Live small groups
Two to five teachers meet live in peer groups to work through a structured Circles session together.
Circles Learning
Learning with other teachers makes professional development actually work.
Teachers meet live in peer groups of 2–5, at a time they choose, to work through structured Circles sessions. Tutors provide feedback on the group’s work after every session.
Circles at a glance
- Group size
- 2 to 5 teachers
- Cadence
- Weekly live sessions
- Languages
- Spanish, English
- Designed for
- Institutions investing in teacher PD
How the method works
Four design decisions baked into every Circles cohort.
Feedback and support
Tutors review each group’s work after every session. Circles provides support when needed and gives your institution visibility into progress.
Feedback after every session
You do not wait until the end of the course. After each session, your group receives specific feedback on its practical work.
Logistics that actually work
Stable scheduling, no class disruption. Enrollments and reporting are handled for your institution.
Why learning in a group works
In Circles you learn with a group of 2 to 5 teachers. Your group meets live, at a time it chooses, and works through a structured session. After each session, our tutors give feedback on your group’s work.
Learning with others solves the two keys to learning. You learn better, because you share ideas, give and get feedback, take on challenges as a team and lean on your colleagues. And you stay committed, because it’s easier to keep learning when you do it with friends.
Each circle is a small professional learning community, a format backed by decades of research. Circles makes it easy to start yours with colleagues from your school or others, and learn among friends.
Who Circles is for
Three institutional contexts where Circles fits well, pedagogically.
K-12 school networks
For networks with a shared pedagogical focus that want professional development to reach every teacher at the same time, without each school solving its own logistics. Live peer groups can mix teachers across schools and meet outside class hours.
Universities
For higher-education teaching offices that want to develop their faculty in their pedagogical role. Works well for cross-faculty programs — assessment, AI applied to teaching, instructional design — where peer learning across disciplines is part of the value.
Foundations, programs and networks
For foundations, government programs, and professional networks that fund or coordinate teacher development for schools. Live peer groups, tutor feedback after each session, and progress visibility can be scoped to the program being designed with participating schools.
How it compares to other options
Circles combines live peer groups, tutor feedback on group work after every session, and institutional progress visibility.
| Modality | Live peer learning | Tutor support | Peer learning | Feedback | Flexible schedule |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-paced online courses | No | No | No | No | Yes, fully asynchronous |
| LMS content libraries | No | No | No | No | Yes, asynchronous |
| University extension programs | Yes, lecture-style | Partial, course by course | Partial, varies by course | Partial, in graded work | No, fixed academic calendar |
| In-person workshops | Yes, single-day | Yes, during the workshop | Yes, in person | Partial, no follow-up | No, fixed date |
| Conferences and travel PD | Yes, lecture-style | No | Partial, in hallways | No | No, fixed date and place |
| In-house PD teams | Yes | Yes, depends on internal capacity | Yes, within the school | Variable | Variable |
| One-to-many webinars | Yes, lecture-style | No | No, mass chat | No | No, fixed date |
| External consultants | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes, depending on scope | Partial |
| Circles | Yes, weekly peer meetings | Tutors review group work after each session | Yes, groups of 2–5 teachers | Yes, on group work after every session | Yes, multiple time slots |
Frequently asked questions
How are the groups of 2–5 teachers formed?
Each participant creates a circle or asks to join one, and the person who created it accepts the request. Each group works together for the full course through structured Circles sessions, which gives time to build the trust needed to share what is working and what is not.
Does a tutor attend each Circle meeting?
No. Each peer group works through a structured Circles session together. Tutors review the group's deliverable afterward and are available to support the group when needed.
Does it work without disrupting class hours?
Yes. Each circle agrees on its own meeting time, so teachers can meet outside their class hours. The training runs in parallel with normal school operations, with no class replacement and no substitute teachers required.
What kind of feedback do you get after each session?
After each session, tutors provide specific feedback on the group's work: responses to the practical activity, observations on how to apply what was learned in the classroom, and questions to bring to the following session. Feedback is continuous, not concentrated only at the end of the course.
How does TeachView relate to Circles?
TeachView is our classroom-observation and AI-supported feedback tool: it records classes, transcribes them, and helps leadership teams have feedback conversations with their teachers. It pairs with Circles when an institution wants to close the learn-practice-observe loop. They can be contracted together or separately.
How do we scale this for our whole network?
We have run cohorts with teachers from dozens to hundreds of schools in parallel. Teachers create circles of 2–5 people or request to join one, each circle agrees on its meeting time, tutors give feedback after each session, and progress reporting is consolidated per school. We define the scope together in an initial conversation.
Start with your team
Look at the courses in the catalog, or let us talk about what your institution needs.