Planning Tools · Montessori Makers Toolbox
Year-Long PD Planning Template
An editable Excel workbook for planning a full year of Montessori professional development — with suggested topics, differentiated staff tracks, and a Beginning of Year tab.
$197
The Problem This Solves
Most Montessori PD calendars are built reactively.
A problem surfaces. PD gets scheduled to address it. The year fills up with disconnected sessions that don’t build toward anything, and by spring no one remembers what the through-line was supposed to be.
Children experience the culture adults create. That culture is built, in part, through the professional development adults share — how it’s structured, how consistently it runs, whether it treats guides as professionals with something worth building on. A year of reactive PD communicates something about how the school regards its staff.
This template gives leadership teams a starting structure: a full calendar with suggested topics already placed, differentiated tracks for guides and assistants, and a separate Beginning of Year tab for in-service planning. The goal is not to constrain the calendar but to give it a spine so the year builds intentionally rather than by accident.
What’s Included
Five tabs. One workbook. The whole year.
A fully editable Excel workbook — compatible with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Choose the planning template that fits how your school structures PD time, and adapt everything else to your school’s context and annual focus.
Instructions Tab
Overview of the workbook, guidance on which template to use, and a suggested topic sequence by quarter — from Back to School through End of Year.
Simple Template
One PD topic per week. Best for schools with unified all-staff meetings. Columns for topic, who is leading, and notes. Clean and fast to fill in.
Medium Template
Two time blocks per week — first half and second half — plus separate columns for Assistants and Specials. Best for 90-minute PD sessions with some differentiation.
Full Template
Three time blocks (AM, Mid-Day, PM) with individual columns for Guides, Assistants, Learning Support, Programs, and Extensions. Built for schools with complex, multi-track PD structures.
Beginning of Year Tab
A separate planning grid for in-service week — before the year-long calendar begins. Covers orientation, full-day PD, level-specific sessions, and supervisor meetings.
Suggested Topics Pre-Filled
Every week of the school year has a suggested topic already placed — conference prep, assessment dives, progress reports, and full-day PD flags. Replace anything that doesn't fit.
Who It’s For
For the person responsible for how adults grow.
Whether you run PD yourself or coordinate it with a leadership team, this workbook gives you a planning structure that survives the school year intact — not something that gets abandoned by October because it was too rigid to adapt.
- Heads of school planning the adult development arc for the year
- Instructional coaches building a coherent weekly PD structure
- Leadership teams that want guides, assistants, and specialists on differentiated tracks
- Schools preparing for accreditation that requires documented PD planning
- New administrators inheriting a school with no consistent PD history
- Schools that have tried year-long planning before but lost the thread mid-year
- Any leader who wants the year's PD to build toward something rather than react to things
How to Use It
Start with the Instructions tab, then choose the template that fits your school’s PD structure — Simple, Medium, or Full. Fill in your full-day PD dates first, since those anchor everything else. Then work backward from conferences, assessment windows, and progress report deadlines to place prep time. The suggested topics in column B are a starting point; adapt, rearrange, or replace based on your annual focus. Most schools find the Beginning of Year tab easiest to complete first, since those dates are usually fixed before the year-long calendar is fully built.
Year-Long PD Planning Template
$197
A complete, editable Excel workbook — ready to open, adapt, and use every week of the school year.
Buy Now →.xlsx file — opens in Excel or Google Sheets. Download link provided after purchase.
Related Tools
Tools that work alongside this one.
Adult Culture Framework
The PD calendar structures when adults learn together. The Adult Culture Framework builds the norms and expectations that make that learning possible.
Learn more →Montessori Leadership Operations Playbook
Meeting rhythms, delegation frameworks, and accountability systems that give the leadership team the structure to actually run the PD calendar you plan.
Learn more →Staff Handbook Toolkit
Professional development expectations belong in writing. The Staff Handbook Toolkit is where the PD commitments in your calendar get codified for staff.
Learn more →For deeper organizational work, Advisory provides the strategic partnership to implement these tools alongside a broader engagement. Learn about Advisory →