For educators, learning never ends – not even during the summer months. Next week, 100 elementary teachers from Traverse City Area Public Schools will spend four days of their summer vacation attending the TCAPS sponsored Home Grown Institute. The Institute, facilitated by Teachers College of Columbia University, will take place at Traverse City West Senior High School July 21 – 24, 2008.
Teachers participating in the Home Grown Institute will learn about implementing Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study in TCAPS’ K-5 classrooms. The teachers will spend half of the day working directly with the Units of Study and the other half of the day participating as a student
in a Writers' Workshop. The purpose of the Institute is to provide teachers proven methods of improving student writing achievement.
For TCAPS to bring this Institute to Traverse City, Terri Sheldon, Language Arts District Support Specialist and Kathi Dean, Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, first attended a weeklong Institute at Columbia University in the summer of 2007. TCAPS then had to apply to sponsor an Institute and were one of the few districts to be selected. Only 12% of the districts that applied were accepted.
Media is welcome to observe the event. Please contact Terri Sheldon at 231-933-1769 for further information.