Purpose: This article describes an effort to ease the tension between boundary spanning roles for interns participating in a yearlong Professional Development School (PDS) program. In order to do this, the structure of a Social Studies Methods course was revised to mimic a professional learning community (PLC) and assignments were not evaluated for grades. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual paper that relies on self-reflection as well as student reaction, work samples and survey data. Findings: The findings demonstrate both practices contribute to a collegial and less stressful environment for interns, while not affecting the quality of work submitted. Originality/value: This paper highlights two of the nine NAPDS essentials, Professional Learning and Leading (3) and Boundary Spanning (8), and describes the ways both are incorporated and addressed in a PDS situated methods course. Describing course revisions, including the implementation of an ungrading practice, provides examples for potential replication.