In July 2008, 13 Area high school teachers (one was a college teacher, though a retired high school teacher) gathered on the campus of San Antonio College to learn more about how we can prepare our students for college. In July 2009, we held another Open Institute in which 19 local teachers participated. The goal of these Open Institutes was to immerse these high school teaches in the college environment--to see Teaching Demonstrations of college writing assignments, hear from other college professors in other disciplines, and hear from other parts of the college experience such as assessment, student development, and the SAC writing center. The idea was to better inform these high school teachers where their students were going and what they would need to do well in college. We agreed that an inverse Open Institute needs to happen where college professors emerse themselves in the high school environment--if college professors knew better where their students are coming from, then these professors may be able to create better avenues for students to transfer previous learning into the new college environment.

Below is information on the July 2008 Open Institute
--Flier for July 2008 Open Institute
--Schedule
--2009 Open Institute information

Community Social Networking Site: Crossing2College
--site password protected, contact Lennie Irvin to join (lirvin AT alamo.edu)

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If you are interested in setting up a similar Open Institute for teachers at your school district, contact Dr. Roxanne Henkin, Director, San Antonio Writing Project (roxanne.henking AT utsa.edu)