With the dramatic changes we saw in 2020, the challenge of educating students has become ever-more challenging.
Over the years, Joel Rose has used his experience as a fifth-grade math teacher to inform his organization, New Classrooms. When he first started teaching, he experienced a challenge that math teachers across the country tackle every day: engaging a whole class with vastly varying abilities.
After founding his company, Rose and his team of experts launched Teach to One, a new innovation set to transform the way students engage with math. Here, he talks about how the company has adapted in light of the COVID-19 lockdown and the future of education.
How Teach to One Has Adapted During Lockdown
Toward the start of the year, the world as we knew it changed almost overnight. Some of the world’s biggest companies had to make the switch to remote working and flexible systems. Fortunately enough, as a digitally-savvy business, New Classrooms was prepared.
“Like many organizations, we went fully remote in March and haven’t opened the office since then. The team has been terrific in making the transition, and we’ve learned a lot about how to work effectively remotely,” says Rose.
“In terms of business, soon after schools closed, we asked ourselves whether there were new solutions we could build quickly in response to COVID to allow schools and families to understand the depth of learning loss and give the opportunity for students to catch up.”
As part of the company’s response to the pandemic and restrictions, the team created three new offerings as part of the Teach to One Roadmaps suite. These new approaches – Teach to One Roadmaps Free, Teach to One Roadmaps Home, and Teach to One Roadmaps Plus – were all released in the fall to teachers and parents.
Roadmaps Free gives students the chance to take a free diagnostic assessment, which quickly identifies their math abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Roadmaps Plus provides pre-, on-, and post-grade-level math lessons based on the outcomes of a student’s initial diagnostic assessment. . For just $15 per year, schools can use the Roadmap Plus approach to track and monitor each student’s progress. Similarly, the Roadmaps Home approach allows parents to work alongside their children and help them gain important math skills along the way for $9.95 a month, per student
While New Classrooms has adapted its Teach to One offering to meet the demands of the pandemic, the organization has stayed true to its original goal to help children catch up in math by moving away from textbook-centered education while promoting personalized learning. With that in mind, Teach to One boasts a wide variety of educational media, approaches, and software that teachers can use to engage students.
“History is watching all of us leaders navigate through these challenging times,” says Rose. “As difficult as these challenges may be, they also present an opportunity to build something more impactful than before, and we are excited to be part of that change.”
Looking Toward the Future of Education
The dramatic shift in education we’ve seen this year could be a glimpse of what’s to come. As we move toward a more technological world, the education sector is following suit and beginning to adopt a variety of mediums. For that reason, Rose believes that Teach to One is in an ideal position to play a major role in that transformation.
“I think this moment really has the potential to accelerate a long-overdue transition in how we approach learning,” says Rose. “It’s time to ‘turn the page’ from a textbook-centered model of instruction to models that can better support teachers and students. We hope to be well-positioned to help facilitate that transition and play an active role as it happens.”
Needless to say, traditional teaching approaches are quickly becoming outdated. One of the central drawbacks of these methods is the idea that all students learn the same way and at the same pace. That is simply not the case. On the other hand, Teach to One arms teachers and parents with the tools they need to offer a personalized approach.
“The vast majority of classrooms use textbooks as the primary ‘technology’ that drives students’ learning experiences,” says Rose. “Textbooks can be uninspiring and assume that the same lesson is what’s best for each student. We plan to continue to innovate so that each student can get the most impactful lesson.”
About Teach to One
In 2011, New Classrooms launched the immensely popular Teach to One solution. The learning approach has now transformed how schools teach math. Previously, the co-founders, Joel Rose and Chris Rush launched the School of One initiative, which helped inspire Teach to One’s innovative and effective approach.
New Classrooms is best known for its Teach to One 360 solution, which offers personalized lessons for each day. The approach blends eight modalities that support children and enable them to engage more effectively with math concepts.
Learn more about Teach to One at http://www.teachtoone.org.