For Teachers - Overviews of Annual Events
The Open Air Institute is a place-based form of professional development that integrates state and local history, geography, and culture with writing and educational practices. This unique, largely outdoor opportunity exposes participants to a wide variety of locations and experiences as we explore the features that make Rhode Island special. Each year’s event centers around a common theme. Past years’ themes have included topics ranging from rivers and coastlines to libraries and farms.
In our New Teacher Camp we welcome our rising teachers into the RIWP community. New Teacher Camp is designed for teachers entering year 1–3 of teaching in any age group and content area. Join us for a collaborative and supportive professional development opportunity. This experience will provide you with strategies for successful teaching practices, efficient day-to-day routines, self-care, and meeting others who are on this journey with you. NTC’s camp counselors are experienced teachers who will lead full-group gatherings, provide individual writing time, invite guest speakers, and offer many opportunities for learning. This event is free unless you would like to enroll in CURR 520 for 3 credits.
A diverse mix of experienced and soon-to-be educators will listen to and learn from an equally diverse mix of speakers and presenters. In a typical RIWP fashion, all will enjoy a professional development experience that is both informative and enriching.
Join us for a wonderful day that follows our typical pattern: we listen, learn, collaborate, write, and share. And at the end of the day, we often feel invigorated by the content and enriched by the camaraderie – as always.
Summer Institute (SI) is at the core of the National Writing Project's teachers-teaching-teachers model of professional development. Our institute is open to all current teachers who serve in K-12 classrooms. All content areas, including speciality areas such as special education and multilingual learning, are welcome to join us. Yep, you read that right: You do not need to be an English teacher in order to participate in this experience!
Ideal applicants are:
- ready to learn new skills and practices for teaching writing
- committed to incorporating writing into their instruction
- within the first 10 years of their teaching career (though if you are past this number, we still encourage you to join us!)
- looking to join a professional community of supportive, like-minded educators
- becoming a RIWP Teacher Consultant and offer PD to colleagues at your school and around the state
- (optional): interested in earning three graduate credits (EDC 540: Teaching of Writing: Practice and Inquiry, from Ȧ)
Past Participant Takeaways
“As an educator and human being, I find myself more enabled to act on behalf of myself, my colleagues, and my students learning what I have during these past two weeks.”
“I was very thankful to focus on re-vision and advocacy after the stressful year I had had; I was able to look back at the advocacy from the previous year and analyze it to move forward and figure out how to better go about it in the future. It made me ready to start fresh.”
Our Summer Sampler is three days of professional development focused on a central theme, with each day tackling that theme through different modalities, settings, and practices. Teachers and pre-service teachers can participate in individual days or take part in all three days at a discount and gain Professional Learning Units:
- $25 per day or $60 for all three days; PLUs provided
- $10 per day for pre-service teachers; $30 for all three days
Write Time is a monthly opportunity to work on your own writing in community with other educator-writers. Prompts will be provided by the facilitator in case you want to play with something new.
WAM stands for Writing, Art, and Movement. These are the hallmarks of our time together. In the past, we've had themes like "Tend Your Garden" where we stamped with veggies and wrote about food memories as well as "The Artist in You" where we created mixed media self-portraits and wrote artist statements with light stretching, yoga, and breathing practices sprinkled throughout. WAM is a refreshing and renewing personal and professional development experience!
