Elementary Mathematics Specialist Program at UIC
Enrollment for fall courses begins late June
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Elementary Mathematics Specialist Program at UIC
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What is the program?
The EMS Program at UIC is an 18-month program that includes 5 courses. These courses prepare teachers for the Illinois State Board of Education Elementary Mathematics Specialist Endorsement that can be added to a Professional Educator’s License. All 5 courses can be transferred into the Master’s of Elementary Math Teaching program at UIC.
The courses are designed to enhance grades 1-6 teachers’ mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge, and to expand their tools and skills to become math teacher leaders in their schools. Courses meet primarily online with one initial Saturday face-to-face meeting during each course to cultivate a learning community among teachers.
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How are teachers empowered?
Our program empowers teachers to apply research-based strategies directly to their schools and classrooms, bridging theory and practice through hands-on assignments. Not only are teachers better prepared with resources and insights into teaching and learning that support high-quality mathematics instruction for all students, but they are also better prepared to support their colleagues in improving mathematics instruction.
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Are there prerequisites?
An Illinois Professional Educator’s License for any grade levels and at least one full year teaching experience in grades K-8.
Additionally, you need permission from the program coordinator to enroll. Please contact Dr. Alison Castro Superfine.
Program Description
Courses in our program cover content in the following areas:
Course one content overview
Content focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with relationships, patterns, and representations related to whole number concepts and operations, including attention to teaching and learning in early childhood.
Pedagogical focus: Developing habits of mind consistent with a growth mindset and resources for supporting colleagues and students in developing and sustaining a growth mindset.
Course two content overview
Content Focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with and understandings of rational numbers including multiplicative reasoning, fractions, ratios, and proportional reasoning.
Pedagogical focus: Analyzing formative and summative assessment strategies and exploring resources for improving how data is collected, analyzed, and used.
Coures three content overview
Content Focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with geometry and measurement including exploring tools for supporting students’ investigations as well as working with 2D and 3D shapes and developing familiarity with transformations.
Pedagogical Focus: Facilitating classroom discourse and enhancing opportunities for student agency and student-to-student discourse.
Course four content overview
Grounded in content that includes data, statistics, and probability
Leadership focus: Developing expertise including an emphasis on communication skills and deepening understandings of adult learning such that participants are prepared to:
- Advocate for high-quality mathematics instruction
- Enhance collaboration within and across grade levels
- Support professional learning around high-quality mathematics instruction
Course five content overview
Content Focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with patterns, functions, and algebraic reasoning in contexts that deepen understandings of the connections and dependencies between the content domains of earlier courses.
Pedagogical Focus: Exploring and developing strategies and resources for supporting equitable instruction and for enriching opportunities for ALL students to learn.