Team Professional Learning

Build Your Collective Capacity to Enhance Teaching & Learning

Engage your instructional leadership team or staff in Dr. Rabin's professional learning programs.

Request Team PL

(team professional learning)

"This was for us (leaders)...and now everything makes sense."

- District Superintendent

"I saw so much improvement with my teachers. We all learned from her."

- Middle School Principal

"She's not afraid to tackle complex topics through her educational training."

- Executive Director, youth service agency

You're committed to ensuring that every student receives the best educational experience possible. However, you also understand that....

YOUR VISION THRIVES - OR FADES - BASED ON THE STRENGTH OF YOUR TEAM.

As a school, district or education agency leader, sometimes you'll see that your team needs targeted support because you've surfaced specific gaps in your collective knowledge or skills. You may have also noticed that....

Professional development has been delivered, but staff practice hasn’t shifted
Coaching is attempted, but results are inconsistent
A new curriculum or instructional framework has launched, but coherence hasn’t followed

At other times, you're pleased to see that your team is already strong, but you realize it would still be beneficial to deepen your collective knowledge and skills for any numbers of reasons. For example, when....

A new initiative presents an opportunity for innovation or alignment
There’s a desire to push beyond "good enough" and into true instructional excellence
You want to address areas of disproportionality so that ALL students grow and achieve

Regardless of a team's starting point, effective leaders know that professional learning is not just a response to a problem—it’s a strategic investment in the people responsible for sustaining student achievement and overall organizational success.

Dr. Rabin’s Team Professional Learning programs address this need by strengthening the collective capacity of teams within your organization.

Rather than isolated PD for individuals, Dr. Rabin's approach builds shared expertise and coherence across teams, aligning to your organization's goals and current capacity. Sessions are interactive, practical, and grounded in the realities of school and system leadership. Participants leave with:

✅ Stronger Collective Expertise — so that entire teams, not just individuals, grow in their ability to advance teaching and learning

✅ Clarity and Coherence — aligned learning that connects to your frameworks, initiatives, and daily practices, reducing confusion and contradiction

✅ Actionable Tools & Strategies — that help teams move from insight to action, with clear next steps and shared accountability

✅ Leadership Capacity — concrete guidance for school and system leaders on how to support, model, and reinforce learning beyond the session

Request Team PL

(team professional learning)

Dr. Rabin's Team Professional Learning

Strands & Topics

Dr. Rabin's professional learning sessions are designed to be practical, research-based, and immediately actionable. Schools and districts can choose from the sample offerings below—or use them as a starting point to co-design a program tailored to their specific instructional goals. Sessions are available as 90-minute intensives, half-day workshops, or multi-session series. Many topics connect across strands, allowing for truly integrated learning experiences.

Content & Curriculum

The "what" of teaching

Sample Workshops

“Designing for Deep Understanding: Creating Purpose-Driven Units”
Help teams design or revise units that align with standards, support skills transfer, and cultivate conceptual understanding—not just coverage.
“Structured Literacy Across the Content Areas”
Explore how decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction can be integrated beyond the ELA block—especially in upper grades.
“Curriculum Vetting Made Practical”
Equip school teams with a process and toolset to evaluate instructional materials for quality, equitable access, and alignment.
"Elevating Literacy Across the Content Areas"
Support student access and expression in every subject by embedding disciplinary literacy strategies into math, science, social studies, and beyond.

Click for More Sample Topics

Curriculum Vetting & Auditing
Disciplinary Literacy: mathematics
Disciplinary Literacy: the sciences
Disciplinary Literacy: history/social studies
Curricular Design and Unit Planning
Arts Integration
Culturally Responsive Text
Lesson Structure/Design
Differentiation
Standards Alignment
Cognitive Engagement and Rigor
Vocabulary Acquisition
Structured Literacy
MTSS (multitiered systems of support)
Accelerated Learning

Instruction

The "how" of teaching

Sample Workshops

“Rigor Without Overwhelm: Scaffolding for High Expectations”
Unpack what rigor really means—and help educators structure lessons that push student thinking without leaving learners behind.
“From Talk to Thinking: Academic Discourse that Moves Learning”
Build strategies for elevating classroom conversations to promote reasoning, synthesis, and active student voice.
“The Art of the Mini-Lesson”
Strengthen whole-group instruction by mastering how to deliver clear, focused, and engaging mini-lessons across subjects.
Teaching Vocabulary with Intentionality
Build a robust approach to vocabulary instruction that integrates word consciousness, direct instruction, and tiered vocabulary to accelerate student learning.

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Explicit Instruction

Differentiated Instruction/ Scaffolding and Enrichments
Disciplinary Literacy: mathematics
Disciplinary Literacy: the sciences
Disciplinary Literacy: history/social studies

Improving Lesson Structure
Student Classroom Discussion
Cognitive Engagement and Rigor
Close Reading
Play-based Learning
Vocabulary Acquisition
Student Feedback
Strategy Lessons (literacy/ELA)
Classroom Routines and Procedures
Tiered Instruction
MTSS (multitiered systems of support)
Instructional Intervention (literacy)
Accelerated Learning
Data Informed Instruction
Dramatic Arts/Theatre Instruction

Assessment & Data

The "how we know" teaching is working

(and what to do when it isn't)

Sample Workshops

“Reimagining Exit Tickets: Using Student Thinking to Guide Tomorrow’s Lesson”
Learn how to collect and interpret real-time evidence of understanding—and actually use it to adjust instruction.
“Data That Leads to Action: Planning Smarter from Student Work”
Teach teams how to analyze student work for patterns that lead to instructional decisions—not generic next steps.
“Rethinking Reteach: Responsive Planning Without Starting Over”
Learn high-impact strategies for reteaching that are timely, targeted, and preserve instructional pacing.
“The Right Rubric: Tools for Feedback, Not Just Scoring”
Reframe rubrics as instructional tools—shaping how teachers give feedback and how students understand success.

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Data Literacy
Test Sophistication
Data Analysis
Student Work Analysis
Assessment Alignment
Rubrics Creation & Application
Student Feedback
Leveraging Formative Assessments
Data-Informed Instruction
Leveraging Anecdotal Records
Inquiry Cycles
Equitable Data Analysis
Multimodal Assessment

Staff Development

The "who" of teaching and coaching

(and how to continuously improve their practice)

Sample Workshops

“Feedback that Fuels Growth”
Help leaders and coaches develop a feedback culture that’s strengths-based, specific, and actually leads to change.
“Leadership Moves that Make PD Matter”
Equip instructional leaders with research-based strategies to design and facilitate professional learning that transfers to practice.
"Empowering Teacher Leaders as Drivers of Change"
Build capacity from within by identifying, developing, and supporting teacher leaders who can model, coach, and lead change at the classroom level.
“Teaching Teachers: Designing and Delivering Peer-Led Professional Learning”
Learn how to elevate teacher leaders by preparing them to lead effective, peer-to-peer professional learning.

Click for More Sample Topics

Teacher Observations & Feedback
Differentiated Professional Learning
Lesson Study
Collaborative Coaching
Inquiry Cycles
Teacher Peer Mentoring
Instructional Modeling Technique
Learning Walk Protocols/Collaborative Walkthroughs
Wellness & Adult SEL

Request Team PL

(team professional learning)

Meet Your Facilitator: Dr. Rabin

Dr. Rabin Nickens (also known as “Dr. Rabin”) is an award-winning educator, scholar, and systems-level education leader with over 25 years of experience advancing student achievement and professional excellence. As former Senior School Improvement Specialist and Director of ELA for the largest school district in the United States, she has served as an architect of citywide professional development, designing and delivering high-impact learning experiences that have reached thousands of educators and school leaders.

Known for making professional learning engaging, practical, and purposeful, Dr. Rabin specializes in supporting school and district teams with real-world strategies that strengthen instructional practice and collective capacity. Her approach is grounded in research, lived experience, and the belief that shared learning among teams creates the foundation for lasting instructional improvement and better student outcomes.

Empowering education leaders to improve teaching and learning.