Open Institutes
During both the summer and the school year, TRWP offers teachers in our service area the chance to participate in various Open Institutes. These institutes usually happen at East Carolina University, our host institution, and leverage the resources of the university to help teachers engage in meaningful professional development that centers on a particular topic. Open Institutes may be one or two weeks long and differ from Advanced Institutes in that we welcome any teacher from our area to participate. These institutes provide CEU credit for licensed teachers in our service region at a minimal cost.
Summer 2013
During Summer 2013, the TRWP is offering one Open Institute for K-college teachers. Faculty from across all content areas and grade levels are encouraged to apply. Space, however, is limited to 20 participants per session.
One Day, One Tool: Digital Writing Across the Curriculum
Dates: June 17 – 21, 2013
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Cost: $25.00 (per session) OR $100.00 (for all 5 sessions)
Limit: 20 teachers / session
Institute Leader: Stephanie West-Puckett
Join us for a day or for the whole week to explore digital writing tools for supporting literacy across the curriculum. Each day will feature a different tool — mornings will focus on making and sharing digital texts and afternoons will be devoted to making and sharing instructional plans for integrating tools in your classroom. Session facilitators will model digital writing workshop strategies that foster 21st Century literacies such as play, performance, negotiation, judgement, networking, etc. and provide opportunities for participants to connect with other digitally-savvy Tar River Writing Project and National Writing Project Teacher-Consultants to expand and strengthen their professional learning networks.
Open Badging for Authentic Assessment
Facilitator: Jennifer Smyth, Hertford Early College
June 17
Explore how educators are using open badges to recognize and assess Common Core & Essential Standards skills that students are demonstrating both in and outside of school. Badges allow learners digitally to represent the skills they’ve learned and display those in digital spaces that matter to them while building capacity for self-directed learning and analytical self-reflection.Beautiful Six Word Memoirs with Thimble
Facilitator: Robert Puckett, JH Rose High School
June 18
In a world that is increasingly dependent on digital technologies, programming literacy will determine who can produce and who can consume in a web-enabled world. Join us to learn how words and images join on the web to make powerful texts with a basic introduction to CSS and HTML. While no previous coding experience required, you will need a six-word story to tell.Digital Daybooking with Evernote
Facilitator: Janah Adams, Gardner Webb University
June 19
Learn how Evernote can be used as a digital daybook to support networked writing, research, and publication. Evernote is an open-source (free) technology that works on PCs, Macs, and mobile devices (iOS, Android) to provide cloud-based storage for all types of notes: images, drawings, audio & video recordings, texts, files, etc.Level Up! Using Gamestar Mechanic and Activate to Develop New Literacies around the Common Core
Facilitator: Chris Bethel, East Carolina University
June 20
With lessons for STEM, language arts, arts, and social studies, Scholastic now offers lessons in game design to reinforce core concepts by having students build original games. Explore content-specific game words, build your own, and plan for how these tools can promote critical thinking, content learning, and engagement in your classroom.Creating Text-Based Conversations with VoiceThread
Facilitator: Uvonda Willis, JH Rose High School
June 21
VoiceThread allows users to create multimodal texts (words, sounds, images), share those texts digitally, and engage others, both in and outside the school, in conversations around them. Learn how VoiceThread can be used to build and scaffold conversations around complex texts, promoting collaborative interpretation, meaning-making, and authentic response.
Summer 2012
During Summer 2012, the TRWP is offering two Open Institutes for K-college teachers. Faculty from across all content areas and grade levels are encouraged to apply. Space for both institutes, however, is limited to 16 participants.
Digital Is … Re/Composing:
Developing 21st Century Literacies Across the Common CoreDuring this “Digital Is …” institute, teachers will explore various emerging technologies and develop a set of “best practices” around using digital tools to enhance student literacies. This two-week institute provides teachers with the space and time to explore PowerPoint, Prezi, iMovie, and Audacity, as well social networking/teaching sites like Edmodo, to discover their potential for transforming classroom practices and student projects.
Participants will receive copies Because Digital Writing Matters and The Non-Designer’s Design Book, as well as a host of other materials to enliven discussion and support the development of new classroom projects with students.
Dates: June 18 – 22 & June 25- 29, 2012
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Cost: $Free* (includes books and materials)
Limit: 16 teachers
Facilitators: Stephanie West-Puckett & Will Banks
Participants will receive 6 CEUs for participation in the two-week institute.
*Grant-funding allows us to offer this institute at a discounted rate.
High School Writing Centers: Taking Student Writers to the Next Level
High school writing centers provide an opportunity for teachers and students to work together to build community through writing, collaboration, and service-learning. Around the country, writing centers are popping up in middle and high schools, and much of their success lies in the way they change the culture of schools into spaces where student tutors become leaders among their peers and simultaneously develop as more effective writers themselves.
In this Open Institute, participants will explore “best practices” in developing school-based writing centers and will receive copies of The Successful High School Writing Center, which will be extremely helpful when they return to school in the fall, energized to develop a writing center at their own schools. The institute will also provide a space for teachers to hear from experienced high school tutors, and to develop plans and materials for their own writing centers.
Dates: July 9 – 13, 2012
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Cost: $Free (includes books and materials)
Limit: 16 teachers
Facilitators: Jennifer Smyth & Kerri Flinchbaugh
Participants will receive 3 CEUs for participation in this one-week institute.
