practices (Self-Directed Online)
Course Description:
This self-directed course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.
This course is designed to support teachers new to working with adult English learners, or ELs. After completing the course, participants will be able to identify and apply appropriate instructional strategies for teaching adult ELs. They will also have strengthened their skills as an instructor and be able to implement classroom management practices to optimize learning in both in-person and virtual learning environments. The estimated course completion time is 3.5 hours.
Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.
Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.
Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.
Orientation for New ESL Teachers (Self-Directed Online)
Course Description:
This self-paced course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.
To a new English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in an adult education program, the task of teaching English can seem overwhelming. This course orients new teachers to the most immediate and important aspects of teaching adult ESL in California. A teacher new to ESL often asks such questions as, "Who will my new students be?" "What is their English proficiency?" "What materials should I use?" and "How do I assess my students and document their progress?" Many local agencies have procedures and practices that address these issues and will provide guidance to new teachers. The California Department of Education (CDE) has specific requirements and also provides certain documents to guide you. The estimated course completion time is 7 hours.
Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.
Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.
Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills (Self-Directed Online)
Course Description:
This self-paced course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.
This course explores the nature of critical thinking and metacognition as well as the relationships among critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. It considers the process, results, and various levels of critical thinking. It presents the concept of metacognition as a key attribute of critical thinking. It also distinguishes between simple and complex problems. Participants are encouraged to think about how these concepts can be taught in their classrooms. This course features excerpts of recordings from CALPRO’s online workshops on Teaching Critical Thinking Skills. The estimated course completion time is 12 hours.
Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.
Goals:
Upon successful completion of the course, the participant will be able to: define critical thinking and metacognition; identify levels of critical thinking; distinguish between didactic teaching and teaching for critical thinking; plan classroom activities that require critical thinking; plan activities to assist students in developing metacognitive skills; distinguish between simple and complex problems; explain the relationship between critical thinking and problem solving; and plan classroom instruction that reflects the most adequate decision making processes, based on research.
Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.
Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.
Differentiated Instruction and Lesson Planning (Self-Directed Online)
Description:
This self-directed course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.
Many adult education classrooms contain students whose ages, native languages, educational backgrounds, and academic skills vary widely, which poses many teaching challenges for instructors. Research shows that differentiated instruction is one of the most effective approaches for helping students learn. This course walks participants through the steps of planning a differentiated lesson, including how to write effective learning objectives, choose among approaches to differentiation (content, process, product), and design assessments. In completing the course, participants produce their own differentiated lesson plans that are suited to their instructional content and environment. The estimated course completion time is 5 hours.
Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.
Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.
Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.
Middle-Skills Job Preparation for Adult Education (Self-Directed Online)
Course Description:
This self-paced course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.
Do you wonder how to integrate employability skills into your adult education setting to support workforce preparation for middle-skills jobs? Employability skills, also referred to as 21st-century workplace skills, soft skills, or non-cognitive skills, are needed by our adult education students for readiness and success regardless of the industry or job position. This course will provide an overview of the middle-skills job landscape, an employability skills framework, and strategies and hands-on resources to connect the needed employability skills for these jobs within the adult education setting. The estimated course completion time is 2 hours.
Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.
Goals:
By the end of the course, participants will be able to: define “middle-skills jobs” and provide several examples; define “employability skills” and explain why they are important; categorize employability skills using the Employability Skills Framework; describe the connections between the Employability Skills Framework and the College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards for Adult Education; and apply the Employability Skills Framework to their lesson plans to identify ways to improve their instruction.
Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.
Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.
Designing Programs for Adults with Learning Disabilities (Self-Directed Online)
Course Description:
This self-paced course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.
This is the first of two online courses from the California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO) on designing literacy programs to be responsive to the needs of adults with learning disabilities. This first session is an awareness session that will help adult educators understand what learning disabilities are and recognize the characteristics and consequences of those disabilities in the learning environment, whether classroom-based, tutor-led, or technology-based distance learning. This CALPRO online course provides an overview of the assessment process (diagnostic testing versus screening) and outlines the legal rights and responsibilities of the learner and the literacy program. The estimated course completion time is 14 hours.
The second CALPRO course in this series addresses instructional strategies appropriate for teaching adults with learning disabilities. Completion of Session 1 is a prerequisite for Session 2.
Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.
Goals:
Identify a working definition of learning disabilities (LD); recognize common characteristics of adults with LD and their effect on learning; distinguish between screening and diagnostic testing and the uses of each; identify the importance of self-determination, self-advocacy, and disclosure to successful learners and workers; recognize the rights and responsibilities of learners with LD as well as of literacy providers; and begin the process of identifying and bringing about necessary changes to make programs more responsive to adults with LD.
Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.
Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.