summer vacation · tcrwp · vacation · writing workshop

Summer Institutes Here We Come!

BethMooreSchool

 

All packed up and ready to go! Now, if I can just get this suitcase zipped...
All packed up and ready to go! Now, if I can just get this suitcase zipped…

Just before writing this post, I was putting the final touches on my plans for my week. I’ll be teaching a weeklong summer writing institute, and I have a feeling that many of you, dear readers, will be attending institutes in the coming weeks and months. Whether it’s an institute put on by your own district, or an expert is coming to town, or if you’ll be traveling many miles to take part, I hope that you are as excited about attending your institutes as I am about teaching them.

One of the reasons I love summer institutes so much is that people, generally, are happy to be there. Not that people aren’t happy to be in professional development during the school year, but it is different during the summer. No substitute plans to worry about, no looming deadlines for report cards. Often the teachers I work with during the summer chose to come to the institutes when they could have been sitting poolside, playing with grandchildren, or gardening. Once there was a woman in one of the sections I taught that had just gotten married, and instead of a honeymoon, she came to NYC for the TCRWP July Reading Institute! Now, that’s dedication!

Another reason I love the institutes is that we get to focus, usually, on just one topic. Reading or writing. Take your pick. Having a focus allows us to take more time. During the school year, I often feel like a chicken with its head chopped off, trying to do everything all at once. During the summer institutes, I can set aside the stuff that usually needs to be squeezed into a day, a week, a month, and just focus.

Lastly, the biggest reason that I love the institutes is that I make so many wonderful new friends each summer. Over the years I’ve met participants from around the world. One year, there were teachers from Australia, Sweden, and Chile all in one advanced TCRWP Summer Reading Institute section. I’ve kept in touch with one woman, a literacy coach in New Jersey, for about ten years! Every few months I get an email with a question from her about running records, or reading levels, or post-its versus notebooks–and I love it.

If you’re going to be attending any conferences or institutes this summer, leave a comment here and let our community know where you’ll be! If you’re not attending a formal event, let us know what kind of professional reading or other learning you’re doing. You would be surprised how many people don’t realize that summers are the time when teachers are busy at work learning, studying, preparing, and creating.  Help dispel the myth that teachers have the summer “off.”  Leave a comment and share what you’re doing this summer!

Published by BethMooreSchool

Literacy Coach, Consultant, Author, Graduate Course Instructor, and Mom. Passionate about fostering a love of reading and writing in learners of all ages.

22 thoughts on “Summer Institutes Here We Come!”

  1. A colleague and I received a full Fund for Teachers grant to attend BOTH the Reading and Writing Institutes in August, only to be put on the waiting list for the Writing Institute (we got into the Reading Institute just fine). FAIL. Nevertheless, we will be flying in from Texas to stalk the registration table for potential openings from no-shows. We are so committed to breaking ranks with the rest of our massive district and bringing the Writing Workshop to our campus that there are literally no limits to the lengths in which we’ll go to to ‘persuade’ the registration ladies. Do they like ‘Starbucks’? Done. Donuts? Even better. Juggling? Pantomime? Striptease? Juggling-pantomime-striptease? We’ll do it. Whatever. It. Takes.
    Anyways, looking forward to having our minds blown! (Preferably with our clothes on.)

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  2. I just got home from 3 days at Lucy Calkins’ Writing Units of Study Summer Institute in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I have lots to think about and plan for next year. And… I am certainly grateful that I did not need to write guest teacher plans so I could go. 🙂

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  5. Going to the Aug writing institute at TCRWP with my daughter! Mother -Daughter trip! My fourth summer institute her first! Can’t wait!

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  6. I’m here at the writing institute now, too! Wish I could stay for reading! Such amazing learning crammed into 1 week!

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  7. I’m working with 2 students who are receiving Extended School Year, I attended a tech conference a little over a week ago, and i have been (and will be) checking out stuff in Pinterest and blogs. Last summer I was privledged to attend a Smekens conference.

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  11. I love following my friends’ PD throughout the summer on twitter. Thanks, Fran, for sharing the #tcrwp.
    I’ll be participating in #cyberPD (Reading in the Wild), and joining an informal group of fellow bloggers who want to read Linda Rief’s new book, Read Write Teach.
    And of course I’ll be joining my book loving friends in August for #pb10for10. Reading, writing, and conversing with my friends – the best PD ever!
    And this summer, I plan to finally begin posting to Poetry Friday!

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  12. I am starting the Area 3 Writing Project Summer Institute today in Davis, CA! I am a Kindergarten teacher and I am very excited to learn some new strategies.

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  15. I’m thinking a Summer 2015 “Two Writing Teachers” Summer Institute, like Nerd Camp, only you girls presenting. I’m free all of August, so plan it then! 😉

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  17. I am where you are, at the June Writing Institute at Teachers College. So incredibly excited to be here. I read your post and thought to myself, “Hmm, I could share this post with teachers at my school who are teaching, and hopefully writing, personal essays.” I read your sentence using the phrase about chickens with their heads cut off and became curious about the history of that expression. Why do we use it? Surely the chicken quickly becomes unable to do much of anything. Funny…

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  19. Beth,
    So excited for the Writing Institute this week AND the reading Institute next week! (Awake now because I was afraid I would oversleep)

    I, too, love the focus for one week on a specific topic. Yes, reading and writing are inter-related and we will talk about both, BUT being able to talk about writing for an ENTIRE week is just delicious.

    And it’s way too early in the morning, but this Iowa farm girl could describe the chicken scene. Not pretty and not on this Monday morning. YAY, NYC, TC, and #tcrwp

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