Thursday, August 27, 2020

Amazing Apps: MicroSchool

As the Coronavirus turns traditional education upside down, parents are turning to MicroSchool.app to connect with other parents and teachers and find alternative options to safely and effectively educate their children this school year.


A free service, MicroSchool.app is a directory designed to bring together students and educators who are looking for non-traditional ways to promote learning in a protected environment. Using MicroSchool.app, parents can connect with other parents and teachers to create an engaging learning experience customized for their needs, including: building an educational micropod (think homeschooling but with a small group of students) with other parents, finding experienced teachers for solo instruction, connecting with tutors to support specific subjects, and consulting with experts to design an educational plan that parents can execute themselves.


MicroSchool.app also provides an opportunity for teachers to use their expertise to guide curriculum decisions and continue to facilitate learning, while at the same time protecting themselves from the potential dangers of traditional large group classroom instruction.  Credentialed instructors can choose to educate a small group of children, tutor a child one-on-one in an in-home or online environment, or to offer guidance on specific curriculums. 


Parents simply register at MicroSchool.app, provide basic information about their needs, and then browse the profiles of other parents looking to connect and teachers available to help. Search functions allow parents to search based on grade, school, or zip code. Teachers register on the site as well, sharing information about their experience, grades taught, their interest in online learning versus in-person instruction, and locations available for in-person instruction. 


Says MicroSchool.app founder Dr. Colleen Long, “ Parents and teachers are quickly realizing that distance learning is not working. Young children are not able to sit and stare at their screens for hours upon hours without the constant supervision of their parents, who are themselves feverishly trying to work at their own, already compromised jobs at a distance. Teachers are realizing the school districts (and internet companies) weren’t prepared for distance learning of this magnitude and are encountering a variety of frustrating setbacks. And no one wants their child to be in the test group that dips their toes into the murky waters that is the traditional educational system.” 


Microschool bridges this gap by allowing kids to gain quality instruction, with a small group of peers, and avoid the online drudgery that distance learning has become or at least allows parents to outsource their frustration to a qualified professional by cost sharing with other parents. 


Once children are able to receive quality education, without having to be exposed to the dangers of traditional large group instruction, COVID-19 and flu related illness numbers and healthcare costs will decline. The more quickly we do this the more quickly parents and children will we be able to return to “normal.”




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In addition to providing quality education options, supporting our country’s recovery from Coronavirus, and providing work for America’s teaching force, MicroSchool.app opens the door to work/life balance for the women who disproportionately shoulder caregiving and, now, educational responsibilities. MicroSchool.app enables them to work from home, safe in the knowledge that their children are being provided a quality education without sacrificing their health or safety, which in turn supports the country’s economic growth.  Visit www.microschool.app for more information.


About MicroSchool:

The global educational economy is being driven by sweeping demographic shifts and in the coming months teaching/tutoring jobs are projected to be one of the fastest growing job sectors in the world. Microschool.app was founded in 2020 with a conviction that human-centered technology and innovation can address the current global social challenges by enabling access to more efficient and affordable educational alternatives and by facilitating quality jobs for the educational workforce. By doing so, we are creating an infrastructure that allows parents the freedom to integrate work and life, women to pursue more rewarding careers, teachers and tutors to achieve financial inclusion and stability, and decreased exposure to COVID and other flu related illnesses. Visit www.microschool.app for more information.


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