Teachers & Counselors

Attending Summer Training Institutes

By attending a 2-week summer course you will earn certification to teach the course in which you participated. The Summer Training Institute courses are hosted each year by WPI and the other PLTW Affiliate Institutions. This intensive training is often co-taught by an experienced PLTW teacher (master teacher) and a university faculty member and provides you with the following:

  • Exposure to the curriculum & other PLTW teaching resources
  • Practice learning the course-specific software
  • Opportunity to network with other PLTW teachers
  • Option to earn graduate credit for your STI coursework

Becoming a PLTW Teacher & Registering for Summer Training Institutes

To attend a PLTW course at the WPI Summer Training Institute (STI), you must complete the following process:

  1. In order to register for our STI, your school must have submitted their signed school district agreement to Project Lead The Way, and you must be a registered PLTW teacher.
  2. If you are a new PLTW teacher and need to register, you must contact your PLTW School District Delegate (designated by your district) and request that they add you as a teacher within the PLTW Extranet. Click here if you need help identifying your Delegate. If your Delegate needs assistance adding a teacher, instructions are available on the PLTW FAQ webpage under Extranet and the question, “How do new teachers get registered.” 
  3. Once the School District Delegate adds you as a teacher, you will receive an email from PLTW with your login information to access both the PLTW Extranet (a.k.a. Teacher Console) and the PLTW Virtual Academy.
  4. Before you register with WPI for our STI, you must complete the PLTW pre-assessment for core training by logging into the PLTW Virtual Academy. Then click Engineering Core Training Pre-Assessments, then the course you intend to train in this summer.
  5. Once you achieve a 75% or better, please pre-register for the STI with PLTW after March 14 by logging into the PLTW Teacher Console, clicking on Professional Development, and registering.
  6. After registering for the STI on the PLTW Teacher Console, you will receive an email from WPI directing you to complete our WPI-specific registration.

Massachusetts teachers may not go out-of-state for PLTW training unless the course desired is not offered at WPI. If a teacher has extenuating circumstances that make it impossible to attend WPI’s STI, the teacher must contact Affiliate Director Martha Cyr to arrange taking the course in another state.

If you are an out-of-state teacher who cannot attend a course offered in your state and want to attend our session, please contact your state’s University Affiliate Director for their approval. If approved, WPI will provide you with a reservation code for a seat in our STI to be used on the STI registration link within the PLTW Teacher Console.

Please note course offerings are dependent upon enrollments. If there is insufficient enrollment, the course may be cancelled. WPI will finalize our course offerings approximately one month before the start of our STI.

Information on WPI's upcoming STI can be found on our Summer Training page.

Becoming a Master Teacher/Core Training Instructor

If you teach at a Certified PLTW school, have attended training for a PLTW course and taught that course for at least one year, you are eligible to become a Master Teacher!

As a master teacher, you co-deliver the STI courses with another master teacher or a faculty member at one of the affiliate universities. Look for an email from PLTW each fall requesting applications for this opportunity.

Guidance Counselor Training

Guidance Counselors are instrumental in promoting to and targeting students who might be interested in taking PLTW courses. For this reason, annual Counselor Conferences are held in New England to provide counselors with a comprehensive understanding of the Project Lead The Way curriculum. For a PLTW school, a representative from the guidance department should attend an annual Counselor Conference. Please check the Guidance Counselor Conference page for posting of dates and times of upcoming conferences nationwide.