If professional learning in your school feels inspiring in the moment but hard to sustain in practice, you’re not alone. Follow Me Forward™ offers a human-centered model for helping teachers learn beside one another in their own classrooms — with the structure and support needed to maintain real, sustainable change.
For educators and school leaders ready to re-think professional learning, move beyond one-time PD, and create Collaborative Learning Loops for lasting change.
For educators and school leaders ready to re-think professional learning, move beyond one-time PD, and create Collaborative Learning Loops for lasting change.
A practical model for professional learning that actually works.
A practical model for professional learning that actually works.
Follow Me Forward™
INTRODUCING THE Follow Me Forward™ MODEL
The problem is that traditional professional development often stops before the real work begins.
Everyone is working hard,
but lasting change is not visible.
IF YOU WORK IN SCHOOLS, THIS PROBABLY FEELS FAMILIAR...
New initiatives are introduced. Strategies are shared. Expectations are raised.
Teachers attend the training, take in the ideas, and return to classrooms filled with real students, real needs, and very little time to figure out what implementation should actually look like.
The issue is not a lack of effort.
It is not a lack of care.
It is not that educators are unwilling to grow.
New initiatives are introduced.
Strategies are shared. Expectations are raised.
Teachers attend the training, take in the ideas, and return to classrooms filled with real students, real needs, and very little time to figure out what implementation should actually look like.
The issue is not a lack of effort.
It is not a lack of care.
It is not that educators are unwilling to grow.
Everyone is working hard, but lasting change is not visible.
Traditional solutions stop too soon.
A workshop can introduce an idea.
A speaker can inspire a team.
A strategy can sound promising.
But professional learning that works requires more than exposure. Teachers need time, structure, and job-embedded support as they practice, reflect, and refine their work in the classroom.
Real change happens when teachers are not left to figure it out alone.
RE-THINK PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
This is why Follow Me Forward™ was written.
This is not another book about doing more. It is a practical model for doing professional learning differently.
After years of working inside schools and classrooms, ERG saw a familiar pattern: professional learning could be thoughtful, well-intended, and even inspiring — but when the support ended, the application often stopped too.
Teachers were being asked to carry new ideas back into complex classrooms alone. Leaders were trying to create change without a structure that could truly sustain it.
And schools were left with the same cycle:
another initiative, another training, another moment of hope that didn’t always become lasting transformation.
Follow Me Forward™ was written to offer a better way.
Born from ERG’s work beside teachers and leaders, this model turns professional learning from an isolated event into a collaborative, job-embedded experience.
Through values, beliefs, and Collaborative Learning Loops, the book shows how schools can move from compliance to collaboration — so teachers learn beside teachers, build capacity from within, and create real change that continues beyond a single session.
Professional learning becomes powerful when it connects to purpose, practice, student growth, and the everyday realities of teaching and learning.
Meaning
Teachers learn beside teachers, building shared practice through connection, support, honest conversation, and meaningful learning in real classrooms.
Collaboration
Teachers are invited into learning through questions, reflection, discovery, and the freedom to wonder what is possible in their own practice.
Curiosity
Change is more sustainable when educators feel seen, valued, connected, and supported as active participants in the work.
Belonging
Professional learning becomes more meaningful when it reflects the real needs, strengths, experiences, struggles, and successes of teachers and students.
Authenticity
Growth begins when educators are supported as learners themselves and invited to keep reflecting, practicing, and moving toward their best professional selves.
Lifelong Learning
THE FOLLOW ME FORWARD MODEL is grounded in values AND BELIEFS that create the conditions for trust, growth, and sustainable change.
Chapters 3-7: Breaking Down The Five-Phase Model
the second half of the book introduces the heart of the Follow Me Forward™, with each chapter breaking down one phase of the Five-Phase process.
Together, these chapters show how professional learning can move beyond one-time training and into everyday practice. Rather than asking educators to implement new ideas alone, the model creates Collaborative Learning Loops where teachers learn beside teachers through observation, demonstration, reflection, feedback, and real classroom application.
Part II walks readers through the specific actions of the model. These phases are cyclical, meaning the work does not end after Phase 5 — it loops back into continued refinement and growth.
Part II: Collaborative Learning Loops
Chapter 2: The Beliefs That Shape Lasting Learning
Understand how adult learning, curiosity, collaboration, and meaning create stronger motivation and engagement.
Chapter 1: The Values That Enable Transformation
Explore the origin of the Follow Me Forward™ model and why traditional professional learning often falls short.
Part I reveals the important and often invisible work of values and beliefs. This section explores how professional learning can shift the instructional culture of a school when it is rooted in lifelong learning, authenticity, belonging, curiosity, collaboration, and meaning.
Part 1: Foundations for Professional Learning
TAKE A LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK
A clear process for moving from compliance to collaboration.
THE FIVE-PHASE MODEL
The model does not end. It loops — helping schools build a system for lasting change.
Phase 5:
Reflect and Reset
Phase 4:
Immerse in Practice
Phase 3:
Practice, Self-Reflect, and Polish
Phase 2:
Build Capacity with Host Teachers
Phase 1:
Create a Culture for Host Teachers
Build a culture focused on learning, collaboration, teacher leadership, and shared responsibility.
School Change
Support engagement, collaboration, higher-order thinking, and authentic academic growth.
Student Change
Strengthen confidence, instructional practice, feedback, and the willingness to seek and use support.
Teacher Change
When educators thrive, students thrive.
Whether you are a teacher, coach, instructional leader, or administrator, this book gives you a practical model for moving professional learning forward.
- how values and beliefs shape the culture needed for transformation
- how Collaborative Learning Loops support teacher growth over time
- what it means for teachers to learn beside teachers in real classrooms
- why traditional professional development often fails to create lasting change
- how to move from compliance-driven PD to Professional Learning That Works
how Collaborative Learning Loops support teacher growth over time
what it means for teachers to learn beside teachers in real classrooms
why traditional professional development often fails to create lasting change
how to move from compliance-driven PD to Professional Learning That Works
Inside the book,
you’ll discover:
Inside the book, you’ll learn how to re-think professional learning:
WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY
Dr. Barbara Zwadyk
"Follow Me Forward is that rare professional learning book that is as honest about the human side of change as it is clear about the technical steps."
Dr. Kim Morrison
"This book delivers what struggling schools need most: a clear path from theory to implementation."
"This book delivers what struggling schools need most: a clear path from theory to implementation."
Dr. Jill Hall-Freeman
"This is not just a book about professional development.
It is a model for transforming how educators learn, grow, and lead together."
"Follow Me Forward is that rare professional learning book that is as honest about the human side of change as it is clear about the technical steps."
"This is not just a book about professional development.
It is a model for transforming how educators learn, grow, and lead together."
Educators and leaders are recognizing Follow Me Forward™ as more than a book about professional learning — it is a practical framework for moving from fragmented professional development to a more collaborative, job-embedded system that supports real classroom change.
What Educators are Saying:
Educators do not need more pressure, more initiatives, or more disconnected training.
They need professional learning that honors the complexity of their work and gives them a structure for collaboration, reflection, and implementation.
Follow Me Forward™ offers a practical model for schools ready to stop applying Band-Aid solutions and start building real change.
This isn’t about doing more.
NO BAND-AID SOLUTIONS — ONLY REAL CHANGE
- Job-embedded support over time
- Implementation rooted in the Five-Phase Model
- Collaborative Learning Loops in real school settings
The book introduces the model.
ERG helps schools bring it to life.
Through job-embedded support, coaching, consulting, and ongoing school partnerships, ERG consultants help educators transition from reading about the model to seeing it in action in real classrooms.
The book introduces the model. ERG helps schools bring it to life.
Through job-embedded support, coaching, consulting, and ongoing school partnerships, ERG consultants help educators transition from reading about the model to seeing it in action in real classrooms.
Want to bring this model to life in your school or district?
Want to bring this model to life in your school or district?
COLLABORATE WITH EDUCATION RESOURCE GROUP
COLLABORATE WITH EDUCATION RESOURCE GROUP
It's time to move forward.
Start with Follow Me Forward™ and discover a practical model for Professional Learning That Works — one built around values, beliefs, Collaborative Learning Loops, and real classroom implementation.
Start with Follow Me Forward™ and discover a practical model for Professional Learning That Works — one built around values, beliefs, Collaborative Learning Loops, and real classroom implementation.
