Tutor.com Launches MyLivePD™, the First Personalized, On Demand
Professional Development Service for Math Teachers
NEW YORK - September 7, 2011 – Tutor.com, the highest rated online tutoring service, launched MyLivePD today, a completely new professional development model for teachers that provides on demand access to live coaches online. Funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this pilot program will be used by more than 200 middle and high school algebra teachers from the Baltimore County School District, Hillsborough County Public Schools, Tucson Unified School District, and four Teach for America regions.
MyLivePD offers a one-of-a-kind PD experience that has never been available before now. Rather than participating in a few teacher professional development seminars during the year, teachers can connect to a live coach as often as they wish throughout the pilot and ask any instructional question. MyLivePD coaches are available every Sunday through Thursday from 2:00 p.m. to Midnight Eastern Time.
How it Works
Whenever a teacher needs help refining a lesson plan, mastering an effective teaching technique, working on a deeper understanding of curriculum content, or just finding a great resource, he or she can log in at www.mylivepd.com and connect to a coach in a private online environment. The experience is personalized to the teacher’s needs at that moment. Coaches have access to information about the teacher’s school, curriculum and standards to enhance the personalized approach.
The coach works one-to-one with the teacher using chat, voice, and an interactive whiteboard where they can explore approaches and concepts together. Coaches may share resources from carefully selected providers and use TI-84 SmartView® emulator or TI-Nspire™ Teacher software provided by Texas Instruments, in the online whiteboard. Teachers have private accounts where they can review their sessions or access a resource 24/7.
Highly -Qualified Coaches
Every coach participating in the program is a certified math teacher with both classroom and coaching experience. Coaches were carefully selected for their deep math content knowledge, awareness of common core standards and prior coaching experience.
Rich Resources
Rich and comprehensive teaching resources are an integral part of the MyLivePD model. Resources available immediately include a confidential algebra self-assessment for teachers from I CAN Learn® IIS; 400,000 educator-reviewed and rated lesson plans and worksheets through Lesson Planet®; and, widely used math manipulatives in Illuminations from The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Additional support will be available later this fall, including PD 360, the largest library of professional development videos with expert commentary and thousands of classroom examples from School Improvement Network, and a highly-engaging online Algebra 1 curriculum from the National Repository of Online Courses. All resources are available 24/7 for participating teachers and can be shared and evaluated during sessions between teachers and coaches.
Measuring Effectiveness
The program will be evaluated by an independent researcher, who will be analyzing service usage data, reviewing related research, and conducting surveys with participating teachers throughout the pilot program. Findings will be published in 2013.
“A decade ago we changed the learning landscape for students by introducing on demand, online tutoring. Today, we are excited to do the same thing for teachers,” said George Cigale, founder and CEO of Tutor.com. “A highly-experienced coach is now available whenever a teacher needs one, and our goal is to improve teacher effectiveness and job satisfaction.”
About Tutor.com
Tutor.com is the world’s largest online tutoring service. The Tutor.com network of over two thousand professional tutors and career specialists have delivered nearly 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; 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 www.tutor.com/schools.
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For More Information
Jennifer Kohn, Tutor.com
212.528.3101 x228 or jkohn@tutor.com
