Unleashing great teaching

February 29, 2012

LearnZillion is all about celebrating teachers. In spite of what you might hear in the press, there are many superstars working in our schools, changing the lives of children every day. The problem is isolation. When one teacher figures out a highly-effective way to teach division of fractions, it doesn’t spread to all classrooms. Each teacher has to figure it out on his/her own—not a very efficient system, to say the least.  

LearnZillion celebrates teachers by capturing models of great teaching and sharing them with teachers and students around the world.  Their learning platform includes screencast lessons that are short (3-5 minutes), produced by talented teachers, and highlight the Common Core standards.

Technology is beginning to change the equation around teacher impact. Many talented teachers ask themselves a question every spring: do I continue teaching next year and have an extraordinary impact on a small group of students or do I leave the classroom (to become an administrator, work in policy, etc) in an effort to broaden my impact? That trade-off is starting to disappear.  

LearnZillion is currently recruiting their second “Dream Team” of teachers to create math and ELA lessons this summer that will help other teachers hone their skills and students work towards mastery anywhere and anytime they choose. LearnZillion’s Dream Team goes deep and broad at the same time. In effect, the deeper their skills in explaining concepts, the more likely they are to touch the lives of thousands of students.

If you are or know some teachers who might be interested in joining LearnZillion’s Dream Team, please send them this link: http://www.learnzillion.com/join. Let’s celebrate the superstars in our schools by helping their great lessons reach the children that need it most.