Tutors2Teachers

The Tutor2Teacher program integrates rigorous academic and practical experiences to inspire, cultivate, and educate an AI-literate teacher pipeline while addressing district needs for improved student outcomes. T2T brings together classroom teachers as mentors and high school students as tutor-apprentices, creating a collaborative ecosystem where experienced educators guide high schoolers in building the skills and expertise necessary to support struggling learners in their districts. The program combines asynchronous online coursework for high schoolers and mentors, with face-to-face engagement by elementary and middle school students in 1:1 tutoring. Enrolled in college-credit bearing courses led by instructors knowledgeable about effective tutoring practices and proficient in using AI, tutors begin by mastering foundational tutoring practices, learning to invite AI into their process to augment their growing tutoring expertise. When meeting with their mentor teachers in person or virtually, tutors deepen their knowledge of specific learners, district standards, and proven practices.

Strategically Leveraging AI-Powered tools to Develop and Empower High School Tutors
Foundational Tutoring and AI Literacy Course: Developing tutor knowledge and skills drives the learning of high school tutors. Tutors begin by participating in an asynchronous, online course where they build foundational tutoring and communication skills while learning to ‘invite’ Ai into supporting their development. These skills include, but are not limited to, learning how to: question and prompt Ai to help with understanding foundational tutoring concepts, practice in AI-powered simulated environments with virtual K-8 students, develop tutoring lessons and student facing materials, and use Ai ethically and responsibly. Tutors will refine their instructional strategies and develop a draft “Weekly Tutoring Plan” before they enter a live tutoring session. Ai will also be leveraged to help tutors by analyzing student data as it becomes available through tutoring sessions and to guide tutors in tailoring lessons to match each learner’s pace, strengths, and challenges.

Mentor Teacher Collaboration: After weekly coursework is completed and before initiating live tutoring sessions, tutors engage in structured conversations with mentor teachers to discuss pedagogy, specific student needs, and their Weekly Tutoring Plan. This ensures that tutors do not engage with students until the mentor teacher approves the tutoring plan. After live tutoring sessions, mentor teachers facilitate a reflective conversation with the tutor about the experience. AI tools are integrated into the conversation to further facilitate tutor reflection by prompting analysis of instructional effectiveness, challenges, and potential improvements. Mentor teachers synthesize this feedback with their own observations, guiding tutors to implement actionable next steps in subsequent sessions creating synergy between the mentor teacher, tutor and Ai tools.