Winter
Institute Guide for Mentors & Presenters
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| Welcome to the Winter Institute staff.
If you are a mentor or mentor
associate, please read the overview and:
If you are a presenter, please read
the overview and:
If you are fortunate to be both a mentor
and a presenter, please read all three sections.
You may also want to read the follwing
sections:
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| Overview:
A meeting of mentors and presenters
is scheduled sometime before the first session of
the Winter Institute. Refer to your letter of acceptance
as to time and location. Bring your questions, comments,
and concerns to that meeting .
Your acceptance as a Mentor or Presenter
at the Winter Institute is appreciated. Your value
to Institute participants as a recognized leader in
postsecondary learning assistance providing individual
and group mentoring and consultation for them makes
the Institute a unique professional experience. In
addition, your weeklong participation in Institute
activities, networking with other Institute mentors,
presenters, and participants will, hopefully, enrich
your professional life. You join an impressive list
of past Institute mentors and presenters who served
their colleagues at the Winter Institutes of 1992,
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997.
- David Arendale (University of Missouri,
MO )
- Hunter Boylan (Appalachian State
University, NC)
- Marie Elaine Burns (Skyline Community
College, CA)
- David Caverly (Southwest Texas University,
TX)
- Frank Christ (CSU Long Beach Emeritus,
CA)
- John Earnest (Nassau Community College,
NY))
- Gwyn Enright (San Diego City College,
CA)
- Tom Gier (University of Alaska-Anchorage,
AK)
- Bob Hackworth (St. Petersburg Junior
College Emeritus, FL)
- Karan Hancock (University of Alaska-Anchorage,
AK)
- Eleanor Harner (University of Arizona,
AZ)
- Brad Hughes (University of Wisconsin-Madison,
WI)
- Robert Hashway (Grambling State
University, LA)
- Gene Kerstiens (El Camino College
Emeritus, CA)
- Pete Kresan (University of Arizona)
- Lucy MacDonald (Chemeketa Community
College, WA)
- Wilbert McKeachie (University of
Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI)
- Martha Maxwell (University of California,
Berkely Emerita, CA)
- Sylvia Mioduski (University of Arizona,
AZ)
- Bob Mittan (Caspar College,WY)
- Gen Ramirez (CSU Long Beach, CA)
- Rick Sheets (Paradise Valley Community
College, AZ)
- Socorro Vasquez (University of Arizona,
AZ)
- Yvonne Zeka (Gateway Community College,
AZ)
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SECTION
ONE: WINTER INSTITUTE PHILOSOPHY
The Winter Institute philosophy evolved
as a way to enhance the learning experiences of Institute
participants as they come together in a common location
for scheduled presentations, mentoring activities,
impromptu Special Interest Group meetings, and hands-on
computer activities. At most conferences, participants
do not have opportunities for proactive listening,
periodic review of notes and sharing of insights with
colleagues, time to review their notes to effect closure
of their learning, time to crosstalk with colleagues
at a presentation, and time to pull together their
notes and write action steps.
The Winter Institute philosophy can
be reduced to a series of nine phrases that exemplify
the increased learning opportunities that are offered
during this weeklong professional experience for learning
assistance directors and practitioners. The actions
associated with these nine phrases are consistent
with research findings on efficient and effective
learning. These learning enhancing opportunities set
the Winter Institutes apart from most professional
conferences.
Item # 1: Structure with Freedom.
From the start of the Institute, participants are
reminded that the Institute is the cooperative responsibility
of both staff and participants and that as adult learners
they have the right to come and go as they wish and
to use their time and energy for the good of their
professional careers and usefulness to their institutions.
Although there is structure in the scheduling of Institute
activities, the freedom also exists to modify this
structure when it appears to be in the best interests
of participants or when participants decide modifications
are in their best interests.
Item #2: Collegiality/Networking/Ongoing
Dialogue. Everyone at the Institute is a learner
including Institute staff, mentors, and presenters,
and all participate equally in the weeklong dialogues.
For many participants, the Institute is the beginning
of a collegial network that will continue to expand
throughout their lives as they dialogue on the Internet,
through visitations, and at professional conferences.
Item #3: Collective Intelligence.
The 60 to 70 participants, presenters, and mentors
that make up each Winter Institute represent a cross-section
of learning assistance directors, practitioners, and
developmental education specialists from community
colleges and four and six year universities. The synergy
that evolves from the Institute's weeklong, live-in
interactions creates a dialogue that is very different
from conversations that go on at most professional
conferences.
Item #4: In-depth Common Learning
Experiences. Unlike professional conferences where
participants are deluged with hundreds of concurrent
presentations having little time between sessions
to question the presenters and to explore implications
and applications of a session, the Institute schedules
all presentations as general sessions and schedules
time after each session for participants to reflect,
question the presenter, and dialogue with their colleagues
from a common experience.
Item #5: Mentoring. Mentoring
is a special component of the Winter Institutes. Mentors
are chosen for their experience and expertness in
learning assistance as well as for their collegial
enthusiasm and empathy for the concerns of Institute
participants. The Institute ratio of participants
to mentors is maintained at six or seven participants
to one mentor. Mentors are equally divided between
men and women, and represent a multi-ethnic diversity
that reflects a similar student diversity that Learning
Assistance serves. Participants choose or are assigned
a mentor for the five-day Institute. Mentor/participant
activities include daily overviews at breakfast meetings,
feedback sessions at the end of each day's presentations,
and scheduled consulting sessions with an individual
or an institutional team. Frequently, mentors are
also presenters, session chairpersons, or Special
Interest Group facilitators.
Item #6: Presentation Readiness through
Proactive Listening. Each day, participants meet
with a mentor at a scheduled group breakfast meeting
to preview the day's schedule and to consider presentations
in view of each participant's institutional and professional
needs. Based on the title and an overview of each
presentation, participants are encouraged to make
up questions that they would like the presenter to
answer, hopefully at the presentation or later in
the week at a private consultation with the presenter.
Item #7: Presentation Learning through
Feedback and Closure. After each presentation,
participants have many opportunities to "talk
back" to the presenter's ideas both publicly
at the scheduled follow-up session and at the group
feedback meeting at the end of each day. In addition,
participants can meet privately with the presenter
during the week.
Item #8: Currency in Research, Methods,
and Technology. Institute presentations focus
on the latest information and practices in learning
assistance programs and services. Bibliographic handouts
complement each presentation.
Item #9: "Next Steps" as
Institute Follow-up. One of the features that
sets the Winter Institutes apart from almost all other
conferences is the "Next Steps" session
that is scheduled on the last day of the Institute.
At this two-hour session, participants are first allotted
quiet time to look over their Institute notes, edit,
and summarize them with special emphasis on listing
specific actions that they will initiate when they
return to their campuses. Then in small groups, participants
are asked to share these actions and prepare one or
more large wall charts that list the combined "next
steps" for each group. When all the groups have
made up their charts, a spokesperson for each group
then shares its wall charts with the other groups.
After all groups have shared their "next steps,'
everyone is encouraged to move around the room and
read all the wall charts, adding any relevant "next
steps" that they consider useful to their own
list.
Item #10: Unfinished Business, A
Life-long Learning Process. The Institute dialogue
that evolves from presentations, consultations, and
group discussions does not end with the Institute.
In addition to conventional post-Institute interaction
by telephone and mail, participants can also continue
to dialogue with each other and with their mentors
and presenters through email and on the listserv,
LRNASST, created by the Winter Institute at the University
of Arizona. |
SECTION
TWO: THE WINTER INSTITUTE MENTORING TRADITION
Introduction. As you probably already
know, the word, "mentor," had its origin
in Greek mythology when the goddess Athene assumed
mortal disguise as the Ithican noble Mentor, a friend
of King Odysseus and tutor to his son, Telemachus.
When King Odysseus went off to the Trojan War, he
entrusted his son to Mentor. Today, the word, "mentor,"
refers to a trusted advisor or wise teacher.
Mentoring has always been a part of
the Learning Assistance Institutes. It began informally
at the UC Berkeley Institutes under Martha Maxwell,
continued with an increased emphasis at the CSU Long
Beach Institutes co-directed by Frank Christ and Elaine
Burns, and became an integral teaching/learning component
at the institutes sponsored by the University of Arizona
and co-directed by Sylvia Mioduski and Frank Christ.
It is no exaggeration to state that mentoring is a
critical activity of the Winter Institutes and that
it contributes greatly to their uniqueness as learning
experiences for postsecondary educators in learning
assistance programs and services.
To understand why mentoring is an
integral part of the Winter Institutes, reread "Section
One: Winter Institute Philosophy." In this section
are described nine phrases that sum up the teaching/learning
philosophy of the Winter Institutes. Note that mentoring
is the Institute's formal introduction to Item #2,
"Collegiality/networking/ongoing dialogue."
Mentoring makes Item #3, "Collective intelligence,"
a weeklong reality through mentor group interrelationships
by offering Institute participants many opportunities
to share individual perspectives on Item #4, "In-depth
common learning experiences," since Institute
presentations are scheduled as general sessions for
all participants rather than as concurrent sessions.
The possibilities for learning are further enhanced
through daily mentoring activities specific to Items
# 5 and #6, "Presentation Readiness" and
"Presentation Feedback." In addition, mentoring
assists participants in relating Institute presentations
to their post-institute professional activities as
stated in Items #8 and #9, "Next Steps"
and " Unfinished Business" since the dialogue
that was started at the Institute now can be extended
over the Internet, through the learning assistance
listserv, "LRNASST," and through personal
emailings, as well as through telephone, mail, and
institutional visitations.
Participants are divided into mentor
groups generally for the duration of the weeklong
institute. Each mentor group has five to seven participants.
Assignments are made so that whenever possible a participant's
interests, professional background and position, and
type of institution (community college, four-year
institution, six-year institution, public, private,
or proprietary) are matched with a mentor with similar
interests and background. When two or more participants
are from the same institution, they are generally
not assigned to the same mentor group. Occasionally
a participant will request to be assigned to a specific
mentor.
Mentor groups meet at an initial Institute
get acquainted session, at daily breakfast briefings,
at daily wrap-up sessions, and at the concluding luncheon
of the Institute.
Institute Get Acquainted Session.
At the initial get acquainted session, the mentor
introduces himself/herself. This introduction can
be both personal and professional. Then each participant
is encouraged to do the same with an emphasis on what
each participant hopes to achieve at the institute.
The mentor should explain to the group that it will
meet daily before the first session and again after
the last session to enhance learning through group
questions and discussion.
Daily Breakfast Briefings. At the daily
breakfast meetings, each mentor group will have seating
at reserved tables in a special area of the hotel
garden dining area. Each table can be easily identified
by the individual place cards for mentors and participants.
Mentors should be seated at their tables as early
as possible so that participants can easily find their
group. Breakfast is buffet style. Please note that
tickets will be collected by the hotel staff and participants
should be reminded that they should have their tickets
available. Mentors are responsible during this breakfast
meeting to get participants ready for the day's activities
by going over the schedule for the day suggesting
some questions as "advanced organizers"
for the day's activities and eliciting questions and
comments from each member of the group. This readiness
exercise can enhance participants' learning as they
make up questions that are stimulated by the titles
and descriptions of scheduled activities and as they
make connections to these activities from their past
experiences.
Daily Wrap-up Sessions. At daily wrap-up
sessions held immediately after the last scheduled
presentation of the day, each mentor group convenes
to go over any questions and problems that have surfaced
at the presentations. Participants are invited to
relate presentations to their institutional situations.
Mentor responsibility involves encouraging participants
to look over their notes and share their concerns
with the group.
Optional Scheduled Consultations with
Any Mentor or Presenter. Mentors will be asked to
make up a schedule of times when they can be free
to meet with any Institute participant who desires
special consulting time.
Farewell Institute Luncheon. The final
Institute session is a luncheon on the last day of
the Institute. Seating is by mentor groups. Mentors
will be given certificates for their group that they
will need to sign and distribute at the luncheon.
As each group gets its certificates, mentors traditionally
make a few brief closing remarks.
Post-institute Collegial Opportunities.
Although the scope and nature of these opportunities
are decided by each individual mentor, mentors are
encouraged to initiate email dialogs with their group
members on the Monday following the close of the institute
to remind them of the "Next Steps" that
they intend to take upon their return to their work
place |
SECTION
THREE: GUIDELINES FOR WINTER INSTITUTE PRESENTERS
Since the Institute is not designed
to be a series of non-stop monologues by presenters
with little or no time allotted for participant reflection
and interaction either with the presenter or with
colleagues who have shared the same lecture experience,
the following suggestions are made to presenters.
1) Before beginning the presentation
or as an introduction to the presentation, allow time
for participants to do an immediate preparation through
questions that you pose and that can be discussed
by participants at their group tables. If you prefer,
this can be done by your session chair or by an Institute
staff member.
2) Overview your presentation either
with a handout or a visual (slide or overhead) that
outlines its main points. You may want to do this
as part of participants' readiness.
3) Allow time (3-5 minutes) at the end
of a main point for participants to look over their
notes and share their insights, past experiences,
and concerns with one other colleague. Encourage them
to write out questions for the discussion that is
scheduled after each presentation.
4) If you are using visuals, insure
that words can be read easily from any seat at the
group table farthest from the screen. If possible,
make thumbnail sketches of overheads or slides as
handouts so that participants can concentrate on ideas
and can annotate the handouts with their questions
and comments.
5) Meet with the person chairing your
presentation to go over any information that you wish
emphasized in the introduction to your presentation.
This person will also be responsible for signalling
you as you come to the end of your allotted presentation
time.
6) If you have requested special equipment
or have brought your own equipment for your presentation,
allow time well before the presentation for equipment
hookup and testing. Experience at past Institutes
indicates a need for presentation rehearsal time especially
when using a computer/LCD panel hookup or a VCR with
monitors for videocassette viewing.
7) Remember that you were requested
to bring fifty (50) copies of handouts for your presentation. |
SECTION
FOUR: OPTIONAL PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Among the optional professional activities
at the Institute are participant requests for consultation
time with mentors or presenters; SIG meetings in the
evening, usually scheduled for 8:00 pm thus allowing
a reasonable time for a dining-on-the town activity;
and open computer lab time as announced by the Institute
staff or posted on the Institute bulletin board. During
this open lab time, participants may telnet to their
Internet site to email, access web sites or newsgroups.
The computer lab is staffed by colleagues with those
special "mysterious" skills necessary to
connect to the Internet.
Another optional activity involves the
Institute displays at tables in or near the general
session room. Participants are encouraged to bring
to the Institute copies of any relevant learning assistance
material that they wish to publicize and share. On
a separate table, copies of publications relevant
to Institute sessions may be displayed as resource
materials. |
SECTION
FIVE: SOCIALIZING AND RECREATING AT THE INSTITUTE
The Institute is designed to allow time
and opportunities for socializing and recreation in
Tucson and the surrounding desert areas. These opportunities
include the evening social gathering before the first
day's sessions; the optional "birds-of-a feather"
luncheons; optional Special Interest Group (SIG) luncheons;
dinners-on-the-Town after the day's sessions; a mid-week
break for visits to local museums , botanical gardens,
and zoos; and shopping at bookstores, boutiques, and
southwest specialty stores. In addition to the information
listed below for each of these opportunities, check
at the Institute registration table and hotel concierge
desk for brochures and sample restaurant menus, as
well as directions and maps. A brief description of
each opportunity follow below.
Evening Social Gathering. In
addition to the initial get-acquainted session, the
hotel offers its guests a social hour with free drinks
and food.
Optional 'Birds-of-a-Feather"
Luncheons. Except for the first day's luncheon
when traditionally participants from similar institutions
in size and type meet informally, participants may
arrange additional collegial luncheons.
Optional SIG Luncheons. Participants
may announce SIG luncheons as they find the need to
share information and experiences on learning assistance
related topics.
Dinners-on-the Town. Tucson has
many interesting restaurants that you may want to
try while attending the Institute. Look on the Institute
bulletin board for postings of dining opportunities
that indicate type of cuisine, price range, driver,
and number of passengers.
Mid-Week Break. Traditionally,
the Institute offers a mid-week break with time off
to take advantage of Tucson sightseeing, shopping,
and other local recreational activities. |
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APPENDIX
A: NETWORKING THROUGH LRNASST
During
the Winter Institute of 1995, a learning assistance
listserv, LRNASST, was created at the University of
Arizona to act as an electronic forum for all professionals
who are involved in learning assistance centers, programs,
and services. In 2002, the listserv was moved
to the University of Florida as LRNASST-L. |
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APPENDIX
B: NETWORKING THROUGH PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
During the Institute, time is allotted
for an officer or a designated representative of major
professional associations to brief participants on
the history, objectives, and outcomes of the following
associations that are considered relevant to learning
assistance directors and practitioners:
- ACPA: American College Personnel
Association
- ATP Association of Tutoring Professionals
- CRA: College Reading Association
- CRLA: College Reading & Learning
Association
- NCLCA; National College Learning
Center Association
- NADE: National Association for Developmental
Education
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