ELP Circle Guide: Structuring a 90-Minute Active Design Lab for Differentiated School PD

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ELP Circle Guide: Structuring a 90-Minute Active Design Lab for Differentiated School PD

Are you ready to align your ELP Circle meetings with what your leaders actually need? You do not need a half-day retreat to drive meaningful change. Learn how to host a rapid, 90-minute leader-to-leader Active Design Lab and use Google Workspace tools to crowd source, prioritize, and generate real-time meeting content.

⚡ The Power of 90-Minute Active Labs

K-12 school leaders and district administrators operate in highly fast-paced environments. To respect their demanding schedules, the K-12 ELP Principal Learning Community relies on focused, 90-minute Active Design Labs. Unlike rigid lecture workshops, this 90-minute format acts as a structural shell that can be filled dynamically with whatever pressing professional development or instructional challenge your members are facing. By using Google Workspace tools and Gemini, you can easily shift from a top-down presentation to a responsive, active problem-solving space.

🏫 Choosing Your Circle Format: In-Person vs. Virtual

With a longer, 90-minute session, keeping energy high and collaboration active is key. Whether your district leaders are in the same room or connecting virtually, use this comparative guide to structure your workshop logistics:

Logistical Element	In-Person Workshops	Online/Virtual Workshops
Interactive Workspace	Round collaborative tables. Position poster paper or physical whiteboards for mapping out district-wide PD schedules.	A master, shared Google Slides workspace where each breakout group has a dedicated slide to co-build prompt sequences.
Check-In & Roster	A printed QR code placard at the entrance linking to your check-in Google Form.	A check-in Google Form link shared directly in the virtual chat panel at the start, middle, and end of the call.
Collaboration Space	Group tables arranged by school level or district cohorts to keep the curriculum conversations highly relevant.	Google Meet Breakout Rooms configured for small-group active work (3-4 leaders per room).
Prompt Sharing	Dual visual displays: project the live Gemini workspace on one screen and the copy-pasteable prompt template on the other.	A pinned post on your campus Discussion Board or links shared directly in the active Google Meet chat window.
Evidence Capture	A high-quality group photograph of administrators working at their laptops.	A digital screenshot of the Google Meet gallery view or the automatically generated Google Meet video recording.

🚀 Strategies to Boost Leader Participation in a 90-Minute Session

A 90-minute meeting is a significant commitment for busy school administrators. To overcome calendar reluctance and drive high attendance:

• Offer "Professional Growth" Credits: Work with your district's professional learning department to ensure attendance in the ELP Circle counts toward formal K-12 administrator renewal or leadership credits.
• The "Finished Product" Guarantee: Structure your marketing around a tangible output: "Do not come to learn about AI. Come to leave with a completed, customized 3-part Professional Development road map for your school's upcoming school year."
• Leverage Regional Benchmarking: Remind leaders that this is a rare, dedicated working block to sit alongside regional peers, compare local instructional needs, and share successful standard-aligned strategies.

:lia_bulb: Sourcing PD Content & Prompts Using Google Tools

To ensure your Active Design Lab addresses what your leaders' staffs are actually struggling with, use these integrated Google Workspace workflows to crowd source meeting topics dynamically:

• 1. The Pre-Workshop Shared Drive Folder (Sourcing the Files): Two weeks before the session, create a shared Google Drive folder and instruct registered school leaders to upload their school's current strategic PD plans, teacher survey summaries, or district curriculum maps.
• 2. The Google Sheets Gap Analysis (Analyzing & Selecting): Review the uploaded files and list the top 3 instructional gaps identified by your members (e.g., scaffolding for diverse learning needs, managing student engagement, aligning assessments to standards). Create a quick Google Form poll and pin it to your state Discussion Board to let members vote on which of these gaps will be the focus of the 90-minute workshop.
• 3. Real-Time Prompt Generation with Gemini (Generating the Content): Before the session, paste the chosen pain points from your Google Sheet into Gemini to instantly generate the "Super-Prompts" your leaders will run during the meeting. For example: "You are an expert K-12 professional development designer. Principals in our district have selected [Insert Selected Gap, e.g., 'Scaffolding visual supports for English Language Learners'] as their primary training need. Generate a highly detailed, copy-pasteable Gemini prompt that a school leader can run to build a customized, 3-tier PD module for their grade-level teams."

⏰ The 90-Minute Active Design Lab (Time Breakdown)

Use this structural blueprint to manage your workshop time effectively, ensuring leaders spend the majority of the block actively co-creating:

00:00 - 00:15 | Empathize & Align (15 Mins)

Welcome leaders. Share the aggregated pre-work data from the shared Google Drive folder. Define the selected instructional gap to be solved and the K-12 teacher retention factor it addresses (Targeted PD & Growth).

00:15 - 00:30 | Modeling the Framework (15 Mins)

Show the peer-selected challenge. Demonstrate how a school leader can feed district parameters into Gemini to instantly generate a differentiated, 3-tier school PD syllabus that aligns with state standards.

00:30 - 01:15 | Active Co-Creation Lab (45 Mins)

Leaders move into collaborative cohorts (by school level or district) to run, test, and refine the custom prompts using their own school's strategic priorities in Gemini.

01:15 - 01:30 | Gallery Walk & Next Steps (15 Mins)

Leaders paste their completed school-wide PD road maps into a local community Discussion Board. Facilitators explain the post-event logging requirements and outline topics for the next Circle meeting.

📋 Facilitator Action Steps: Before, During, and After

🟢 BEFORE THE MEETUP: Mobilize the Circle

• Schedule on the Platform: Access the Google for Edu Community Platform, navigate to your local Institutional Group, and schedule the session in the Events Hub. Tag it with your district’s label.
• Deploy Your Shared Folder: Send the invitation containing the link to the shared Google Drive folder and instruct leaders to upload their local PD priority documents.

🔵 DURING THE MEETUP: Spark Systemic Dialogue

• Publish the Workspace Link: Pin the custom, member-selected prompt templates to a dedicated thread on the campus Discussion Board so attending administrators can access it instantly.
• Lead Pedagogy-First: Align all AI-generated systems to standard leadership goals, referencing the CAST Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines to ensure proposed school-wide changes support multiple means of teacher engagement and representation.
• Roster Attendees: Have leaders scan a QR code (or click the check-in link if virtual) leading to your check-in Google Form to compile a clean digital spreadsheet roster.
• Capture Roster Evidence: Take a high-quality photograph of the participating K-12 school leaders working in their group sprint.

🔴 AFTER THE MEETUP: Log and Celebrate

• Log in EAA: Go to the Edu Activity App (EAA) within 48 hours. Log your K-12 leader event details and upload your roster and photo. This updates your ELP metrics and qualifies you for active global facilitator milestones.
• Create a Recap Blog: Draft a summary of the circle's workload insights on the ELP Blog to help other ELP Facilitators and Circles globally.

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