Teachers are essential and they cannot do it alone. Now more than ever, families and community members are needed to support children's learning recovery. Accessible training can help make a difference for students.
The Learning Center for Community Educators is an online learning platform with nearly 200 nanocourses that break down teaching and learning competencies into easy-to-understand tips. These community educators (families, guardians, mentors, and other supportive community members) can learn how to support children in a wide variety of areas, from reading skills to math strategies to emotional self-regulation and systems thinking.
The Hub was created by ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College as part of the Arizona Community Educators Initiative, funded through a state grant-funded program aimed at pandemic-related learning recovery, and continuing through partnerships with organizations across the country that leverage the platform as their go-to training resource for their team members working with students.
“ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College has created a dynamic hub where interactive and nano courses are offered to the community,” tech & Learning judges said in selecting it as the winner The best of back to school 2024. “From literacy and math to ELL, this is a great resource for community groups to understand and implement curriculum.”
Educational Support
High-quality tutors are needed now more than ever. Pandemic-related school closures exacerbated learning gaps, particularly for disadvantaged students: a 35% learning loss as a result. Tutoring can help students catch up and accelerate their learning, leading to improved academic performance and positive effects on students' emotional development and well-being.
Many schools already have the support of tutors and paraeducators. They also have other staff members, volunteers, and family members they can rely on to help teachers catch up on their students' learning. The challenge lies in how to train them to be confident, engaging and effective when working with students. The Community Educator Learning Center was designed specifically for this purpose.
More than 7,000 users (up from 3,500 users in early 2024) have signed up to access the platform, which is free to Arizonans through the 2024-25 school year, and subscriptions are available to organizations outside of Arizona. (Register here with the code “Community” for a free 30-day trial. Arizonans will have access until June 2025).
A year ago, Access was rolled out to support pilot programs that have proven successful and are still active, such as hundreds of high school career and technical education students taking nanocourses to help them serve as student success coaches for elementary school students. . Additionally, as part of ASU's Arizona Indigenous Communities Educator Preparation program, indigenous community experts have developed nanocourses to help train a network of extended kin to assist indigenous students. Additionally, more than 1,700 high-impact tutors from organizations such as Step Up Tutoring, Teach for America Ignite Fellowship, OnYourMark Education, and Grand Valley State University, with support from Annenberg Learner, receive tutor training and onboarding through nanocourses.
Upon completion of training courses assigned by their tutoring organizations, many will be eligible to earn a High Impact Tutor microcredential.
The Community Educator Learning Hub is a learning platform for community members, regardless of whether they have professional teaching experience, to assist professional educators with the learning of their K-12 students.
The online tool, available 24/7 and developed by award-winning faculty from ASU and other community organizations, was designed so that tutors, mentors, family members, paraeducators, volunteers and other community educators are better prepared to help with the students' experience in the classroom and on one. -to one in person and virtually. Nanocourses help community educators by improving their instructional skills, increasing their confidence, and elevating their sense of preparedness.
Each nanocourse takes just 15 minutes to complete. The courses break down teaching skills into easy-to-understand tips. The nanocourse approach reduces cognitive overload, decreases the risk of interruption, and encourages course enrollees to review content multiple times, increasing interest, skill and knowledge retention, engagement, and performance.
More than just general teaching techniques, courses include subject-specific content and come in packages (e.g., early literacy, reading, math strategies). And nanocourses are not simple videos on demand; Each features engaging, interactive and fluid learning modules that require active responses and allow users to earn badges and certificates.
School systems have limited resources available to help students through teachers and staff, time, and budget. The Community Educator Learning Center is engaging, time-saving training for community members who can support children's learning in schools. It is easy to implement as a training protocol and not only provides consistent and reliable training for all its users, but also helps provide deeper, more personalized learning experiences for students when these community educators take advantage of this training.
Schools and organizations are using the Community Educator Learning Center to:
- Help tutors build relationships effectively and use evidence-based practices.
- Empower paraeducators and preservice teachers to lead instruction.
- Equip families with math and reading strategies to support children at home
- Make School Community Members Impactful Reading Buddies
- Ensure new volunteers have access to helpful training 24/7
Research from the Institute of Education Sciences has revealed that there has been a delay in learning resulting directly from the closure of schools due to the pandemic and that recovery is possible, in part by using some form of tutoring to help educators professionals. An estimated 4 in 5 public schools offer tutoring programs, and these tutors could benefit from training through the Community Educator Learning Hub.
GO HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER FOR EDUCATORS
