Volunteer teacher corps launched in Chester County

WEST CHESTER » While Chester County schools and teachers are doing their very best to embrace and utilize online learning, there are many students and families having difficulty with such great reliance on this process.

State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19th, of West Whiteland, minority chairman of the Senate Education Committee, brought his idea of the creation of a Volunteer Retired Teacher Corps to the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU), which will be implementing the program.

“We are extremely grateful to Sen. Dinniman for his continued support and providing solutions and innovative ways to ensure all our students continue to learn throughout the mandatory closure of our schools,” said Dr. George Fiore, Executive Director of the CCIU.

Dinniman explained that the CCIU will be both reaching out to retired teachers and working with schools to identify students who may need assistance.

“The Teacher Corps will be instrumental in assisting our students with limited technology resources in their home,” explained Fiore. “We are working diligently to get the program up and running.”

Dinniman said he hopes the Volunteer Retired Teacher Corps will be replicated throughout Pennsylvania. There are a large number of students who don’t have broadband access, especially in the Commonwealth’s rural area.

“Simply giving a student a Chromebook or tablet doesn’t work if they can’t get online or if there is nobody in the home who knows how to use it,” he said.

Other ideas Dinniman is working on include:

• Encouraging volunteers from Chester County home school movement to coach

parents who are teaching at home, including using older children to assist younger children with lessons.

• Creating mobile education platforms that students and families can access through smartphones.

• Finding the best ways to provide parents with the lesson curriculum and educational standards. Dinniman said many parents have told him they could do a better job if they understand how the parts fit into the whole.

• Finding new and innovative opportunities to keep kids learning is of vital importance, especially with the potential of a second wave of coronavirus hitting us this autumn – and having the schools closed again.

“The bottom line,” Dinniman said, “is that education is so important for every child in the Commonwealth that we must explore and implement every learning tool to meet these unprecedented challenges.”