Dear Administrator:

"Concept to Classroom" is a free professional development workshop series that addresses a variety of relevant topics in education today. The workshop series is a production of Thirteen Ed Online, an online professional development site of the Educational Resources Center at Thirteen/WNET New York. You probably received this letter from an educator in your school/district who is interested in receiving credit for their participation in one of the workshops.

The "Concept to Classroom" workshops were developed by experts in the field and reviewed by a select set of education professionals. Each workshop contains information that is directly applicable to the classroom, and is also appropriate for use in pre-service and in-service training in teacher education programs. The workshop your teacher is interested in is Inquiry-based Learning and was developed in collaboration with experts Joe Exline and Arthur L. Costa. We invite you to visit our "Concept to Classroom" site at http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/index.html.

In the Inquiry-based Learning workshop, the educator will learn that inquiry-based learning involves a process of discovery whereby the student "sees" what is around her or him, asks meaningful questions, and works towards finding the answers. In particular, the educator will design a facilitation plan which provides the general direction that will lead to both individual learners and the total class achieving the indicated goals. The time involved to complete the workshop is approximately thirty to thirty-five hours. Thirteen Ed Online education experts feel that the time and effort required to participate is worth professional development credit, and recommend that educators who successfully complete this workshop receive two credits.

You should also find two attachments with this letter. We have provided you with some tools to help in your consideration and assessment: a rubric and a syllabus. Inquiry-based Learning Rubric is an important conceptual tool that can help you judge the educator's facilitation plan based on specific evaluative criteria. We encourage dialogue between staff members and administration to ensure that everyone is using the same vocabulary and a similar background from which to draw on experiences and their work in the classroom. The syllabus presents an outline of the course, including topics that are covered, assignments, and a list of resources.

We hope that these tools will help you and your educator to determine the awarding of professional development credit.

We thank you for your dedication to continued professional development of educators at your school.

Sincerely,

Thirteen Ed Online Team