University News
Math Teacher Institute
June 4, 2012
MACOMB, IL – This summer and next, middle and high school math teachers in McDonough, Hancock, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams, Pike, Brown, Cass, Morgan and Scott counties will be able strengthen their subject-matter knowledge and skills via the Western Illinois Mathematics Teacher Transformation Institute (WI-MTTI).
Made possible by a grant funded through the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and developed and organized by Western Illinois University Department of Curriculum and Instruction Assistant Professor and WI-MTTI Project Director Sebastian Szyjka and WIU Department of Mathematics Professor and WI-MTTI Lead Program Facilitator Jim Olsen, the project will help West Central Illinois 8th-12th grade teachers prepare to transition to the new Illinois Learning Standards that incorporate Common Core Standards for Mathematics.
The 2012 WI-MTTI will run from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, July 9-13, and again from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, July 16-20, as well as two weeks during the summer months of 2013. A 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, June 5 mandatory orientation meeting for all participating teachers will be held in Morgan Hall, room 224, on Western's Macomb campus.
"In the institute, we will use an interdisciplinary STEM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics] approach in applying mathematics for real-world situations," Szyjka said. "We will provide teachers with skills and to show their students how to apply mathematics to real-world problems, integrating math and science."
Although most of the 25 slots for the WI-MTTI are filled, Szyjka said there are five openings remaining for interested teachers in the applicable Illinois counties. He added that math teachers will receive a $100 stipend per day for the 10-day training in 2012 and for the 10-day training in 2013, and they will also be able to earn 130 continuing professional-development units (CPDUs) in year one of the program.
Szyjka also noted that participating teachers will receive a class set of student-response systems from Turning Technologies, a TI-Nspire CX color graphing calculator, as well as data-collection probe ware and resources from Vernier Techology.
"A secondary objective of the institute is to provide teacher training for formative assessment, including the use of the student-response systems and related STEM technologies. During the 2012-13 school year, each teacher in the program will participate in our 'Effective Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers' professional development program, in collaboration with Western and the Illinois State Board of Education," Szyjka added. "Teachers will conduct action research projects and enroll in online professional-development modules through the Illinois Virtual Classroom portal."
The WI-MTTI is funded through a $280,000 ISBE "Illinois Mathematics and Science Partnerships Program" grant ($140,000 per year for each of year of the two-year project) and was developed with help from Southern Illinois University Carbondale's faculty member Frackson Mumba, a professor in SIUC's curriculum and instruction department, and a co-principal investigator responsible for the program's math and science integration. Abha Singh, assistant professor in curriculum and instruction at WIU, is the WI-MTTI project manager.
A principal's commitment form, along with the teacher application form, and program information, can be found at wiu.edu/coehs/wi-mtti/.
Interested teachers can also contact Project Coordinator Susan Owens at the Regional Office of Education #26 (McDonough and Hancock County) at (309) 837-4821 or via email at sowens@roe26.net .
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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