Opportunities for immediate, impactful growth through professional development do not occur too often, especially the longer one teaches. Thankfully, I had the great fortune of working with Lynne West this past academic year.  Lynne worked first with our department to develop curriculum using backward planning, asking each member of our department to design an assessment and unit that we would implement in the near future.  Lynne returned a few months later to meet with us and discuss how the implementation had gone.The American School London