Wells Fargo has awarded $50,000 to support the Charlotte Teachers Institute, an innovative partnership among UNC Charlotte, Davidson College and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to strengthen teaching and learning in local public schools by cultivating content knowledge, creativity, leadership skills and collaboration among CMS teachers.
“Charlotte Teachers Institute provides a significant career development opportunity for teachers in our region,” said Jay Everette, community affairs manager at Wells Fargo. “By participating in the program, teachers create new, compelling classroom curriculum that is then shared nationally with other educators.”
Wells Fargo has supported the institute since CTI’s inception in 2009.
“Teachers and students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have benefitted significantly from the visionary support of Wells Fargo,” said CTI Executive Director Scott Gartlan. “Wells Fargo and CTI share a commitment to excellence, collaboration and leadership.”
This most recent gift will support CTI’s general programming, including seminars that began in late April. Through these seminars, led by UNC Charlotte and Davidson College faculty, CMS teachers learn new content, work collaboratively with other teachers and develop new curricula for their students. Teachers serve as leaders in the institute and choose seminar topics they deem most important and engaging for current CMS teachers and their students. More than 260 CMS teachers, teaching 50,000 students, have participated in the CTI seminars.
An affiliate of the Yale National Initiative at Yale University, CTI provides high-quality teacher professional development led by expert college/university faculty. Programs include the seven-month long series of seminars and special events for teachers, and community presentations, such as the popular Exploding Canons cultural collaboration series.
Currently, 104 CMS teachers in grades K-12 are enrolled in seminars that continue until December. The seminars’ weekly meetings recess during the summer, while teachers immerse themselves in reading and research related to the curriculum units they are developing for their students. These curriculum units generate learning beyond each teacher’s classroom, as the final units are shared with teachers’ school colleagues and are also published on the CTI and Yale National Initiative websites, making them accessible to teachers worldwide.
CTI programs are made possible by a joint commitment of resources from CMS, Davidson College and UNC Charlotte and through the generosity of private funding institutions such as Wells Fargo. The institute is housed within the UNC Charlotte College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.