New Mexico teachers are called upon to inspire generations of youth, but who inspires them?
University of New Mexico faculty authors with this goal in mind will host a special weekend institute for middle and high school teachers July 15-16 at the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. The deadline to register is May 1.
Teachers will develop strategies for teaching and writing and experience “the intellectual and emotional stretching that comes with the reflective practice of writing,” said Wanda Martin, Teachers’ Institute director and UNM English Professor.
“Teachers, like all of us, need to be lifelong learners. UNM faculty can contribute to that learning, and it is in UNM's interest to help prepare students who will attend the university in the future,” she said.
“We know that young people benefit from exposure to the arts and that it grows their ability to express ideas and to think critically,” Martin added, “but the intense focus of contemporary K-12 education on skills testing sharply limits students' opportunities to explore expressive writing or to imagine themselves as writers.”
Sara Bernstein, chair of Albuquerque High School’s English Department, attended the institute last summer, including a workshop with UNM Associate Prof. Diane Thiel, author and poet.
“How inspirational is it to have a poet recite her work and the work of great poets? The words on the page are electrified as sound gives them life,” Bernstein shared. In the fall, Bernstein used sections of Thiel’s book, ‘Writing Your Rhythm: Using Nature, Culture, Form and Myth” as a teaching tool in her creative writing class.
“This year I would like to design a monologue slam,’ Bernstein said.
Sponsored by UNM’s College of Arts and Sciences, Teachers’ Institute, Taos Summer Writers’ Conference and English department, faculty authors at this year’s institute include Thiel, Sharon Oard Warner, Levi Romero, Rudolfo Anaya and Evelina Zuni Lucero.
Teachers’ Institute programs are free of charge to New Mexico teachers. For more information and to register for the Teachers' Institute at the Taos Summer Writers' Conference, visit the institute Web site at Teachers' Institute or call Wanda Martin, 277-5027.
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu