Teacher assists student reading on a laptop

HOW TO HELP: Educators

Teal open book

Imagine the difference: a caring, personal mentor supporting each of your students.

Limited Opportunities Still Available for Free School Participation

Prioritized Enrollment for Title One Schools

Build Connection through Correspondence

Through an ongoing online letter exchange about topics and content selected by the teacher, eMentors inspire and support grade 3–8 students in achieving academic and personal potential.

Previous
Next

CricketTogether provides

e-mentor and mentee logo

A personal eMentor for each of your students, safety vetted and trained to provide both academic and social-emotional support

Open book icon

Engaging, standards-based curriculum options to fuel eMentor/Student correspondences

Lock and key icon

A fun, safe, easy-to-use online environment for you and your students

Teacher pointing to a whiteboard icon

The training, resources, and ongoing support you need to engage eMentors in supporting your students

Our Impact

0 %
Students self-reported being "good" or "very good" at reading (63% improvement)
0 %
Students self-reported being "good" or "very good" at writing (69% improvement)
0 %
Students self-reported "strongly agreed" or "agreed" with: My eMentor cares about me. My eMentors helps me feel good about myself.

(Based on pre-post survey of Title One 3rd–5th graders after 1 full academic year of participation.)

Hear Dr. Gail Brady and her staff and students at Sugarland Elementary talk about CricketTogether.

Interested in our STEM-based curriculum? See it in action at Harding Elementary in New Jersey.

How It Works—for Educators

Each week for about an hour, CricketTogether becomes a part of your classroom routine. Students engage in eMentoring activities such as selecting articles to read with their eMentor, reading letters from their eMentors, and writing letters to their eMentors.

Program admin selects topic icon

For each CricketTogether unit, you select the topic your students and eMentors will explore together.
Lots of topics to choose from, including:

A little girl backing away from a menacing cartoon figure

Social-Emotional Development

Example: "Standing Up for Yourself"

Two human cartoon figures with dogs around a bonfire at night

Literacy Development

Example: "Folktales around the World"

Touchscreen tablet and a series of 1s and 0s

STEM

Example: "How Coding Works"

Female workers in a fabric factory during the Industrial Revolution

Social Studies

Example: "Kids in the Industrial Revolution"

Coronavirus molecules

Current Events

Example: "The Facts about COVID-19"

Sunlight shines through the surface of sea water

Global Issues

Example: "Clean Water for a Thirsty Planet"

Magnifying Glass on Paper Icon

You have the option to adjust the article set to make sure it meets the reading needs of your students.

Schedule icon with clock and calendar page

You set the calendar with your expectations around letter exchange cadence.

Email Notification envelope

The platform reminds mentors and students when it’s time to read and write!

Moderation icon speech bubbles with lock and key

You review all correspondence and decide when it’s time to move onto a new topic.

All units are aligned with Grade 3–8 learning standards: Common Core, NGSS, C3, NHES.

Want a Full Year of STEM Study?

TryEngineering Together logo

CricketTogether has a specialty program, TryEngineering Together™. STEM professional eMentors inspire your students and share the practical and career applications of STEM.

For immediate enrollment, we offer school and district pricing packages.

A powerful use of Your ARP ESSER Funds under the CARES Act!

Teacher Resources

CricketTogether Teacher Guide Grades 3-5 getting started

Sample Teacher Guide

Student learning on laptop, bring the power of e-Mentoring to your classroom

Sharable Flyer

CricketTogether TryEngineering Together digital learning students smiling

Teacher eBook

Unit Standards Alignment

Unit Topics

Checklist—Is It Right for Me?

Excited about the blended learning opportunity of connecting eMentors with my 3rd–5th graders
Available to participate for the 2020–2021 academic year
Willing to allocate about an hour weekly for program implementation
Have access to a classroom set of dependable digital devices at least one hour per week with high-speed connectivity
Have a supportive administrator

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Apply

  1. Submit interest form.
  2. We’ll reach out to schedule an introductory call with our program staff
  3. If the program is a fit for your students, we’ll ask you to confirm administrator and district support through a School Consent Form
  4. You’ll receive an invitation for an online new teacher training session

We encourage all schools to apply for the program! Notably many of our Sponsors seek classrooms with students from underserved areas and low-income communities. While we do our best to match all classrooms with program funding (Sponsoring companies), we cannot guarantee placement for any school, Title I or otherwise. We believe all students can benefit from eMentoring and do our best to secure funding utilizing our diverse classroom pipeline on a rolling basis.

New teachers to the program are encouraged to begin the program with 1 class (typically 25–35 students). We feel this best supports our teachers who are new to the program, with an opportunity to increase the number of participating students in future program years.

We can support semester and trimester changes, allowing your students throughout the academic program year the opportunity to be matched with a 1:1 eMentor.

Teachers are expected to commit 1 hour per week for class implementation and program moderation.

Onboarding is rolling as we always have classrooms awaiting support.

Understanding CricketTogether

  • Flexible Learning Environment: CricketTogether provides a safe and secure online learning platform that connects mentors and students in an engagement cycle of ongoing correspondence.
  • Learning Partner for Every Student: CricketTogether provides a personal, committed eMentor for every student
  • Quality Content: CricketTogether gives you the choice of topics of study to match your curriculum. Within each topic, your students will find they have a choice of leveled texts to captivate a variety of interests.
  • Teacher Guide for each topic contains reading, thinking, and writing activities for each unit.

The eMentors are volunteers who agree to be background checked and trained. They oftentimes are employees of our sponsor corporations.

Ready to Get Started?

Here’s what happens when you submit an application. We have rolling admissions throughout the school year.

Pencil and paper icon

Submit Application

Person on a video call icon

Introductory Call
with Our Together Team

Paper and checkmark icon

School Consent Form

Teacher pointing to a whiteboard icon

90-minute Live Training

Person and checkmark icon

Create Student Accounts