Tutor.com Launches MyLivePD™ Online Coaching Service for Mathematics Teachers
NEW YORK – February 16, 2012 - MyLivePD™ Online Coaching Service, the first and only on demand professional development program, is now available to all mathematics teachers, announced Tutor.com, from the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Conference on Education. This is the only service that connects a teacher to an experienced coach online for immediate real-time collaboration around all planning topics, including differentiating instruction, classroom management, Common Core transitions, creating assessments and more.
Funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the service was first launched in September 2011 as a pilot program with more than 200 algebra teachers from Baltimore County School District, Hillsborough County Public Schools, Tucson Unified School District, several Teach for America regions and National Education Association members. Now school districts may purchase the service for their mathematics teachers. Individual teachers will also be able to purchase their own account with a credit card or purchase order from their school starting in March 2012.
When a teacher needs a planning partner, he or she can just log in, ask a question and engage with an experienced coach. From classroom management challenges to pedagogy and lesson planning to student assessment, teachers are free to ask it all and coaches are always there to help, in a private and confidential setting.
“I plan out my lessons to the last detail to make sure I’m engaging my students, but sometimes I hit a wall,” said Mr. Mathew Doty who has taught for five years at the Crossroads Center, an education center that is part of the Baltimore County Public Schools and is participating in the MyLivePD pilot. “I love that now I can just get online and work with a coach whenever I want. Before, I had to wait months for a workshop. This is so much better because I can ask my specific question and have an immediate solution.”
Over 90 percent of teachers connecting to coaches as part of the pilot are using information from their coaching sessions that very same week in the classroom.
Questions can be very specific, such as how to help students understand an algebra concept or more general, such as integrating technology and collaboration into the classroom. There are no schedules or appointments needed. The service is available Sunday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET. Extended hours are offered Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET.
MyLivePD supports the growing trend of using technology to help target professional development to individual teacher needs. Online professional development saves school districts money and scarce resources while keeping teachers in the classroom. For more information visit www.mylivepd.com.
About Tutor.com
Tutor.com is the world’s largest and highest-rated online tutoring service. The Tutor.com network of over two thousand professional tutors and career specialists have delivered more than 7 million one-to-one tutoring and career sessions in a proprietary online classroom optimized for learning, since 2001. Tutor.com powers tutoring and homework help programs for the Department of Defense; school districts across the country; colleges and universities; the states of Alabama, Alaska, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota and Rhode Island; the District of Columbia, and thousands of public libraries. Tutor.com is the exclusive online education partner for the American Association of School Administrators. For more information, please go to stg-www.tutor.com/schools.
# # #
For more information
Jennifer Kohn, Tutor.com
212.528.3101 x228 or jkohn@tutor.com
