CTI offers eight content-rich seminars annually for CMS teachers, led by expert faculty members from UNC Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith University. CMS teachers (CTI Fellows) determine seminar topics and also collaborate with professors to develop the seminar curriculum. CTI promotes a collegial atmosphere in which teachers and faculty become professional resources for each other. While each seminar focuses on a specific subject, many seminars incorporate interdisciplinary ideas. Some seminar topics may also involve exploring the cultural and institutional riches of the Charlotte region.
Seminars begin with preliminary meetings in the Spring, followed by independent reading and study during the Summer, and then meet weekly for two hours over the course of the Fall semester. The Institute supports its teacher Fellows throughout the process with an orientation, curriculum writing workshops, and individual conferences with seminar leaders. Teachers participating in CTI seminars have access to UNC Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith University campuses and their facilities, including libraries and museums.
As a culmination to their seminar work, each CTI Fellow creates an original curriculum unit to apply what was learned during the seminar to her or his own classroom. Fellows share their units with other teachers in their schools, and all units are published on the CTI website. This collection of curriculum units created by CTI Fellows constitutes an online archive that has become a valuable resource for Fellows, their teacher colleagues and teachers around the world with internet access.
Visit the Applications tab to learn how to apply for for future seminars. Check the CTI website in January each year to find the current year’s seminar descriptions and link to CTI Seminar Application.
More Information
- 2024 Seminars
- 2024 CTI Fellows
- Documenting the Modern Black Freedom Struggle in Charlotte, NC
- Teaching Beyond the Text: Incorporating Artists into the Humanities Classroom
- Using Popular Culture to Teach Critical Thinking
- American Blindspot: Revealing the Tangled Roots of Race, Religion, and Politics in US National Culture
- Thinking Through Artificial Intelligence Using Literature
- Integrating Aging Education in the PK-12 Curriculum: Combating Ageism through the Classroom
- Needless Suffering: Critical Theory and the Classroom
- 2023 Seminars
- 2023 CTI Fellows
- The Graphic Novel
- Race, History, Change, and Social Activism: Baseball’s Impact on America
- All Roads of Thought Run Through Oz: Teaching Any Topic using The Wizard of Oz
- A Freshwater Splash: Urban Stream Ecology and Biodiversity
- The Importance of Repetition: Dance and Culture
- Reflection and Its Role in our Cycle of Continuous Improvement
- Creating a Balanced and Equitable Learning Culture
- It Takes a Candidate
- 2022 Seminars
- 2022 CTI Fellows
- Exploring Memory and Race in America
- Life Narratives in the Classroom and Beyond
- Understanding the Science of Light: A Hands-on Approach to Learning with Implications for STEM Around the World
- What is Identity?
- Charlotte as Teaching Canvas: Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms and Equity-Mindsets by Engaging in Local African, Latinx, and Southeast Asian Diasporic Spaces
- Carolina Cuisine: Understanding the History and Science Behind the Evolution of our Crops and Food
- Moving to Learn: Experience, Embodiment, and Transformative Teaching
- 2021 Seminars
- 2021 CTI Fellows
- Southern Children’s Literature in the Classroom
- Using Digital Mapping to Study History, Race, and Gentrification
- Addressing Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health in the Classroom
- Embodied Teaching and Learning
- Climate Refugee Stories
- The Philosophical Foundations of Education
- “Oh My, Aren’t You Wearing Some Nice Plastic!”: The Chemistry and Culture of Black Women’s Hair
- The Essential Peace: Innovating and Integrating Action Peacebuilding in the Classroom
- 2020 Seminars
- 2020 CTI Fellows
- African American Poetry & the Idea of Citizenship
- “You were IN the Water?” Urban Waterways: Problems and Opportunities
- Narratives of Muslim Life in America
- WWI and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century
- Illuminate Yourself! The Science of Glow
- Anti-Racism and Pedagogy: What Does it Mean to be an Anti-racist Teacher?
- Mindfulness & Education: Transforming Learning Through Awareness
- Black Girl Magic (Mis)Understood: Representations and Perceptions of Black Women and Girls in the Education System
- 2019 Seminars
- 2019 CTI Fellows
- Frankly Speaking: White Privilege
- How to Build a Human
- Childhood and the City Space in Literature
- Children in War and Conflict
- Climate Science and Solution Strategies
- Africa: Beneath the Headlines
- Writing in Mathematics
- Time Travel: Using Music to Explore Past, Present, and Future Messages
- 2018 Seminars
- 2018 CTI Fellows List
- The Art and Chemistry of Light
- It’s About Time
- Nurturing Nature: Epigenetics as a Way to Explore Social Justice
- Writing about Our Lives: A Genre Study of Memoir
- Exploring American Sacred Values
- “A Person’s a Person No Matter How Small”: Teaching Human Rights
- Insights into Latino Communities in Charlotte Today
- Animals, Culture, and Society
- 2017 Seminars
- 2017 CTI Fellows List
- Using Mathematics to Understand Social Issues
- Media and Minorities: Unpacking Stereotypes
- Chemical Interactions in the Body
- Memorials, Memories, and American Identity
- Doing Science: Hands-On Learning in the Laboratory
- Cultivating Visual Literacy
- The Rise (and Fall) of Democracies around the World
- From Self to Students: Canvassing Art to Explore Identity
- 2016 Seminars
- 2016 CTI Fellows List
- Literacy and Literacies in the 21st Century
- How Science is Done: A Behind the Scenes Look at Scientific Research
- The Many Faces of Capitalism around the Globe — Past and Present
- Writing with Power: No Fear Here
- FUNdamental Ideas in Math for Grades PreK-12
- It’s a Small World! Exploring Science at the Tiniest Scale
- Tracing the Legacy of Hispanic Cultures — 1492 to Today
- Exploring Memoir — From Picture Book to Digital Story
- 2015 Seminars
- 2015 CTI Fellows List
- Exercise and the Brain
- What Makes a Nation?
- The Origins of Human Language
- Fundamentals of Mathematics: Problem Solving and Process Standards
- Peace Education: Psychological Factors that Endorse War
- Integrating Concepts in Life Sciences
- Africa: Moving Beyond Popular Culture
- Supernatural Figures in Theatre, Film and the Brain
- 2014 Seminars
- 2014 CTI Fellows List
- Artificial Intelligence
- The Global Energy Challenge
- Metamorphosis: Transformative Experiences
- Intersections of Science, Technology and Culture
- Human Agency
- The Art of Fiction: Close Analysis, Style and the Novel
- Visual Storytelling in Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture
- Heroes, Rebels and Rock Stars: Cultural Icons in Modern Europe
- 2013 Seminars
- Charlotte as a New South City: Using the Collections at the Levine Museum of the New South
- The Nature of Energy: How We Use and Store It to Power Our Everyday Lives
- Math and Sports
- Imagining Modern Bodies: Disability and Art at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
- Grammar for the Real World
- Human Social Groups
- Chemical Magic
- Urban Encounters: Hispanic and African American Literature
- 2012 Seminars
- African American Literature of the Civil Rights Movement
- All Immigration is Local: Exploring the New Geography of Immigration
- American Political Parties: Their Failures and Their Futures
- Entertaining with Math
- Environmental Science and Climate Change
- Reading African American Lives
- Reading Media Imagery: Critical Thinking and Literacy
- The Science of NASCAR
- 2011 Seminars
- 2010 Seminars
- 2009 Seminars