Professional Development Institutes and Workshops

Our teacher-leaders offer signature professional development and leadership programs for teachers and faculty, and design customized in-service programs for local schools, districts, and higher education institutions. AWP also partners with learning institutions like museums and libraries to create exciting programs for teachers and youth that leverage the power of writing to inspire and extend learning beyond the school walls.

All of our programming is designed to address the Virginia Writing Standards of Learning (SOLs)

Teachers during workshop

PD leadership training begins in our intensive institutes, which train our TCs to provide evidence-based workshops to their peers, reinforcing our belief that teachers are the best teachers of teachers. From 2001 forward, we have hosted institutes on our campus nearly every summer. Topics include:

  • Harnessing the Power of Generative AI in Your Classroom (Upcoming: June 2-4, 2025) Register now.
  • (Re)Telling Appalachia’s Story: (2022-23), supported by NWP/National Endowment for the Humanities and 400 Years of African American History Commission, this institute brought teachers together to learn and develop lesson plans about Appalachia’s diversity. In the following year, together with their students, teachers created podcasts and curated museums in their schools based on the content they researched.

PD program topics we have offered:

  • Motivating the Reluctant Writer
  • Teaching Code-Switching to Students Who Speak Vernacular Dialects
  • Using Journals to Teach Math
  • Digital Storytelling for Elementary Writers
  • “Drawing” Students into Writing with Art at the Middle School Level
  • Multi-Genre Research Writing for High School Students
  • Language, Legends and Lore
  • Using Rubrics to Teaching Writing
  • The Power of the Portfolio
  • Teaching Writing to Students with Disabilities

To schedule a Professional Development opportunity in your district or organization, contact: AWP Director Amy Clark at adc5q@uvawise.edu or Co-Director Hope Cloud Lyons at hcloudlyons@wisek12.org