4Directions

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Summer Institute

Each year, the Four Directions Project conducts a Summer Institute. Teachers, staff members, students, and community members from the 19 Four Directions schools travel to Lawrence, Kansas, the home of Haskell Indian Nations University every July to participate in a high-energy intensive workshop.

Summer Institute 2001
Focusing further on defining the Four Directions curriculum development model, two schools, Muckleshoot Tribal School and Santa Clara Day school were chosen to host regional institutes in the summer of 2001. Muckleshoot's institute focused on the documentation of the model and then the production of the manual. Santa Clara's institute then took the manual and used it to produce numerous examples of curriculum materials, which were then placed in the 4D resource database.
Santa Clara Day School Regional Summer Institute, July 23-27, 2001 [Word Document]

Summer Institute 2000
As a way to help ensure sustainability of the Four Directions model, in the summer of 2000, the project moved from a centralized summer institute to a regional summer institute concept. All 19 schools were offered the opportunity to submit proposals to be host sites. Three schools were selected based on their plans and technology infrastructure. Indian Island, Hannahville and Seba Delkai hosted the first group of regional summer institutes.
Proposal to host a Regional Summer Institute (RSI)
Seba Dalkai Summer Institute

Summer Institute 1999
This year's focus was on creating collaborative projects that will help schools work together using network technology. Participants worked with people from different schools to create an online resource called "Celebrating Cultural Connections." These shared items represent each school's community and culture and will serve as a springboard for further collaborative projects in the upcoming years.
Celebrating Cultural Connections
Summer Institute Project Guidelines
What Summer Institute Looks Like

Summer Institute 1998
The Third Summer Institute in 1998 featured a three-day pre-institute, technology-specific section where a limited number of participants learned about network wiring and NT server setup. QuickTime Virtual Reality and Avid Cinema were a major part of the Institute's intranet and school projects.
Planning and Building Your School's Web Pages
"Against All Odds": The Art of Wayne Wildcat

Staff photograph

Summer Institute 1997
The Second Summer Institute in 1997 was shortened to one week and extended and built upon the prior year's experiences. Many schools used HyperStudio to create projects.
University of Kansas, Four Directions, Site Visit Summary September 97 through June 98

Staff photograph

Summer Institute 1996
The first institute held in 1996 was two weeks long and featured introductions to both PC and Macintosh hardware, the World Wide Web, and HyperStudio along with a hundred other topics! Because so many of the Four Directions schools are located in rural areas, this inaugural Summer Institute was the first chance for many to access the World Wide Web and to make their own web pages.