AUBURN – The KIDS Consortium will hold a Service-Learning Institute for Educators on Tuesday through Friday, June 24 to 27, at the Hilton Garden Inn Auburn Riverwatch.

The institute, appropriate for new and experienced service-learning educators, will be interactive and collaborative, with experienced practitioners sharing their creativity and expertise.

Participants will develop project ideas and practice strategies integrated with curriculum requirements and assessment models in order to build a collaborative environment in the classroom, help students reflect and celebrate accomplishments.

Institute participants will be able to articulate the difference between service-learning and other community-learning models; plan and implement a high quality service-learning project; build a collaborative classroom environment; build partnerships and utilize school and community resources; understand the importance of reflection; and develop a service-learning plan that integrates curriculum and assesses local and state standards.

Participants will also receive and become familiar with the KIDS As Planners Guidebook, a step-by-step guide full of tools and strategies for implementing a high quality service-learning project.

Registration deadline is May 30. Registration fee of $400 includes breakfast and lunch all days, KIDS As Planners Guidebook, tools and resources and contact hours certificate. In addition, two or three graduate credits are available from Salem State College/Northeast Consortium.

A limited number of scholarships are also available. Contact KIDS Consortium for more information.

The institute will be facilitated by KIDS Consortium education consultants Tracy Harkins, Barbara Fiore and Matt Robinson. Attendance is mandatory all four days.

Based in Auburn, KIDS Consortium helps transform classrooms and communities through an award-winning educational model that has touched more than a quarter-million students to date. KIDS assists teachers, administrators and community partners as they work with kindergarten to grade 12 students to identify, research and address community challenges – an approach known as service-learning.

Founded in 1992, KIDS is a nonprofit organization that serves more than 40 school districts throughout New England. For more information, visit, www.kidsconsortium.org.