June 8-12 marked the week that an Open Institute was held at the Roswell campus. Bernadette S. and I hosted this wonderful and challenging week with 15 very talented and motivated teachers.
We had K-University levels, the discussions were lively and filled with concerns and solutions. Several fellows from previous ISI’s presented their Teacher Inquiry Workshop as a way to facilitate writing across the curriculum. These were met with enthusiasm and a feeling of gratitude as participants eyes were opened to the value of writing with new and exciting ways to incorporate writing into their own classrooms. Evaluations were positive and many (9) expressed a deep desire to attend the ISI for 2010.
We are hoping the OI’s will help seed interest in future ISI’s as well as provide necessary professional development for teachers who have been reluctant to take the plunge in a month long institute.
Of course Bernadette and I could not have done this without the support of Annemarie and Gretchen as well as a model of the OI that was hosted in Portales by Dee and Nell. We were excited and elated to see the process at work!
