I want to use this week’s blog to respond to a request we have gotten from many of you regarding lesson plans for specific topics and exercises that you might use in your residential curriculum discussions. While most of us agree that these conversations are important to establishing important resources and connections in our communities, it is often hard to come up with exciting, creative ideas that will spellbind your students and make your faculty excited about adding this dimension to their already busy schedules.

Here at Durango Institute, we are in the process of creating a series of 45 minute lesson plans on common areas of residential and student life. Please help us by commenting on topics that you would like to see included or topics with which you have had good success. If you have a lesson plan that you would like to share, please mail it as an attachment directly to me at carol@durangoinstitute.com. Check our new Residential and Student Life Curriculum page for a template and description of the areas we are including. (Be sure to suggest one that we have forgotten!

Thanks for your help – we hope to have a good series of lesson plans available by the end of this school year.

Join our conversation about schools.  Carol W. Hotchkiss, the Director of the Durango Institute, will post weekly questions or observations related to issues we are hearing about in our work with schools.  Add your reactions and read what other educators have to say.

Feel free to raise your own questions or voice your concerns.  In the busy life of schools, it is important to keep the big picture in focus and collaborate with colleagues across the country and abroad.