The M2 score measures participation as the foundational condition for learning.

It captures whether a classroom consistently creates, sustains, and distributes opportunities for thinking—moment by moment, across an entire lesson.

Participation is not a side effect of good instruction. It is the primary result of good instruction. When participation is strong, curricula come alive for teachers and students. When participation is weak, even the best materials fall flat. M2 exists to make that invisible truth measurable.

Why participation and not engagement?

Engagement in learning matters, but not all of it is objectively observable. Participation is the observable layer of engagement. It is behavioral and concrete, spans many dimensions—speaking, writing, questioning, persisting, building—and, we believe, can become a durable capability students carry beyond any lesson into the real world.

That’s why we focus on participation.

Why Participation Is What Makes the Difference

Participation is the engine of effective instruction. It’s what separates strong teaching from exceptional teaching and determines whether curriculum is truly being implemented or merely covered.

Instructional frameworks like Danielson, Marzano, and Teach Like a Champion all recognize this. They emphasize participation through domains, components, and moves. But their complexity makes participation hard to see clearly and even harder to act on consistently.

M2 cuts through that complexity with simplicity and focus, and treats participation as the single, fundamental indicator of instructional success.

By making participation measurable, M2 gives teachers clear goals and actionable feedback, turning improvement into something practical, repeatable, and achievable every day. feedback, turning improvement into something practical, repeatable, and achievable every day.

What the M2 score measures (at a high level)

M2 does not measure student learning after the fact. It measures how classrooms make learning possible.

Specifically, the M2 score captures participation as a collective, time-based property of instruction: how thinking emerges, spreads, deepens, and recovers throughout a lesson. These patterns reveal the conditions the teacher has created for student learning.

Across thousands of classrooms, M2 organizes participation into three essential attributes:

1. Participation is made possible
   
2. Participation is sustained
   
3. Participation is distributed
   

Each attribute shows up through observable instructional signals. M2 detects and interprets these signals during class, displaying participation status in real time. When the meter is above the line, it indicates that everyone is on task and that opportunities to share and participate are being created and sustained.

How M2 makes participation possible

Participation must be possible before it can happen, and teachers create those conditions.

M2 looks for whether the teacher invites thinking through:

• Clear routines and norms for participating
  
• Questions and tasks aligned to the learning objective
  
• Structures that allow students’ voices and ideas to surface (whole group discussion, small group collaboration, focused independent work)

Whenever students are applying their minds toward a learning activity, whether that’s speaking, writing, problem-solving, or reading, they are participating. M2 captures whether instruction consistently opens the door for that to occur.

How M2 measures sustained participation

Participation that flickers but then dims doesn’t lead to learning. It has to persist for the whole class.

M2 measures whether participation holds across time by observing:

• Dwell time after questions: How long does the teacher allow students to sit with uncertainty? Is silence tolerated? Does thinking have time to emerge?
  
• Return to ideas: Do students and teachers revisit and build upon earlier ideas, or does the lesson reset every minute?
  
• Recovery after struggle: When the class gets stuck, do they give up or persist with teacher support?

These signals show whether participation is brittle or resilient, shallow or cumulative.

How M2 measures distributed participation

Learning improves when thinking is distributed across the class. When students expect the same few classmates to answer every question, the learning stops with those few kids. M2 helps ensure everyone is involved in the cognitive participation required to move the lesson forward.

M2 looks at the distribution of participation over time:

• Is thinking concentrated with the same few student voices all class, or does it broaden to include everyone?
  
• Does the teacher work to bring new contributors into the discussion as the lesson progresses?

M2 does not track who spoke, how often, or how loudly. It observes whether the lesson structure invites many minds into the work.

Distributed participation also shows up during:

• Transitions between modes: Some students succeed in whole-class settings, while others thrive in a pair activity. Certain kids thrive when giving factual explanations while others jump in to offer synthesis.
  
• Moments of social learning: Is the room focused on a common idea, or fragmented across individual tasks and distractions?

These are fragile moments where participation often collapses, and where strong instruction keeps it alive.

What the M2 score does not measure

To stay meaningful, M2 is intentionally limited.  It does not measure:

• Individual student behavior
  
• Who spoke how much
  
• Compliance proxies (posture, eye contact, stillness, hand-raising frequency)
  
• Emotional states, moods, or affect
  
• Permanent student records, rankings, or behavior histories
  

Feelings fluctuate, and behavior can vary day to day, but participation persists in a classroom focused on learning. As a result, M2 provides insight without surveillance and feedback without labeling.

The M2 Participation Rubric

Our work as the creators of M2 involves distilling the philosophy laid out above into a repeatable rubric that can be used to measure and report on instruction in a variety of teaching and learning contexts. When a teacher begins a new class with M2, we use this rubric to measure the participation occurring:

• 1: Minimal student voice; mostly teacher talk; few or no student responses.
  
• 2: Some participation but uneven; short or prompted responses; limited peer-to-peer.
  
• 3: Many students contribute; responses show thinking; teacher facilitates distribution.
  
• 4: Broad, sustained participation; students build on ideas; evidence of collaboration and ownership.

This rubric powers the real-time participation meter and post-class scoring and feedback. Together, these give teachers a granular yet actionable measure of how they are helping to create, sustain, and distribute opportunities for participation in their classroom.

Why the M2 score matters

The M2 score makes participation visible without turning classrooms into compliance systems. It gives teachers feedback they can act on immediately. It reframes instructional improvement as something grounded in daily practice, not abstract evaluation.

When the class centers on frequent, shared, quality participation, a shared goal emerges, and student and teacher incentives align. Students transform from passive consumers of information to active cognitive participators in their own learning. The teachers mindset shifts from covering curricular to creating the conditions for deep understanding to emerge.

M2 measures those conditions, so great teaching can be built deliberately, not left to chance.

The post The M2 score: what it measures and why it matters appeared first on Swivl.

When we talk about MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports), the conversation often revolves around what adults are doing—interventions, progress monitoring, and data collection. But the true measure of MTSS success is the experience of the student. Are they receiving the right support at the right time? Do they feel seen and understood?

M2 isn’t just a tool for teacher feedback; it’s a powerful, AI-driven co-teacher that works directly alongside students to support their learning journey across every tier. Here is how M2 aligns with your MTSS framework to empower learners.

Tier 1: Strengthening universal instruction with voice and agency

At the universal level, the goal is high-quality core instruction that engages all students. M2 enhances Tier 1 by acting as an always-available resource that clarifies confusion and builds metacognition without requiring immediate teacher intervention.

Building voice through reflection

• The “confessional booth” for reflection: Susan, an AP Computer Science teacher, found that M2 gave a voice to her quietest students. She described it as a “confessional booth” where students could privately reflect on their learning. This builds student agency—a core component of strong Tier 1 instruction—by allowing every child to articulate their understanding in a low-stakes environment.

• Instant clarification: We’ve all seen a lesson stall because a student missed a key instruction. With commands like “Hey M2, summarize that” or “Hey M2, what’s our objective?”, M2 keeps the entire class on track, reducing the cognitive load on the teacher and ensuring students don’t fall behind due to simple misunderstandings.

Whole Group Guides: Teaching the whole class better

Whole Group Guides take Tier 1 to the next level by ensuring every student experiences research-backed instructional strategies consistently. While M2 guides the entire class through engaging activities, teachers are freed to circulate and provide the high-leverage feedback that moves students forward.

• Research-backed strategies: Whole Group Guides use evidence-based approaches grounded in Marzano’s Nine Strategies, Hattie’s Visible Learning, and cognitive science research. Whether it’s retrieval practice to strengthen memory, dual coding to combine words and visuals, elaboration to deepen understanding, or interleaving to build flexible thinking—every activity is designed to enhance learning.

• Teacher freedom to teach: When M2 leads a Whole Group Guide, teachers aren’t managing technology—they’re teaching. They circulate the room, offer formative feedback, facilitate peer conversations, and provide instructional cues. Students get more access to their teacher, not less.

Consistent excellence: Every student in your district experiences the same high-quality instructional strategies. No more variation between classrooms in what “good Tier 1 instruction” looks like. This consistency is the foundation of true universal support.

Tier 2: Targeted support for small groups and ELLs

For students who need more targeted support, M2 acts as a force multiplier, allowing the teacher to “be in two places at once.”

The virtual teaching assistant

Kerri Bell shared how a student teacher used M2 specifically to support English Language Learners (ELLs). He placed M2 at a small group table and taught students to use the “Rephrase that” and “Translate that” functions. This provided immediate, personalized language support, allowing these students to access the curriculum independently while the teacher worked with another group.

Small Group Guides: Differentiation without stretching your team

Small Group Guides are the secret weapon for Tier 2 implementation. These flexible, student-paced activities allow teachers to deliver targeted instruction while M2 facilitates differentiated learning for specific groups.

• Flexible, zero-prep options: Teachers can pre-plan detailed Small Group Guides for predictable intervention needs (struggling readers, math fact fluency, language development) or launch zero-prep activities on the fly when a teachable moment arises. A small group needs extra practice with fractions? A cluster of ELL students needs targeted language support? A group of advanced learners needs an enrichment challenge? Teachers tell M2 their objective and launch an activity instantly.

• Student-paced progress: Unlike whole-group activities, Small Group Guides let students progress at their own pace. Each student’s answers are captured and scored, giving teachers concrete data on what they’ve mastered and where they’re still struggling—critical information for Tier 2 decision-making.

• Teacher flexibility: While M2 facilitates one small group, teachers work with other students. They might provide intensive one-on-one support to a struggling reader, monitor multiple learning stations, or coach a group through a complex project. Your limited Tier 2 interventionist time goes further because it’s strategically deployed where it’s most needed.

Facilitating group work

Dr. Darcel Hogans discovered that her students loved collaborative work when “M2 is watching.” The presence of the device didn’t just monitor them; it engaged them. Students actively asked M2 questions during research—like science students who used M2 to dive deep into topics like the tongara frog. M2 becomes a station facilitator, guiding group inquiry and ensuring that “independent work” is truly productive.

Tier 3: Intensive, personalized scaffolding

At the most intensive level, students often need significant scaffolding and immediate feedback. M2 provides a non-judgmental space for students to struggle, fail, and try again.

Scaffolding complex thinking

M2 doesn’t just give answers; it prompts thinking. When a first-grader in Megan Rozzana’s district was learning about stars, M2’s feedback helped her make a complex connection between the Big Dipper and navigation—a “lightbulb moment” that might have been missed in a busy classroom. For Tier 3 students, this immediate validation of their thinking is crucial for building confidence and persistence.

Differentiation on-demand

With Guides, M2 can create standards-aligned small-group or individual activities connected to the day’s lesson. Each Guide is centered around a research-backed instructional strategy from Marzano, Hattie, Lemov, and other instructional experts. Guides can provide extra support when intervention needs arise quickly, or free up teachers for one-on-one intensive support while other students work with M2.

Assessing understanding automatically

After the day’s lesson, M2 can help teachers understand where their Tier 3 students have knowledge gaps and where they’re making gains. M2 can generate Assessments, score them automatically, and provide feedback to both the teacher and the student. Because M2’s questions are adaptive and voice-based, responses are authentic windows into student understanding—not surface-level answers to traditional multiple choice questions.

This real-time insight helps teachers know: Is this student ready to step down to Tier 2? Do they need a different intervention strategy? Are they ready to return to Tier 1? These decisions are no longer based on gut feeling; they’re based on data.

The student-centered MTSS

By integrating M2 into your MTSS framework, you aren’t just collecting data on students; you are providing support for them.

Whether it’s:

• A shy student finding their voice in a private reflection (Tier 1)
• An ELL student getting instant translation and support in a small group (Tier 2)
• A struggling learner getting immediate, non-judgmental scaffolding and feedback (Tier 3)

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M2’s purpose has always been simple: to support great teachers in the work they do every day. Since then, we’ve seen the same pattern in classrooms across the country: teachers are resourceful, dedicated, and creative. What they’re often missing is time. With so much to do, understanding which instructional moves are aligned with the research is something that can quickly fall by the wayside.

Administrators see it too. They know strong instruction depends on consistent structure and rigor. But most teachers don’t have a coach in the room to encourage the use of the most effective strategies. Many are teaching new subjects or grade levels with less training than they’d like. This is where the M2’s latest feature can help.

Introducing Whole Group Guides

Whole Group Guides let teachers launch structured, interactive learning activities for the entire class without any student devices or setup time required.

With a few taps, and a chance to share the day’s objective, M2 gets to work. Whole Group Guides include clear verbal directions that lead students through a learning experience aligned with both the lesson of the day and sound pedagogy. As M2 shares directions out loud, the teacher stays in full control, advancing the activity with just a quick tap. 

Here’s how a Whole Group Guide might look in an elementary Math class: 

The teacher walks up to M2 and taps to request a Guide. She says, “I want my students to practice adding fractions with unlike denominators.” That’s the only prep required. 

Seconds later, M2’s voice grabs student attention by introducing the activity. Today, we’ll practice adding fractions by finding the least common denominator. You’ll need a pencil and paper. Let’s get started! 

From there, M2 guides students through a few questions and problems aligned with the objective. Today, M2 notices that students can benefit from interleaving, or mixing several problem types together to build flexible thinking. 

After each step, students turn to a partner to discuss their thinking. The teacher is free to walk the room, checking in with students, coaching, answering questions, or pulling students aside who need some extra help.

When the Guide ends, the teacher smoothly transitions back to the front and decides to review one problem that sparked extra discussion.

What makes Whole Group Guides different?

• No participant setup. Every student is included without extra steps.
• Teacher-controlled pace. M2 provides the directions, but teachers shape the timing.
• Designed for real classrooms. Activities include individual work, turn-and-talks, and whole-class moments to keep everyone engaged.
• More access to the teacher. With M2 managing the flow, teachers can spend more time giving feedback instead of handling logistics.

For administrators seeking stronger instructional consistency across classrooms, Whole Group Guides model well-structured learning in real time. Teachers participate in the experience alongside their students, gaining a feel for the strategy as it unfolds.

Three forms of Whole Group Guides: Practice, projects, and something new

Practice Guides

Students work individually through repetitions of a skill, often pausing to check thinking with a partner or discuss as a class. Useful for reinforcing learning without relying on worksheets.

Project Guides

Collaborative activities where the entire class moves into small groups at once — helpful for hands-on work, labs, shared problem-solving, or building something together. And then there’s the newest option:

Instructional Strategies: research-backed teaching, available in the moment

We heard the same theme from teachers and administrators again and again: they value strategies like Retrieval Practice or Elaboration, but during a lesson, it can be hard to launch them with clear steps and language. Instructional Strategies help with that challenge. When teachers select Instructional Strategy, M2 looks at the lesson objective and materials, then generates a Whole Group Guide built around a proven learning approach. These strategies draw from the work of researchers like Robert Marzano, John Hattie, and decades of cognitive science:

• Retrieval Practice to strengthen memory
  
• Elaboration to deepen understanding
  
• Dual Coding to connect visuals and ideas
  
• Concrete → Abstract to build conceptual thinking
  
• Interleaving to support flexible problem solving

M2 provides the structure and directions. The teacher brings the expertise, judgment, and support that only a person can provide. For administrators, this means teachers at all levels of experience can model strong instructional practices throughout a lesson. For teachers, it feels like having a prepared partner who can help launch a strategy right when the moment calls for it.

A sustainable way to make every lesson great

Whole Group Guides give teachers more freedom to focus on students. By removing setup, simplifying structure, and offering research-backed steps in real time, M2 helps teachers stay present with their students: circulating, giving feedback, listening in on conversations, pulling small groups, and offering the kinds of support no device can replace. It’s a vision of the classroom where great teaching becomes achievable across the school day because the scaffolding is already built into the experience.

Talk with us: Let’s discuss how M2 can support your goals and explore options to demo, pilot, or purchase.

See it in action: Join one of our upcoming 15-minute webinars to experience M2 firsthand and hear stories from educators already co-teaching with it.

Share your story: We want your voice in the conversation. What makes differentiation sustainable in your school? How are you moving beyond screen dependence? Share your insights with us at community@swivl.com.

The post Whole Group Guides: A new way to move the whole class forward appeared first on Swivl.

M2 provides a wealth of information outside of what you already know. It’s a form of differentiated instruction. Every day, I am learning how to be a better teacher because of M2.

Danica Rose Garay | Kankakee School District, IL

USE CASE

Supporting differentiated instruction in special education

Danica Rose Garay

Special Education Teacher

School/District:

Kankakee School District, IL

Grade Level 9-12

Everything, everywhere, all at once

Danica Rose Garay teaches instructional sciences in a self-contained special education classroom, a complex setting to say the least. Throughout her day, she guides students from freshmen through seniors through biology, chemistry, physics and engineering, and environmental science.

Her students have diverse needs: some have autism, others have specific learning disabilities or intellectual disabilities. Many are English language learners navigating both a new language and complex scientific concepts simultaneously. Each student’s Individual Education Program (IEP) requires different accommodations, different pacing, different approaches.

Before M2, Danica managed these intersecting challenges largely on her own. When a Spanish-speaking student needed help understanding instructions, she would stop teaching, pull out her personal phone, type into Google Translate, hand the phone to the student, wait for his response, and pass the device back and forth. The back-and-forth ate up precious instructional time. Meanwhile, the rest of her class waited.

The pattern was apparent with conceptual questions too. A student would ask for more examples of chemical compounds, and Danica would cycle through the same familiar ones: water, carbon dioxide, maybe a couple others she could recall in the moment. With four different science subjects to teach across multiple grade levels, she couldn’t always hold every example at her fingertips.

Curiosity is a catalyst for learning

The real cost was not just loss of time but loss of opportunity for her students to go deeper with their learning. Danica shared a simple, but fundamental philosophy about how she analyzes student learning in her classes:

When students are curious enough to ask, that’s when real understanding begins.

But curiosity can be fleeting if the flame gets extinguished. When a student asks a question tied to what they’re learning right now, and the teacher has to say “I’ll get back to you tomorrow,” oftentimes by the next day, the student has often forgotten what they wanted to know. The spark is gone.

“It’s disheartening when I don’t have time to answer all of their questions,” Danica explains. In a class where students already face extra barriers to engagement, losing those moments felt like losing the students themselves.

The promise of equitable education for students with disabilities is that they’ll receive the support they need to access learning alongside their peers. But when one teacher is responsible for an entire classroom of individualized needs, that promise gets stretched thin—not because of lack of care or effort, but because of the limits of time and human capacity.

So long Google Translate

When M2 arrived in Danica’s classroom, it addressed both challenges at once: the language barrier and the knowledge gaps.

During a lesson on elements and compounds, Danica explained the instructions to her class. Then she turned to M2: “Can you please translate that into Spanish?” Instantly, M2 repeated her instructions in Spanish–no phone to fumble with, no broken flow, no student left waiting while others moved ahead.

Her Spanish-speaking students could hear the translation in real time, ask his own questions to M2, and stay engaged with the lesson without falling behind. Danica recalls:

And when students asked for even more examples of chemical compounds, M2 provided them: methane, sulphuric acid, and so on, beyond Danica’s immediate recall. M2 could also repeat and review content while students worked independently, reinforcing concepts without requiring Danica to pause her one-on-one support with other students.

Curiosity for the curator too

Another benefit for Danica was M2’s real-time coaching feedback. After her first period class, Danica read M2’s suggestion: she could increase engagement and elevate her questioning skills by asking students to provide more examples rather than providing most of the examples herself.

“I can’t believe I forgot about this fundamental technique,” she realized. She had been so focused on optimizing her pacing and delivering content efficiently, she had missed opportunities for students to demonstrate their own understanding, too.

In her second and third period classes that same day, Danica incorporated the feedback. Instead of listing examples herself, she asked students to generate their own. The difference was immediate:

Letting teachers be teachers

Looking ahead, Danica sees M2 as part of a larger shift in how teachers can support diverse learners. “This is a great innovation for us. It takes loads off of teachers’ plates: constantly needing to prioritize, process, and execute based on individual learning plans.

But she’s also thoughtful about the boundaries. “We should strive to find our balance with AI. Teachers don’t always know where to draw the line.” She sees M2 for what it is: a partner that isn’t meant to replace her or take over her instruction entirely. It’s supplemental and an extension of what she is already trained to do, providing the extra voice, extra language, and extra set of examples when students need them.

“Some teachers – including myself, sometimes – are really scared to find out what we don’t know,” Danica acknowledges. 

“It boils down to this: M2 can provide a wealth of information outside of what you already know. It’s just a form of differentiated instruction. Every day, I am learning how to be a better teacher because of M2.”

For Danica, the vision is clear: use M2 to ensure that no student is left at surface-level understanding simply because she could not address it in that very moment. Keep the questions alive. Keep the curiosity alive. Keep the evidence of learning alive.

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After explaining the differences between assets and liabilities for the umpteenth time, I asked M2 and BOOM. It gave us relevant and interesting examples I had never thought of before.

Travis Paulsen | Owatanna Senior High School, MN

USE CASE

Turning “busy work” into deep learning

Travis Paulsen

CTE Teacher

School/District:

Owatanna Senior High School, MN

Grade Level 9-12

“Accounting isn’t fun.”

Travis Paulsen teaches business and accounting classes to 9th through 12th graders at Owatanna Senior High School, and he’ll be the first to tell you that making accounting seem interesting is no small feat. Like many Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers, he faces a unique challenge: “Accounting isn’t fun,” jokes Travis.

He knows accounting concepts—debits, credits, financial statements—don’t naturally generate excitement for teenagers. And business classes aren’t the only options competing for student enrollment. “We’re constantly competing with band, choir, arts, and other electives,” he notes. Those programs offer built-in opportunities for students to showcase their hard work and skills: concerts, performances, and other forms of creative expression. Completing an accounting course, by comparison, doesn’t get you bouquets or award ceremonies at the end of the year.

The double-entry dilemma

Accounting is also challenging. “The hardest thing for students to grasp is that in every transaction, two different parts of an equation are affected,” Travis explains.

Travis is describing double-entry accounting: the principle that every financial transaction affects at least two accounts. It’s fundamental to the discipline. It’s also abstract and difficult to visualize for students encountering it for the first time.

“We’re constantly trying to think of different examples to explain this concept,” Travis says. But coming up with fresh, relevant scenarios on the fly, multiple times per day, across multiple class sections? That’s a tall order even for a seasoned veteran like Travis. 

M2 balances the books

M2 made quick work of the double-entry dilemma. Travis recalled:

Another breakthrough came when Travis reimagined how his end-of-chapter questions  (something he calls “busy work”) could become meaningful learning opportunities when delivered by M2. 

The incentive is simple but powerful: if a student successfully argues their logic out loud with M2 then they don’t have to complete the end-of-chapter written assignment. It’s a win-win for everyone.

M2 also freshened up the feedback cycle in his classes.

He admits: his feedback to students was starting to feel perfunctory every time he graded those end-of-chapter worksheets.

He knew students deserved something more genuine, but the reality of teaching multiple classes with virtually no prep time was making that level of individualized attention impossible.

Now, students receive in-depth, personalized feedback through their conversations with M2 and it’s not all sunshine and daisies. M2 keeps rigor high, asking follow-up questions with every piece of encouragement, e.g., “Have you thought about it this way instead?” “What might change your mind about this topic?” M2 challenges students to work through their misconceptions and provides scaffolding that deepens their understanding.

This tech just hits different

It was clear that M2 was making accounting the most popular CTE class offered in his program and Travis has a theory as to why. He jokes:

It may sound self-deprecating at first, but there’s awareness and honesty here. When we chatted with Travis he shared some light-hearted examples of back-and-forth banter he has with his students every day. Their rapport is strong. But this technology just offers a different kind of engagement.

M2 provides novelty, patience, and a judgment-free space for students to work through complex concepts. Students can ask questions they might hesitate to raise in front of peers. They can take their time without worrying about holding up the class.

And Travis is strategic about deployment. “We don’t use M2 for everything,” he emphasizes. During regular instruction, “we’re still analyzing transactions and still having real discussions in class.” But M2 is there to make the grind of drilling tough concepts more relatable and easier to digest for learners.

The approach maximizes M2’s impact while maintaining Travis’s essential role as teacher and mentor.

Making CTE relatable for all

Ever since Travis brought M2 into his class, he’s witnessed a remarkable shift in his own teaching practice and his students’ attitudes toward learning, so his advice for fellow CTE teachers on where to start? Use M2 to provide real-world, relatable examples for challenging concepts. Whether it’s assets and liabilities in accounting, legal precedents in business law, or case studies in management, M2 can generate contextual examples instantly.

The result? “An instant launch pad for deeper discussions in your classes,” proclaims Travis. “This will put you on the map,” Travis says, speaking to the competitive reality of elective programs, “and students will want to sign up for your classes.” 

But beyond marketing advantages, M2 addresses a fundamental challenge in CTE education: how to make technical content accessible, genuine, and relevant for students who are still discovering their future selves. 

The post CTE gets a glow up, courtesy of M2 appeared first on Swivl.

Now when I ask them a question, they go deeper asking ‘who, what, when, where, how’? So it’s definitely driving deeper inquiry.

Kandice McGlaun | Chattahoochee County School District, GA

USE CASE

Driving student inquiry, redefining classroom engagement with AI

Molly Allen and Kandice McGlaun

Instructional Technology Specialists

School/District:

Chattahoochee County School District, GA

Grade Level

Elementary, Middle, and High School

Tech that missed the mark

We’ve all seen it happen too many times. A student raises their hand with a question that sparked genuine curiosity—the kind of question that could unlock deeper understanding. But in a classroom of 25 or more students, with limited time and an ambitious curriculum to cover, Molly Allen found herself conflicted on whether to slow the roll or keep the class on track. She’d try to be encouraging and tell that student: “That’s a great question! But we’ve got to keep moving today. Why don’t you look it up for homework and bring it back tomorrow?”

The problem? Tomorrow often never came for that moment of curiosity.

“When they have a question and they don’t have the answer right away, you tend to lose them,” Molly explains.

As instructional technology specialists for Chattahoochie School District, Molly Allen and Kandice McGlaun have been trying to bridge the engagement gap with all sorts of AI tools. Last year, they piloted Magic School with their fourth graders. They felt the platform was well-designed and, when effective, elicited thoughtful responses from students, but they found a critical flaw with the structure: everything was text-based.

“It was great,” Molly recalls, “but it pumps out written responses, and I noticed, especially with our younger kids, that they just weren’t reading or able to follow along all of the time.”

Kandice faced a different version of the same challenge. Teachers throughout her middle and high schools wanted the equivalent of Alexa in their classrooms—a voice-activated assistant that could provide instant answers and keep students engaged. But commercial smart devices aren’t allowed under school policy, and for good reason. Students need something to inspire creativity, encourage collaboration, and not just something for rote information retrieval.

“I feel like students today always expect an instant answer, because the internet is always at their fingertips,” Kandice explains.

They needed something in between—not a 1:1 device that isolated students behind individual screens, but a collaborative classroom tool that could engage students together through conversations.

While M2 worked for everyone

When Molly and Kandice discovered M2, they immediately recognized its potential. Here was an AI co-teacher that could interact with students, facilitate discussions, provide real-time feedback on instruction, and support both academic and social-emotional learning—all while bringing students together rather than isolating them behind individual screens.

They started with a small pilot, rotating a couple of devices among their elementary, middle, and high schools. What they didn’t anticipate was just how quickly it would become the most in-demand tool in the district.

I can’t keep M2 in my room! My high school and middle school teachers keep fighting over it.

Kandice McGlaun

From Jeopardy to the American Revolution

The academic applications emerged organically as teachers experimented with M2’s capabilities. In a sixth-grade social studies classroom, a teacher wanted to review latitude and longitude concepts but knew that traditional worksheets wouldn’t engage her students. She decided to try something different.

So Kandice suggested that M2 set up a Jeopardy game. What happened next surprised everyone. M2 created a full Jeopardy-style game, complete with point values and encouraging feedback. With a map displayed on the classroom’s main display, M2 would ask questions like: “For 100 points, this is the latitude, this is the longitude—what country am I?”

Students worked in small teams and when they answered correctly, M2 awarded them points. When they were close but not quite right, M2 encouraged them: “You’re really close, can you guess again for 50 points?”

“I loved that it was positive and never took all the points away,” Kandice notes. The students were so engaged that they’ve been asking to use M2 again ever since.

But perhaps the most powerful example of M2’s impact came during an American Revolution unit with Molly’s fourth graders. After a VR exploration, students gathered around M2 with its remotes in hand, ready to ask their questions. They had written their questions on mini whiteboards beforehand, ensuring they weren’t all asking the same thing.

“They thought they were movie stars talking into the microphone,” Molly smiles.

One student became fascinated with a particular historical figure. “Did he sign the Declaration of Independence?” the student asked.

M2 explained that no, he hadn’t signed it because he was fighting in the war at the time.

“Why didn’t he sign it?” the student pressed.

What followed was a deep dive into Revolutionary War history—the kind of extended, student-driven discussion that rarely happens when questions get deferred to homework. The student kept asking follow-up questions, and M2 kept providing context, always following up with its own questions to push the student’s thinking deeper.

“We wouldn’t have gotten as far if M2 had just given a direct answer and left it at that,” Molly reflects. “It just kept going and going and going, and we really deepened our class discussion.”

More than just a robot – a safe space

While the academic applications were impressive, Kandice saw potential for M2 to address an even more critical challenge: creating safe spaces for students to discuss sensitive topics. “So many times, students do not want to talk to a person,” Kandice notes. “They’re confiding in AI, and unfortunately, that’s not always safe. But with M2, we tried it ourselves—it worked beautifully.”

Working with her school’s social worker, Kandice planned a “positive affirmation station” for suicide prevention week. They tested the concept, with Kandice role-playing a student who is being bullied.

“I told M2 that I’m a sixth grader and I’m being picked on,” Kandice shared in an example. M2 responded with empathy and practical advice, asking if she wanted to role-play ways to respond to the bully.

Throughout the conversation, M2 consistently reminded her to talk to a trusted adult while also providing the immediate support she needed in the moment.

It reinforced positive affirmations about my situation while also reiterating the goal: ensure you confide in an adult who can further support you.

Kandice McGlaun

“Students need to hear affirmations several times, because the more they hear something, the more it becomes prevalent, and they start to internalize it.”

The approach will give students three options during designated weeks: they can speak with one of two adults present, or they can have a private conversation with M2. Students who aren’t ready to talk to an adult yet can work through their feelings with M2 first, building the confidence and clarity they need to eventually seek help from school counselors.

The trickle that turns into a flood

The impact on student engagement has been undeniable. Students have become so attached to M2 that middle schoolers have been naming it, personalizing their relationship with their classroom co-teacher.

But most importantly, it’s advancing inquiry and developing higher-order thinking. Students who interact with M2 are approaching questions differently than ever before. Kandice noticed the change with her own daughters who are in fourth-grade and have also interacted with M2.

Now when I ask them a question, they go deeper asking ‘who, what, when, where, how’? So it’s definitely driving deeper inquiry.

Kandice McGlaun

This transformation in how students think about learning has created what Kandice calls a “trickle effect.” Students who experience M2 in one class go back and tell other teachers about it. Those teachers, intrigued by their students’ enthusiasm, check out the device themselves. And the cycle continues.

Teachers throughout both schools have started saying they want “an M2 in every classroom.”

Cultivating the future with M2

As Molly and Kandice look to the future, they see M2 playing an even more central role in transforming their schools from teacher-centered environments to truly student-led learning spaces.

Molly is developing a “Lunch with M2” incentive program, where students who achieve certain goals—whether academic, attendance-based, or behavioral—can bring their lunch to the STEAM room for a tabletop discussion with M2 on a topic of their choice.

“It’s about cultivating curiosity,” Molly explains. “Letting them explore what they’re genuinely interested in, with immediate support for going deeper.”

Both specialists are working to expand M2 access across all grade levels and subject areas, ensuring that every student has opportunities to experience this new paradigm of learning—where questions don’t go unanswered, where curiosity drives discovery, and where collaboration happens around a shared “bigger brain” rather than through isolated screens.

“That’s where the real growth happens,” Molly says. “In that space between the question and the next question, and the one after that.”

The post Stand aside, Alexa. M2 is the classroom assistant that drives inquiry appeared first on Swivl.

Validation from a veteran coach

Leanne NeSmith, an Instructional Technology Specialist at GA Coastal Plains RESA, has witnessed the incredible evolution of educational technology for 36 years—from implementing gradebook programs loaded onto 5 ¼ inch floppy disks all the way to powering modern classrooms with AI-infused technologies, she’s seen it all.

She supports teachers across 12 school districts in rural Georgia and is always looking for ways to leverage her tech stack to help teachers reach their maximum potential. But like so many instructional coaches around the country, Leanne is also witnessing something troubling.

“Teachers feel incredibly stressed. They feel unprepared for what they’re facing in education today,” Leanne explains. “They’re so overwhelmed by all the non-teaching responsibilities they have, they fail to become the great teachers I know they can be and struggle to keep students engaged.”

The statistics tell a sobering story. Across Georgia, teachers are leaving at alarming rates, particularly in at-risk schools like the ones in the Coastal Plains region. Many educators are entering through alternative certification routes without proper preparation.

Many of these districts don’t employ enough instructional coaches. And those employed are responsible for supporting 60 to 80 teachers while juggling supplemental campus-based responsibilities like bus duty, parent pickup, and administrative meetings.

“Sometimes, I find that the critical piece that is left out of an instructional coach’s job is simply to be the instructional coach,” Leanne reflects.

When support is stretched too thin, newer teaching populations often fall through the cracks first. Many new teachers are afraid to ask for help, worried that admitting their shortcomings could put targets on their backs. So they close their classroom doors and face their challenges alone.

Validation from a master teacher

Enter Kathryn Bailey, a high school English teacher Leanne supports in Lanier County Schools. She’s a master teacher who previously served as an academic coach and knows her curriculum inside and out. But even master teachers like Kathryn exist in this education landscape with daily uncertainties. She wonders: Am I reaching every student? Could I be asking better questions? Am I managing my classroom as effectively as I could be?

When Leanne brought M2 into Kathryn’s classroom, the stakes were clear—any tool claiming to provide teaching feedback and boast student engagement needed to prove its worth immediately. If it couldn’t support someone like Kathryn, it had no business aiding a new teacher.

Neither Leanne nor Kathryn knew exactly what to expect. Would this AI co-teacher understand the nuanced discussions about literary themes? Could it follow the complex dynamics of a veteran teacher managing both honors classes and difficult behavioral situations?

From the first lesson, M2 proved it belonged. As Kathryn guided her students through a comparative analysis of Animal Farm and Frankenstein, M2 quietly observed, analyzing not just her delivery of content, but her questioning techniques, student engagement strategies, and classroom management approaches.

“M2 was 100% correctly following her lesson and understanding what was going on,” Leanne recalls. “I was in the back monitoring the feedback as it rolled in live on M2 and it was spot on.”

The validation was immediate and powerful. M2 would suggest advice like, “That’s a great idea, now ask students a question about____.” And in the front of the room, without even looking at M2, Kathryn would ask that exact question.

“It just gave me chills to see that here’s this AI device mirroring the exact questions that a master teacher is naturally asking,” Leanne explains. “That’s when I realized: this thing is for real.”

Validation for engagement, not evaluation

Beyond delivering stellar feedback, Leanne also wanted to ensure that new teachers felt like they had a partner in class to keep energy high when they’re feeling like the content might fall flat. While working within the Animal Farm and Frankenstein unit, Kathryn discovered another unexpected use for M2 that made engagement soar. After students completed their essays, she simply asked M2 to respond out loud to the same prompt.

“She told students that if they included some of M2’s key points in their own response, they would receive a top score,” Leanne observed. “The students were immediately excited to hear an exemplar to gauge their own responses by.” By modeling out loud, M2 gave them a platform to self-assess their thinking and provided them with a big confidence boost on the spot.

And the best part? M2 integrated itself naturally within the classroom ecosystem. “By the end of the day, she was interacting with M2 and having students ask questions as well,” Leanne recalls. 

Students were curious by it, but not distracted. The technology, enhanced-rather than interrupted-the flow of class. It’s exactly the kind of technology that Leanne hunts to share with teachers.

Validating teachers’ struggles and breaking the cycle of isolation

For too long, teachers have faced a painful paradox: they need support to improve, but they’re afraid to ask for it. They close their classroom doors each day and struggle alone, worried that admitting challenges might threaten their job security.

M2 breaks this cycle by providing private, non-judgmental feedback that pin-points every ounce of good teaching while offering specific, actionable suggestions for improvement. It’s the trusted colleague every teacher wishes they had—always present, always supportive, never evaluative.

“This is the real deal,” Leanne reflects. “It’s asking and following very high-level content and able to understand many different components of a classroom, giving what an administrator and career teacher would say is very good advice.”

Wherever you are, M2 is ready

For the countless new teachers entering classrooms, feeling unprepared and overwhelmed, M2 offers the immediate support they need. For veteran teachers like Kathryn, it provides validation and refinement opportunities that can elevate already strong practice.

For Leanne and coaches like her across the country, M2 represents the solution to an impossible equation: how to support every teacher when resources are stretched beyond limits.

The post The ultimate validation: how M2 earned the trust of a master teacher appeared first on Swivl.

M2 is an AI-powered device that helps teachers engage students better in class, deepen everyone’s thinking, and effortlessly enhance instruction with real-time feedback and automated insights. Its integrated MirrorTalk software automates reflection with customized prompts. Durable, mobile, and uniquely sized, M2 serves as an intelligent co-teacher in various educational spaces.

Your AI Teaching Companion

M2 is more than your average video tool. We leveraged our 12-year expertise in video observation by working with Swivl Robot users around the world to give teachers the best experience when recording themselves for observation and coaching. We built M2 to become your AI teaching companion and help you build skills while you teach by delivering on the spot feedback and strategies for keeping students engaged. For formal observation, M2 features a 180° camera with automated tracking, high-quality audio, and follows up each recording experience with a reflection to capture the teacher’s experience, while its still fresh on their minds.

Small group leader

M2 is also a multi-modal small group leader for classrooms, featuring built-in tools like Recharge, Whiteboard, Links, Timer, Recording, and step-by-step directions to keep students focused. Teachers simply set up M2 at a designated station and load an activity from the Library or create their own based on their lesson plan. After each activity, students reflect on their learning and receive instant feedback.

Reflection kiosk 

M2 prioritizes and measures metacognitive skill development. Its presence constantly offers immediate, personalized feedback for growth as learning happens. Educators gain key insights into participants’ thinking, including understanding, mindset, and challenge level, and actionable feedback to help their participants improve.

In this article, hear from real M2 users about the unique ways they are making the most of this intelligent co-teacher!

Student projects and presentations

M2 enhances projects and presentations by fostering peer collaboration without classroom chaos. Its built-in Workspace tools keep small groups focused, allowing teachers to assist students who need extra help. After completion, M2 prompts student reflection, provides instant feedback, and gives teachers automatic insights into the learning experience.

Hear from several different teachers on how they have transformed their classrooms into project-based learning centers with M2:

M2’s Workspaces are transforming our mathematics instruction. Students enthusiastically solve problems and reflect together, celebrating successes while thoughtfully addressing challenges. It’s remarkable to watch how this guided group work naturally cultivates growth mindsets and genuine excitement for learning.

Brittany Carpenter | Technology Instructor and RESA Coordinator

With M2 Workspaces, science teachers don’t have to keep repeating the same safety procedures and instructions for a lab, they are just built into every activity automatically. This kind of autonomous guidance truly helps teachers meet students where they are with minimal lift on their part.

Phyllis Balcerzak, Ph.D. | Associate Professor, University of Missouri – St. Louis, MO

We love how M2 offers the students many opportunities to practice. Even if a student doesn’t feel like their initial presentation went well or they didn’t master a concept, we can just structure a workspace to include a quick resource, like a video, to watch before they practice it again. And during the reflection, they still get a separate opportunity to explain what they really know about the concept.

Annette Lang | Instructional Coach, Bio-Med Science Academy Stem School, OH

Multi-modal learning for ELLs

M2 assists teachers in balancing ELL and native English speaker needs. It allows ELLs to access content in their native languages and reflect independently, while providing teachers feedback in English. Tools like whiteboard, timers, and group reflection foster digital collaboration, peer modeling, and language practice for all students.

M2 bridges crucial gaps for our newcomer students from El Salvador, recognizing their true academic capabilities while addressing language barriers. By enabling initial reflections in Spanish, then slowly transitioning to English, it builds confidence and creates pathways to their English acquisition, helping these students demonstrate their actual academic potential and integrating them into our classroom community.

Harley DeKeyzer | Librarian/Technology Coordinator, Albany Middle School, Livingston Parish, LA

PBIS that really supports

Transform tense moments into opportunities for growth with MirrorTalk on M2. Placing this powerful tool outside counselors’ or administrators’ offices works wonders for dysregulated students. It guides them through calming exercises and self-reflection, empowering them to process their emotions at their own pace and verbally reflect on their their experiences more productively. Watch as students shift from stressed to serene, ready to engage in constructive conversations. M2 isn’t just a device – it’s a game-changer for student well-being and conflict resolution.

M2 uniquely supports students from challenging home environments by providing a safe, structured space for conflict resolution. Through guided dialogue and calming exercises, it helps students who frequently experience behavioral issues develop essential communication skills and emotional regulation strategies before returning to class.

Rachel Tyson-Wiley | Teacher, City Of Chicago School District 299, IL

Amplify the power of instructional coaching

M2 is the ultimate ally for instructional coaches—because it’s every teacher’s ally too. This powerful tool streamlines teacher development, providing real-time feedback from pre-observation prep to post-lesson reflection. It captures every teachable moment, delivering instant insights and end-of-class summaries that help teachers understand and refine their practice.

With M2, teachers can reflect out loud, deepening their learning, while coaches gain invaluable insights into mindset, tone, and cognitive bias. Skip the recall—jump straight into meaningful, targeted discussions with every teacher that drive real growth.

M2 has completely changed how teachers engage with feedback. The moment they receive a meta-analysis with different strategies, they’re instantly thinking, ‘I can try that!’ The ‘Team Learning Summary’—our coaching strategy—has been a game-changer. Every time teachers see it, they get excited to implement new ideas. It’s not just improving their practice; it’s making them more receptive and fully bought into our coaching cycles.

Meagan Stass-Macdonald | Instructional Coach, Barrington School District 220, IL

Actually measure PD’s impact

Empower everyone with M2! Watch as it transforms post-PD moments into goldmines of insight. Teachers pour out their thoughts at the door, while facilitators instantly gauge their impact. It’s a win-win: educators feel valued, and PD becomes razor-sharp. With M2, every reflection sparks growth, turning feedback into fuel for educational excellence. Get ready to revolutionize professional development – one M2 at a time.

M2 has been an invaluable resource for our PD program: it’s a comprehensive coaching platform, facilitating anonymous PLC feedback, structured support cycles, and data-driven professional development planning.

Amarius Reed | Elementary Math Coordinator, Atlanta Public Schools, GA

Involve the whole community

Unleash M2’s magic at your next school event! From art shows to open houses, M2 captures honest feedback from parents and community members in a private, judgment-free zone and turns them into active participants. Watch as stakeholders dive deep into school initiatives, sharing thoughts that truly matter. Get ready for a avalanche of insights that’ll supercharge your community relationships. With M2, every event becomes a launchpad for meaningful connection and school improvement. Don’t just host events – ignite engagement!

The problem with feedback tools we’ve used in the past is that there is no accountability for the parent (usually a form we send digitally afterward) and then it takes a while for us to sift through the data and publish what we find. M2 is quick, painless, and enjoyable for parents and lets us instantly collect and disseminate the data we gather.

James Wilborn | Elementary Educational Technology Specialist, Atlanta Public Schools, GA

M2 is the intelligent co-teacher that helps teachers engage students better in class, deepen everyone’s thinking, and effortlessly enhance instruction with real-time feedback and automated insights. With all these ways (and more!) it could support your school, isn’t it time to let M2 do the heavy lifting? 

Watch me do even more tricks!

Schedule a live demo to learn more!

The post M2 is the intelligent co-teacher to help you reflect, instruct, and grow appeared first on Swivl.

This article pertains to the M2 device (hardware). Looking for an easy way to get started with MirrorTalk reflection activities that work on any device? Check out this article.

Get ready to meet your new classroom guide! M2 is an AI-powered device to revolutionize small-group learning. This clever all-in-one platform not only offers daily feedback and actionable advice for teachers, it is powered by MirrorTalk, software that automates the entire process with customized prompts and instant feedback for students and teachers. Packed with pre-built thinking activities, MirrorTalk unlocks peer-to-peer chatter, creativity, and teamwork while keeping classroom chaos at bay.

The data you’ll gather from MirrorTalk is a goldmine for student growth, providing educators with automatic insights into understanding, mindset, zones, and more. Say farewell to hours of planning and hello to effortless collaborative experiences from day one – MirrorTalk + M2 is about to become your go-to tool for small-group magic!

Here are 10 fun out-of-the-box activities to get your small group stations rolling! 

Get them talking

Activity: Presentation/Speech Practice

Students need strong presentation skills to thrive in today’s communication-driven world. Whether pitching ideas, defending their work, or simply expressing themselves clearly, the ability to present confidently and effectively opens doors in students’ futures.

Activity: Collaborative Storytelling

Students who become skilled storytellers develop a powerful tool for engaging audiences and conveying complex ideas in memorable ways. The art of storytelling not only enhances communication, but also fosters creativity, empathy, and the ability to connect with others on an emotional level – all valuable assets in school and throughout life.

Activity: Discussion Warm Up/Calentamiento de la discusión*

Increasing opportunities for communication between non-English speaking students and their native English-speaking peers promotes cultural exchange and mutual understanding. These interactions not only accelerate language acquisition for non-native speakers but broaden the worldview of native speakers, preparing both for success in our interconnected global society.

*available in Multiple Languages

Get them doing

Activity: Prototyping

Learning to prototype empowers students to transform abstract ideas into tangible solutions. Prototyping helps students develop critical thinking abilities, learn to iterate on their designs and gain valuable hands-on experience that bridges the gap between concept and reality.

Activity: Tallest Paper Tower

Learning to build things with their hands gives students a unique sense of accomplishment and helps develop practical problem-solving skills that can’t be gained from textbooks or personal devices. Hands-on experiences not only enhance spatial awareness and fine motor skills but also boost confidence, creativity, and the ability to think in three dimensions – all valuable assets for students to possess if they ever want to become engineers, architects, or designers.

Get them in the zone

Activity: Stress Transformer

Learning effective stress-coping techniques improves students’ mental health and enhances their academic performance and social relationships which helps them navigate life’s challenges even beyond the classroom. 

Activity: Brain Break

Brain breaks are essential for students to recharge and refocus, preventing mental fatigue and improving overall learning. These short, intentional pauses during the lesson allow the brain to process information, boost creativity, and enhance attention span, ultimately leading to better retention of material and more productive learning.

Let them have fun

Activity: Pictionary

Pictionary is a fun and engaging way for students to reinforce vocabulary while honing their artistic abilities. As students strive to convey words through quick sketches, they not only practice using and recognizing key terms but also develop their visual communication skills, creativity, and ability to express concepts through art – all while enjoying an interactive game with their classmates.

Activity: Number Hop

Getting kids on their feet to practice math skills transforms abstract concepts into physical, interactive experiences, making learning more engaging and memorable. This approach not only caters to kinesthetic learners but also increases overall student participation, boosts energy levels in the classroom, and helps children associate math with fun and movement – potentially reducing math anxiety and improving retention of mathematical concepts.

Activity: What is your favorite food/¿Cuál es tu comida favorita?*

Discussing favorite foods provides a relatable and enjoyable topic for non-English speaking students and their native English-speaking peers to connect, bridging cultural gaps and fostering genuine friendships. This culinary presentation not only enhances language skills for non-native speakers but also expands the cultural awareness of all students, creating a more inclusive classroom environment. 

*available in English and Spanish

The now for the best part

With MirrorTalk + M2, you’ve got a clever all-in-one platform that offers ready-made activities that foster lively student interaction, imaginative thinking, and collaborative efforts, while maintaining a structured learning environment. You can even copy our pre-made templates to get some inspiration for your own activities.

And perhaps the best part? While M2 keeps your small groups humming along, you’re free to move around the class, giving extra attention to students who need it most. When students are finished, you’ll get actionable insights on their work from their reflection and – perhaps most importantly – get to watch all of the fun they had!

See it in action!

Ready to turn your classroom into a collaborative maker-space?

Schedule a live demo with the Swivl team to learn more.

The post 10 small group activities that M2 offers, right out of the box appeared first on Swivl.

When administrators in Dodge City, KS, reviewed their student data in 2019, it was clear that literacy, specifically for their English Language Learners (ELLs), needed to be a top priority.

With 80% of the district’s 7,000 students identifying as Hispanic/Latino, this was already an area of focus. After receiving funding from a state grant, though, the district was ready to take a new approach.

Instead of focusing on top-down PD, Dodge City leaders invested in teacher coaching and self-reflection as a path to student literacy growth. 

To better support ELLs, Dodge City needed to remake their tools and systems for coaching

According to Kelley Clark, Literacy Project Manager and Professional Development Coordinator, this was a research-informed decision.

“We had seen a body of evidence saying that PD sessions alone won’t give us the return we wanted,” Kelley said. “We needed to support what we were doing with instructional coaching.”

In the past, Dodge City had had versions of instructional coaching, and even used classroom video in support of it. But they had identified several challenges to address.

“Coaching looked different across buildings and between individuals. Coaches often did ‘other duties as assigned’ instead of true coaching,” Kelley said.

Their old method of capturing classroom video was also a challenge to address.

“Lots of teachers found coaches visiting classrooms and using iPads to record them intimidating. The teachers had questions: What’s going on with the video? Whose video is it?” Kelley said.

With a clear goal and challenges to address, Dodge City was ready to get to work.

Leaders replaced classroom visits with Swivl Robots to create a more teacher-centered coaching program

Dodge City systematized and focused their coaching efforts by adopting Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle. While coaches used to visit classrooms to record lessons with an iPad, teachers now recorded their own lessons with Swivl Robots. 

Kelley was unsure how teachers would feel about recording themselves with Swivl Robots.

“The teachers actually preferred using the Robots to record themselves over having their coach record them with an iPad,” Kelley said.

At the same time, administrators and coaches audited coaches’ time. This clarified the job’s responsibilities and opened new ways for coaches to offer teacher support.

“Coaches began to leverage video captured by Swivl Robots at multiple points of the coaching cycle,” Kelley said. 

This included:

• Capturing video before coaching to capture the current reality
• Coaches sharing model lessons for teachers to refer to during the coaching cycle
• Recording lessons during the cycle for reflection and richer coaching conversations

Additionally, Dodge City started using Swivl Robots to empower curriculum implementations. When ELA and Math teachers wanted to see a new curriculum taught in a lesson, coaches recorded and shared model lessons. These acted as concrete examples of instructional expectations teachers could revisit and share with others.

“We invested in teachers, focusing on collective efficacy,” Kelley said of the changes Dodge City made to support ELL achievement.

Teachers are empowered to reflect with classroom video, and ELLs show growth in crucial skills

“Change takes time. But we are seeing teacher practice shift,” Kelley said. 

This shift in practice has led to concrete results related to Dodge City’s goal to support ELLs. Recently, the Dodge City ESOL and Diversity Director shared assessment data showing growth in speaking, listening, and reading skills for ELL students.

“It’s steady, incremental growth, which is what we want to see,” Kelley said.

Kelley believes that giving teachers tools to engage in meaningful self-reflection and coaching is a key piece of that growth.

“When the Swivl Robot is in the classroom, it’s an objective observer,” Kelley said. “Teachers look at what they’re doing, and how their kids are responding. That’s more powerful than anyone coming in and saying ‘you should be doing this or that.’”

Kelley looks forward to expanded use of Teams by Swivl (now Reflectivity) for asynchronous discussion through time-stamped commenting, as a way to enrich face to face conversations with teachers.

During a recent coaching session, Kelley observed the power of giving teachers tools to reflect on classroom video.  While watching a video, the teacher saw how often she laughed with students and had fun moments with them during class. 

“She was laughing and having a good time, but she wasn’t conscious of it,” Kelley said. “It’s not always about identifying negative things. There are so many positives to discover.”

The post How Dodge City Schools Transformed Their Coaching Program to Support ELL Achievement appeared first on Swivl.