2016 Summer Institute Applications are due in one week!

TCs--
Thank you for recommending potential applicants for the 2016 Summer Institute: Writing in a Changing World and for reaching out to your colleagues. We appreciate your efforts over the past month to get the word out about the SI.

Now we are asking for your help in following up. Please get in touch with your prospective summer fellows again and ask them if they were able to obtain the application materials, if they need a recommendation from you, if they have any further questions, and most importantly, emphasize that the Summer Institute is an opportunity worth pursuing. Your personal story is the most effective way to communicate this. The flyer is located right on our blog page in the column on the right titled, "Programs and Information."

Applications are due one week from today, so please don't hesitate to make this final effort to encourage your colleagues to apply. At yesterday's leadership meeting, we heard from some TCs that colleagues occasionally question the application process. We understand this concern, so why do we do it? National Writing Project Summer Institutes have traditionally been Invitational in nature. The SI is not merely a PD (Professional Development) opportunity, but it is the initial step in cultivating teacher leaders for our writing project site. We are looking to identify teachers who will get the most out of the investment we make in developing their leadership capacity. That is why we ask teachers to write a cover letter to demonstrate their interest in an inquiry project and to forecast what they hope to get out of the experience in the long term. The Invitational Institute is the gateway to the writing project and embodies the philosophy that the best teachers of teachers are other teachers.

It takes time and effort to communicate these messages, and we appreciate all of your hard work to publicize not just the Summer Institute, but also the philosophy of the writing project. Thank you for making an extra effort this week as we approach the deadline (March 21) to apply.