Welcome to CTTI: The Chicago Transformation Teacher Institutes

   

Save the Date
 

All CPS high school math and science teachers
and administrators are welcome!


Saturday, June 2, 2012

Networking Meeting , 9 am - 3 pm

University of Illinois at Chicago
Stipends and lunch provided
Previous attendance and registration not required
Next Networking Meeting: September, 2012


Thursday, June 7, 2012
Workshop 3 ninth and final meeting, 5 - 8:30 pm

University of Illinois at Chicago
Stipends and pizza dinner provided
Previous attendance and registration not required

For maps and a description of this workshop, which is math-focused
but open to both math and science teachers in CPS high schools, please click here.


Saturday, June 9, 2012
Next Generation Science Standards Workshop, 9 am - 3 pm

The NGSS are now out! All CPS high school teachers
and administrators are welcome to join us
for an in-depth presentation and discussion

Illinois Institute of Technology
Stipends and lunch provided
Previous attendance and registration not required


Monday, June 25 - Friday, June 29, 2012
Leadership Workshop, times TBD

University of Illinois at Chicago
Stipends and lunch provided
Registration required

Next Leadership Workshop: Summer, 2013


Previous attendance at CTTI events and
advance registrations
are often not required

For more info and to give advance notice that
you will attend (always appreciated!),
email Dean Grosshandler, Project Coordinator,
at grosshan@uic.edu


These courses now closed to new registration

Logic and the Secondary Mathematics Curriculum will be led by Professor Susanna Epp. This course is open to any math teacher who has not taken it already. The class will meet on DePaul's Lincoln Park campus Tuesdays from 5:00 - 8:15 pm, beginning January 10, 2012 and ending March 13. As with all CTTI courses, CTTI teachers will receive a $1000 stipend upon completion of the course.

Science: Teacher Leadership: Energy, Transportation & the Environment will be led by Professor Kim Gray. This course is open to any science teacher who has not taken it already. Math teachers who wish to enroll should contact Dean Grosshandler. The class will meet on Northwestern University's Evanston campus on Tuesdays from 5:00 - 8:00 pm, beginning March 27 and ending June 5. To register, please follow the instructions here.

Math: Inquiry into Secondary Math Pedagogy will be led by Professors Mindy Kalchman and Lynn Narasimhan. This course is open to any math teacher who has not taken it already. Science teachers who wish to enroll should contact Dean Grosshandler. The class will meet on DePaul University's Lincoln Park campus on Tuesdays from 5:00 - 8:30 pm, beginning April 10 and ending June 5. To register, please follow the instructions here.

Topics in Teaching Secondary Mathematics: Making Sense of Numbers and Symbols will be led by Professor Bonnie Saunders. This course is open to any CPS high school math teacher who has not taken it already, as well as any science teacher with sufficient math background. The class will meet at UIC in SEO 600 on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 - 8 pm starting on May 7, and continuing on May 9, 14, 16, 21, 23, 28 and 30, June 4, 6, 11, and 13. The last 3 class sessions will be from 2 - 5 pm on June 18, 20, and on Friday, June 22. (There will be flexibility in the schedule the last week of the course to meet teachers' needs.)

This course will be fully subsidized by CPS. Approved CPS teachers will not have to pay any tuition, but will have to sign the standard CPS commitment agreement and adhere to CTTI guidelines for participation. As with all CTTI courses, CTTI teachers will receive a $1000 stipend upon completion of the course. Teachers who wish to enroll or who have questions should contact Dean Grosshandler, Project Coordinator, at grosshan@uic.edu.

 

Workshop 3 offered this Fall and Winter

Workshop 3, Incorporating, Selecting, Refining, and Implementing Curricula in High School Math and Science, builds on previous courses and workshops to address two key tasks for CTTI teachers: 1) Planning 12th grade curricula, and 2) Developing leadership in vertical integration within schools in support of better outcomes for students. Workshop 3 meetings are held monthly during the school year and build on current teacher work in schools. You are free to attend individual meetings as your schedule allows. Fall dates included October 18, November 8, December 13, 2011 and Winter and Spring 2012 dates include: February 9, March 8, April 12, May 10, June 7, from 5 - 8:30 pm. Please see the Cohort 1, 2, and 3 schedules below for more detailed CTTI schedules.

As with other CTTI activities, teachers will receive a stipend for their participation.


Do you have questions about CTTI? Please contact Dean Grosshandler, the CTTI Project Coordinator, at grosshan@uic.edu

More Information

Program Overview

Course and Workshop Details

Other information

How to Apply

We encourage teachers to contact us about becoming part of CTTI, whether or not they are part of a school team at this time. School teams: Please review the CTTI informational files linked to above before completing the application. As part of the process of preparing your application, we highly encourage you to schedule a meeting with us and your team at your school.

 

  • Link to CTTI School Team Application and Teacher Questionnaire coming soon!

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. We will review applications and provide responses as quickly as possible. If you have any questions, please email Dean Grosshandler, Project Coordinator, at grosshan@uic.edu. Thank you!

About CTTI

The Chicago Transformation Teacher Institutes (CTTI) is an NSF-funded Math Science Partnership of five universities (University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago, and Northwestern University) and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Its aim is to increase the content, pedagogical, and leadership skills of teachers through a school leader-team approach.

The CTTI teacher program includes several components in addition to networking programs:

  • Coursework in mathematics, physical science, and life and environmental science. The courses provide for increased content knowledge by teachers, including how the content is embedded in contemporary issues and current research. They also support the growth of deep knowledge required for strong cross-curricula work. Workshops on leadership and teaching that provide increased skills in how to use content to understand classroom practice, including instructional design, selection of classroom materials, pedagogy, and assessment of student knowledge.
  • Improved curricula for schools to use in 12th grade capstone and AP classes. These curricula will be part of a vertical alignment of all four years of high school science or mathematics.

Benefits for teachers

All courses in the core CTTI program are graduate-level university courses and can be applied to a degree program.  Please note that participation in the CTTI program does not ensure automatic acceptance into a degree program. For information on the exact number of credit hours that can be transferred into a degree program, please contact a graduate advisor at the host institution. 

The CTTI has the exact structure required for teachers to be able to obtain the new Teacher Leader Endorsement (TLE) of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE 2009). This endorsement has been developed to enable districts to work with University partners and teachers to develop leaders within schools that are not necessarily on an administrative track.

A second aspect of teacher leader work involves grades 9-10-11. In this case, teachers lead an examination of the vertical and thematic integration of instruction in their schools (of course, they will also be teaching in one or more of those grades). Particular goals include (a) leading departments in considering the instructional implications of the math or science reasoning characteristics of the ACT College Readiness Standards; (b) determining specific instructional components that strengthen or weaken student preparation for grade 12; and (c) providing professional development experiences that reflect emerging skills in translating particular content ideas into useful classroom practice.

Thirdly, the leadership components of CTTI support the development of teacher leaders within the school. Their work fits within the existing and developing plans for overall leadership in the school, leading to stronger departments that can work well with the overall school plan as developed by the school principal and Local School Council.

Benefits for schools

Schools with teachers participating in the CTTI benefit in three particular ways. First, the teachers work directly on 12th grade science and math curricula, critical to providing students with college and career readiness. The CTTI courses bring teachers into contact with new ideas and they are expected to change their plans to adapt these for classroom use. At the same time, teachers purposefully bring content they learn in courses into their 12th grade plans. This will build over the course of the institute, culminating in their CTTI-supported work within Workshop 3, which will then focus on supporting their selection of materials, development of course planning and pacing materials, and determining and procuring classroom supports for the new course.