Ayers Institute launches new, improved online resource for educators in Tennessee, across the nation
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
Lipscomb University’s Ayers Institute for Teacher Learning & Innovation has launched eduToolbox, an online portal that features instructional resources for educators in Tennessee and across the country.
The resource, www.eduToolbox.org, was developed with collaborative support and funding from the Tennessee Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Education’s Math and Science Partnership program and SCORE: Tennessee’s State Collaborative on Reforming Education. eduToolbox is an easy-to-navigate resource-sharing portal developed by education experts in Lipscomb’s Ayers Institute and College of Education, alongside a cadre of Tennessee teachers. In its first few weeks of existence, the site already has 1,500 registered user accounts with traffic to the site increasing rapidly.
“One goal of ours is to encourage teachers and leaders to be innovative,” said Deborah Boyd, interim dean of Lipscomb’s College of Education, which houses the Ayers Institute. “eduToolbox.org was built to provide a place for educators to share their ideas and resources with a focus on standards alignment and creativity. It’s a great free resource that will benefit teachers in Tennessee but is applicable to teachers across the United States.”
The site brings together videos and professional learning materials that have been migrated from www.TNCore.org and the former Tennessee Curriculum Center website. In addition, the new website hosts units, lessons, activities and assessments developed by a group of area elementary, middle and high school teachers. Members of the teacher cadre worked alongside a Lipscomb University faculty cadre to create educational resources for the new site.
The teacher cadre included Teresa Agee, McGavock High School; Jennifer Broeder, Oliver Middle School; Madeline Chimka, J.T. Moore Middle School; Gerri Dupee, Jo Byrns High School; Melissa Javors, Paragon Mills Elementary; Diana Parmley, Tusculum Elementary; Mark Schlipp, Springfield High School; Andrew Shachat, McGavock High School; Kevin Stevens, Creswell Middle Prep School of the Arts; Bethany Tibbs, Dodson Elementary; and Claire Williams McGee, Rosebank Elementary.
Lipscomb University College of Education faculty who were involved in the project include Carrie Abood, assistant professor of education; Kristin Baese, assistant professor and director for instructional practice; Sarah Duncan, assistant professor; Karen Marklein, program director for professional learning, Ayers Institute; Emily Medlock, assistant professor; Julia Osteen, technology integration specialist, Ayers Institute; and Marcia Stewart, professor.
“eduToolbox will help educators more easily identify and select high-quality, standards-aligned materials for their classrooms,” said Amy Owen, director of academic research, policy and communication in the Department of Education. “We are very pleased that Tennessee teachers have access to this resource.”
eduToolbox also features exclusive instructional and professional learning resources from the Ayers Institute.
“eduToolbox is a one-stop-shop for teachers in classrooms, principals and professional learning coordinators,” said Rachael Milligan, managing director of the Ayers Institute. “The Ayers Institute was founded to provide resources and professional development for teachers and educational leaders to address the transformational reform efforts being led by the state of Tennessee by creating individualized educational opportunities to train and embed professional learning, so students experience better outcomes. EduToolbox is one of the ways we can impact the quality of education in Tennessee by supporting our teachers with a free resource that they can use to enhance what they are doing in the classroom.”
The eduToolbox website provides access to hundreds of academic items through the “Instructional Exchange” and “Educator’s Toolkit” sections. The “Tennessee Tools” section contains a set of resources that are specifically licensed for use by Tennessee educators. Other main sections include “Ayers Exclusives” and “Crosswalk Charts.” Milligan said that K-12 educators can locate instructional materials and professional learning content that may be “easily applied to their local setting.” She said eduToolbox also provides materials for higher education faculty and students that can be incorporated into classroom learning activities and course projects.
“Although eduToolbox offers a robust variety of resources, this is really just the beginning of the project,” said Forrest Doddington, content technology specialist at the Ayers Institute. “In future phases we plan to introduce additional interactive features and new, original resources created by Tennessee teachers that are aligned to the state’s academic standards. In addition users will be able to search for standards in other settings and academic contexts.”
Doddington said there are five specific ways eduToolbox can be used in K-12 and higher education settings to support academic success:
- Current-service K-12 educators can browse the learning plans and instructional resources to aid in planning lessons that are standards aligned and relevant to their students;
- Pre-service teachers can review the materials on the site to gain insight into realistic and effective planning and assessment;
- University teacher preparation faculty can use materials as classroom examples or as components of learning activities;
- To showcase high-quality university student work by submitting items for publication on the eduToolbox resource sharing portal; and
- To collaborate with the Ayers Institute to use eduToolbox as the digital distribution component for future grant and project proposals.
To access the free resources available at eduToolbox.org, users should visit the site and click on the “login” link in the upper-right corner of the site and then on the “create new account” tab to create a profile and to set a username and password.
—Photo by Kristi Jones