Individualizing Professional Development: A Framework for Meeting School and District Goals

Husby provides a job-embedded professional development process that satisfies both individual needs of teachers and organizational demands for academic improvement.

Husby, a curriculum specialist and instructional coach with Walton County Schools in Georgia, provides staff developers and others who implement professional learning programs for educators with step-by- step directions for designing and implementing a program to facilitate individualized teacher learning. The model she presents is based on self-directed learning and principles of action research, and the staff development program she describes can be adapted to meet the needs of different organizations. Reproducible learning plan templates are included, along with materials for use in a larger reform model professional development program. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Vicki Husby is a curriculum specialist and instructional coach with Walton County Schools in Georgia. She is a former daycare teacher, public school teacher, assistant principal and assistant professor of "Supervision of Instruction" at the University of Georgia. She received her Ed.D. at the University of Georgia in educational leadership after studying teachers' experiences with self-directed staff development. She holds educational credentials in elementary education, middle grades education, gifted education, special education and educational leadership. Her areas of expertise include professional development and teacher development, academic interventions, and program development. Her professional experience has been shaped by teaching and leadership roles at middle school, high school, district office and university levels.

Dr. Husby was selected as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's 2000 Honor Teacher for her work with middle grades at-risk students. She is the editor and a co-author of the annual Teacher's Guide for O,Georgia Too: An Awesome Collection of Original Writings by Young Georgians. Her non-fiction narrative, "Like Mother", was published in O,Georgia: A Collection of Georgia's Newest and Most Promising Writers, Volume 3.