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Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois

@ciatillinois.bsky.social

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Emphasizing preparation and continuing professional development of early childhood, elementary and secondary teachers and teacher educators.

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Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jan 10

We at Curriculum & Instruction at The University of Illinois hope everyone has had a great start to the new year! 🔷🔶🔷🔶🔷🔶

We are working hard to ensure that May 2025 brings another year of addressing critical issues of learning, teaching, and justice!

Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Aug 25

🔔 Big news for IL schools! @IllinoisDHR, in collaboration with @educationillinois.bsky.social, has created the Racism-Free Schools training, and it's now available! Equip your district with this tool to address and prevent racial harassment. Bit.ly/ILRacismFreeSchools #ILRacismFreeSchools 🔶🔷✊🏽🍎📚

Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jul 31

DEADLINE TOMORROW AUGUST 1ST. Illinois Civics in the Classroom is an initiative aimed at supporting low-income communities by engaging youth in civic action.

Learn more and apply here: tinyurl.com/IllinoisCivics
#Illinois #Civics #Education #Americorps #VISTA

Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jun 14

Congratulations to Dr. Giselle Martinez Negrette, C&I Assistant Professor, on receiving the 2025 NAEd/Spencer Fellowship! Her research explores how emergent bilinguals use language to shape identity and relationships, advancing equity in education through sociolinguistic inquiry. 🔶📚🔷

Reposted by Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois

Education at Illinois @educationillinois.bsky.social · Feb 11

Congrats to @ciatillinois.bsky.social professor Rochelle Gutiérrez on receiving the Distinguished Scholar award from the Research in Mathematics SIG of @aeraedresearch.bsky.social.

Gutiérrez Recieves AERA 2025 SIG/RME Distinguished Scholar Award

blogs.illinois.edu

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Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Feb 26

Join us in celebrating Dr. Stephanie Toliver for her powerful op-ed, "Book Bans Don’t Make America Great." 📚✊🏽✨
In this piece, Dr. Toliver encourages us all to engage in meaningful conversations about the importance of access to ideas and questioning whose stories aren't being told. lnkd.in/gGhwa5tT

A photo of Dr. Toliver is highlighted above her name and title as assistant professor at the University of Illinois. A brief excerpt from her recent op-ed "Book Bans Dont Make America Great" is shared: “The role of education is to prepare students for the future, and that means giving them the tools to understand and navigate the world around them. But when we remove books that confront the complexities of oppression, power, and justice, we fail to equip young people with the knowledge they need to make sense of the world. This isn’t just an issue of local control or parental rights; it’s a matter of civil rights. And the fight to keep diverse books in schools is, in fact, a fight for the future of all students.“

Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Feb 1

Congratulations to the Early Childhood
Professional Education Programs group of Fall 2024
Graduates! 🎓 🔷🔶

Last weekend our graduates had their online
recognition ceremony. Your
future is bright, and we can’t wait to see all the
amazing things you will accomplish! 🌟

Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jan 31

Congratulations to Dr. Gutierrez on being awarded the 2025 SIG/RME Distinguished Scholar Award! Dr. Gutierrez is paving the way for a more inclusive and effective teaching approach for all students. We look forward to seeing the impact of her ongoing research! 📚✨

Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jan 18

Congratulations to our students for successfully completing the 18th annual GeoJam! Your hard work in engaging middle schoolers in math is inspiring and helps ignite their passion for learning. Special thanks to Dr. Gloriana González-Rivera and Adam Poetzel for their leadership. 🌟📐🍎

Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jan 10

Congratulations to our Assistant Professor Dr. Catherine Dornfeld Tissenbaum, and Doctoral Student Annie McClellan on being awarded a Campus Research Board Grant for their groundbreaking project "Teachers’ Time Matters: Investigating Time Demands on Novice Teachers." 🌟 👏

A post celebrating Assistant Professor Dr. Catherine Dornfeld Tissenbaum and Doctoral Student Annie McClellan for being awarded the Campus Research Board Grant. Their project "Teachers' Time Matters: Investigating Time Demands on Novice Teachers" is highlighted. To the left of the post is an image of Dr. Dornfeld Tissenbaum, her name and title. Below her, is an image of Annie McClellan, her name and affiliation. A project description is provided. "To support students, teachers must engage in a multitude of tasks around planning, instruction, assessment, and reflection, along with other administrative tasks, throughout the school year. As a former classroom teacher for 13+ years, doctoral student Annie McClellan is no stranger to this experience, and she wants to give teachers tools to manage their time efficiently. With Dr. Dornfeld Tissenbaum’s support, Annie is investigating how new teachers use their time to manage teaching responsibilities. In her mixed-methods study, Annie asks teachers to keep a time diary for a typical week of teaching. Then, Annie analyzes the time diary and meets with the teachers to reflect on time and workload management. By engaging in this work, Annie hopes to develop scalable mentoring strategies, resources, and technology toolkits for new teachers, which she will study in her future dissertation."

Dr. Catherine Dornfeld Tissenbaum is an assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois. Her research investigates how to design scaffolds to support learning and inclusion of diverse learners in formal and informal learning environments.
Annie McClellan is a Ph.D. student in the CREATE program within the Curriculum and Instruction department. She taught for 15 years before pursuing her doctorate, teaching English Language Arts in grades 6-12 and serving as a K-12 media specialist. She is particularly interested in researching questions surrounding teacher retention and teacher education.

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Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jan 10

We are proud to highlight 3 incredible computer science education programs overseen by Dr. Todd Lash: (1) Teaching Endorsement in Computer Science Education, (2) Computer Science and Education Learning Sciences, and (3) Computer Science and Education Secondary Education. 🌟📚💻

A slide titled Program Spotlight highting 3 Computer Science Education programs at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The 3 programs are listed: Teaching Endorsement in CS, CS + Ed Learning Sciences, and CS + Ed Secondary Education. Below is an image of Dr. Todd Lash alongside his name and title "Director of Computer Science Teacher Education in Curriculum and Instruction."

This slide highlights the 3 programs.

The Teaching Endorsement Sequence is designed for practicing teachers to assist in attaining their state endorsement to teach CS at the 5-12 grade level.

$100,000 in private funding has been secured to assist teachers with tuition assistance as they pursue their endorsement in CS.

In partnership with collaborators at the Discovery Partners Institute, a new mentoring program has been created and implemented for our endorsement students to help them build on their strengths and combat attrition.
Our inaugural class of the CS+Ed undergraduate program began their studies in Fall 2023. There are two strands to this program; The CS+Learning Sciences Program and the CS+Secondary Education Program. The CS+Learning Sciences program prepares students to create educational technology solutions and products. The CS+Secondary education program prepares students to become high school computer science teachers. This is the only undergraduate CS education licensure program in the state and one of only a handful in the country!

Quarterly meetups with our CS+Ed students give them time to build community, and ask questions of faculty and staff. During each meetup we create opportunities for students to learn about new internships and early research opportunities from partners across the state.

This slide highlights the work of Dr. Todd Lash in Computer Science Education.
As the state lead for the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Illinois chapter, Dr. Lash and his colleagues secured $117,000 to support state-wide computing education summits held each of the last two years. These summits function to bring together teachers, researchers, out of school providers and industry professionals to coordinate our efforts to create equitable CS education opportunities. Dr. Lash and ECEP Illinois are also facilitating the creation of a state-wide strategic action plan for broadening participation in computing. This plan is being created by four working groups looking at issue of teacher education and capacity, research, funding and outreach and CS education pathways.

Dr. Lash and ECEP Illinois are working closely with the Institute for Advancing Computing Education to secure a data-sharing agreement with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to create a new landscape report on the state of CS education in Illinois. As part of this work, we plan to disaggregate data in novel ways, such as by legislative districts, to enable us to have more meaningful conversations with state leaders around policy needs at the state and local levels.

Dr. Lash and ECEP Illinois are participating in the Common Metrics Project (CMP). The Common Metrics Project was created to enhance the use of data, across and within each of the 30 ECEP states, in driving systems change and to prioritize making data accessible to everyone. This approach empowers computer science education (CSEd) advocates at all levels—from K-12 to government—to advance equitable pathways in computer science education. By establishing shared definitions, gathering relevant data, adopting a unified system for analysis, and presenting the data through dashboards and visualizations, the project equips state teams with the evidence necessary to guide advocacy, shape policy, and implement practices that d…

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Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois @ciatillinois.bsky.social · Jan 10

Reposted by Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois

Education at Illinois @educationillinois.bsky.social · Jan 9

Congrats to @epsyatillinois.bsky.social professor and @ciatillinois.bsky.social interim head Helen Neville on being named a professor at The Center for Advanced Study.

Neville is the second Education faculty member named CAS professor, joining James D. Anderson.

Neville Named Center for Advanced Study Professor

blogs.illinois.edu

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