New Haven Independent

The photo and the following write-up were contributed by the program’s Josiah Brown:

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute Begins 30th Year of Partnership

On Tuesday evening, January 9, the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute held an Open House for New Haven Public School teachers seeking to learn more about this program and its 2007 seminar offerings.

The Institute’s teacher leadership, including school representatives and contacts from across the district, hosted the event at Yale’s Rosenfeld Hall for their colleagues from New Haven’s elementary, middle, and high schools.

The Institute is an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in local schools and, by example and direct assistance, in schools around the country. Through the Institute, Yale faculty members and school teachers work together in a collegial relationship. Established in 1978, the Institute is also an interschool and interdisciplinary forum for teachers to collaborate on new curricula. Each participating teacher becomes an Institute Fellow and prepares a curriculum unit to be taught the following year. Teachers have primary responsibility for identifying the subjects the Institute addresses. The partnership is a way to support the district’s continuing effort to attract, develop, and retain additional qualified educators in a teaching force of more than 1000 individuals.

The Institute is offering five seminars to New Haven teachers in 2007:
• “American Voices: Listening to Fiction, Poetry, and Prose,” led by Langdon L. Hammer, Professor of English
• “Voyages in World History before 1500,” led by Valerie Hansen, Professor of History
• “Frontiers of Astronomy,” led by Sarbani Basu, Professor of Astronomy
• “The Science of Natural Disasters,” led by David Bercovici, Professor
of Geophysics
• “Health and the Human Machine,” led by W. Mark Saltzman, Goizueta
Foundation Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

At the Open House the Representatives discussed their work in planning seminars that respond to the expressed needs of teachers, and of their students, in New Haven. They talked about the rewards and responsibilities of participating as a Fellow. The Yale faculty members leading the seminars each made brief presentations, followed by informal questions and discussion.

Seminar descriptions and applications are available from the Institute’s teacher Representatives and Contacts in the schools. Printed copies of the Institute’s 2007 brochure (including the schedule) are also available in schools. An online version appears here.

Applications, and completed principal review forms, are due to the Representatives by 12:00 noon on January 30. Seminars begin on March 6. The Institute encourages interested teachers to talk with their school colleagues who are Representatives and Contacts.

Some 1500 curriculum units that Fellows, in collaboration with Yale faculty members, have written for New Haven students since 1978 are available at no charge online here. These materials address subjects from history, literature, art, language, reading and writing instruction to math, science, and health. All members of the community are invited to use these curricular resources for educational, non-commercial purposes.