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.

The post Achieve differentiation in special education with M2 appeared first on Swivl.

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.

From M2’s feedback, our teachers select two instructional goals for their next observation and then the cycle repeats. It’s so streamlined!

Dr. Pallavi Aggarwal | University of Missouri, St. Louis

USE CASE

AI-powered coaching

Dr. Pallavi Aggarwal / Laura Myers

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow / Principal

School/District:

University of Missouri, St. Louis / Biome Charter School

Grade Level: Elementary School

Dr. Pallavi Aggarwal was partnered with The Biome School in 2023 as part of a University of Missouri-St. Louis postdoctoral fellows program where she was introduced to the then–instructional coach–now Principal, Laura Myers. From their earliest observations, they realized that many teachers were struggling with basic Tier 1 instruction. Laura knew it wasn’t apathy that the teachers were experiencing; there were simply no systems in place to drive the kind of standardization around excellence they knew every teacher was capable of. 

As Laura recalls it, “The teachers who were well-prepared and had sharpened their lesson plans: they sparkled. It was the teachers who did not prepare, who would just fly by the seat of their pants – that’s where we noticed behavioral problems, teaching performance issues, and a correlation in lower scores out of those students.”

Pallavi also remembers those days. According to her, “Teachers weren’t required to review their teaching manuals, there were no PLCs for collaborative planning, and there was not a consistent instructional coaching model to guide growth.” 

99 observations, 44 videos, and one unsustainable path

Determined to shift the school’s trajectory, Pallavi and Laura threw themselves into data collection. In their first semester, they conducted 99 observations, meticulously documenting which instructional practices correlated with higher levels of student engagement. They presented their findings to leadership, making the first real case for systemic change.

In the second semester, they introduced GoReact’s video review platform to help teachers reflect on their practice and give leadership visibility into classroom instruction. But this tool came with baggage. After manually viewing and meticulously annotating video observations, Laura and Pallavi were craving some efficiency. Pallavi put it plainly,

In the same year, they piloted Swivl robots, which leveraged multiple microphones to capture classroom audio and provided speech analysis. The data was eye-opening: in most classrooms, teachers talked 98% of the time while students had opportunities to engage only 2% of the time. It was another data point confirming what they already knew – instruction needed to evolve.

The work paid off initially. By the end of that first year, they had developed three critical tools: a lesson template outlining how instruction should flow, two rubrics to assess instructional practices and student engagement, and a shared understanding that teacher capacity-building needed to be the school’s priority. 

Time to scale…and soar

Armed with their custom rubrics and building a culture of trust and partnership, Pallavi and Laura entered their second year ready to implement a more formal coaching model. But even with plans in place, the thought of manually observing, recording, annotating, analyzing, and providing personalized feedback to every single teacher each week loomed over them again like a dark cloud. They’d need to clone themselves just to maintain what they’d started.

That’s when Pallavi heard about M2 in a meeting with other mentors in her post-doctoral program at UMSL.

She was excited by the possibilities immediately: “M2 was a perfect fit in our trajectory because we were already conducting observations regularly, and fortunately, our teachers were amenable to trying new things.” And M2 reinforced a very crucial principle for the teachers at Biome Charter: 

M2 observations are never meant to be punitive. They are designed to support growth. So the teachers approached M2 with curiosity, rather than resistance.

Using AI to bring out the humanness in their coaching

What immediately appealed to Pallavi and Laura was that M2 didn’t compete with their roles as coaches and mentors for their teachers. If anything, it became their trusted sidekick for every observation and helped them establish a baseline of feedback for teachers in minutes, not hours.

Here’s how their hybrid model works: M2 is set up in a classroom at the beginning of each lesson, collecting real-time data on the teachers’ skills: engagement, questioning strategies, and pacing. M2 is guided by the custom rubrics Pallavi developed to assess instructional practices so it knows what to look for and how to support each teacher during their class. After each lesson, M2 provides automatic scores, summaries, and actionable tips for improvement, while a human observer (usually Pallavi) adds context from their perspective of the class.

Teachers then review both sets of feedback and select their own instructional goals. “It’s not just us providing feedback. Teachers are also taking ownership when they view M2’s recommendations,” Pallavi explains. “From M2’s feedback, our teachers select two instructional goals for their next observation and then the cycle repeats. It’s so streamlined!”

The two leaders shared an anecdote that literally had them high-fiving as we spoke about it. One of their teachers, Dr. Washington, has become a model for how powerful this approach can be. Pallavi shared, “She’s actually using the tool in the best capacity possible. She carefully and thoughtfully reads through all of M2’s feedback and it helps her see the bigger picture.” 

Successful experiences like Dr. Washington’s are what make Pallavi and Laura’s partnership so strong and in sync: when they see a teacher take ownership of their own growth and development, it makes coaching and supporting that teacher even more rewarding.

Other teachers are becoming more vocal about their observation protocol too.

The next frontier: co-teaching with M2

Pallavi and Laura’s vision for M2 extends beyond observation and feedback. In Spring 2026, they plan to utilize M2’s Group Guide. With this feature, students can interact directly with M2 to ask questions, engage in small group discussions and receive feedback, and practice their skills, all while M2 provides instructional support and narrated directions.

They’re also exploring using M2’s customized assignment feature, which lets students verbally share their learning based on prompts that M2 designed from the lesson. “It will be really interesting to assess students’ depth of knowledge,” Pallavi muses, thinking about the various ways M2’s software [MirrorTalk.ai] will be able to analyze student reflections.

What M2 was designed for

When asked what guidance they’d give to other schools, researchers, or coaches considering M2, both Pallavi and Laura immediately emphasized the importance of relationships, which is also fundamental to the M2 experience. 

The cultural groundwork matters. Trust matters. And when those foundations are solid, technology like M2 can transform what’s possible–not by replacing teachers or coaches, but by giving them the time, data, and support to do their most important work: helping every teacher grow.

The post How M2 freed coaches to scale instructional excellence 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.

The students can definitely get some feedback and guidance regardless of what the assignment may be. So they’re not having to wait for me to do that.

Jan Miller | University of West Alabama, AL

USE CASE

Scaling quality feedback in higher education, teacher preparation

Jan Miller

Director of Competency Based Education and Registered Teacher Apprenticeship

School/District:

University of West Alabama, AL

Grade Level Higher Ed

Jan Miller sat at her desk well past midnight, reading through digital submissions from her teacher education program students. In education, providing meaningful feedback to students is a cornerstone of effective teaching. For Jan, Director of Competency-Based Education and Registered Teacher Apprenticeship at the University of West Alabama, this commitment to quality feedback came with a significant challenge. With over 1,200 online students in their teacher education program, delivering timely, personalized feedback was becoming increasingly difficult.

“Feedback on assignments could take hours or even an entire day to complete, per course,” Jan explains. As someone dedicated to supporting future educators, she knew that delayed feedback meant missed opportunities for growth. Students, particularly adult learners with families to support, need prompt responses to continue their educational journey efficiently.

The feedback bottleneck

The University of West Alabama’s teacher education program serves a diverse student population. From traditional on-campus students to online learners, from competency-based education participants to teacher assistants working toward certification, each group required thoughtful, targeted feedback to develop their teaching skills.

For Jan and her team, this created an impossible equation. “There’s no way that we can give timely, accurate, good feedback to 1,200 students,” she shares. The delay in feedback was especially problematic for adult learners who were balancing education with full-time jobs and family responsibilities. “The sooner they can finish, the more income they can make,” Jan notes, highlighting the real-world impact of educational efficiency.

Despite using Swivl products for recording classroom experiences for 6-7 years, Jan recognized they needed a more robust solution that could scale their ability to provide meaningful guidance while maintaining the personal touch that makes feedback effective.

A new approach to reflection and growth

When Jan discovered M2, Swivl’s intelligent co-teacher with embedded MirrorTalk technology, everything changed. The reflective capabilities immediately caught her attention as a perfect fit for their competency-based program.

“Part of growing as a professional is watching yourself, thinking about why you did what you did, why you made the instructional decisions you did,” Jan explains.

For us to tell students to go back and rewatch something, and then to ask those reflective questions, and now to layer it with AI responses to keep the conversation going – it’s been tremendous.

Jan Miller | University of West Alabama, AL

The impact was immediate. Students in the competency-based program began receiving instant feedback on their work, allowing them to continue their educational journey without waiting days for instructor responses. For Jan, this meant she could focus on providing higher-level guidance rather than spending hours on repetitive feedback.

“For me to set it up for them to get immediate feedback… it’s a time saver for me,” Jan says. “The students can definitely get some feedback and guidance regardless of what the assignment may be. So they’re not having to wait for me to do that.”

A lasting transformation

Today, M2 and MirrorTalk have become essential components of UWA’s approach to teacher preparation. The technology has transformed how Jan and her team support student growth, providing a scalable solution to the feedback challenge while maintaining educational quality.

For students, the immediate feedback means they can progress through their coursework more efficiently, applying insights in real-time rather than waiting for instructor responses. “Online learners don’t like to wait,” Jan notes. “For competency-based to get immediate feedback has been a wonderful thing for the student experience.”

For instructors, M2 has created a more manageable workload without sacrificing educational quality.

It’s very easy to use. The more that you play with it, the easier it gets.

Jan Miller | University of West Alabama, AL

Looking ahead, Jan envisions expanding M2’s use to their K-12 charter school, where teacher candidates can learn to use the technology for assessment and then take those skills into their future classrooms. “We need to teach our candidates how to use this, and then once you get your results, what do you do with it,” she explains. “It really takes assessment to the next level.”

For Jan Miller and the University of West Alabama, M2 isn’t just a technological tool — it’s a partner in their mission to prepare the next generation of educators with the reflection skills and feedback they need to thrive.

Meet M2

Meet M2 — every teacher’s intelligent co-teacher and every coach’s new best friend. MirrorTalk powers it and helps you take your coaching to new heights.

Schedule a consultation with the Swivl team to learn more.

The post Breaking the bottleneck: How UWA scaled quality feedback to 1,200 students appeared first on Swivl.

M2 always gives me great objective feedback like – ‘hey, your pacing might be a little too fast at this point in the lesson because it seems like the students aren’t engaging as much with you.‘

Ella Burgos and Sabrina Miler | Forest City Adventist School, FL

USE CASE

Live feedback, student engagement, and teacher reflection

Ella Burgos | Sabrina Miler

4th and 5th Grade Math & Science Teacher |
Associate Superintendent

School/District:

Forest City Adventist School, FL

Grade Level 4-5

Helping Ella find her rhythm

In her tenth year of teaching, Ella Burgos had achieved mastery in many areas of her professional growth at Forest City Adventist School. Teaching fourth and fifth-grade math and science, she had developed a comfortable rhythm—explaining concepts, asking if students understood, and moving forward based on the nodding heads she saw. But beneath the surface of this seemingly smooth operation lay an uncomfortable truth: some students were being left behind, particularly those who processed information differently than how Ella naturally taught.

“Prior to M2, I relied on my own methods for pacing, delivering content, and engaging my students,” Ella explains. Her experienced eyes could spot the obvious signs of confusion, but the subtle cues—a slightly furrowed brow, a hesitant pencil, an answer that was close but not quite right—often slipped past her attention during the fast-paced school day.

For students who needed alternative explanations or struggled with mathematical concepts, Ella would try different approaches, but often found herself repeating the same explanations in slightly different words. The frustration was mutual—students who couldn’t grasp concepts felt increasingly discouraged, while Ella felt she was missing opportunities to reach them equitably and effectively.

That all changed when M2 entered her classroom, offering not just a second voice for struggling students, but becoming Ella’s partner in refining her craft—reading the room when she couldn’t, suggesting when to slow down or move on, and guiding her through meaningful reflection that transformed her teaching practice from experience-based to evidence-driven.

Ella shared “M2 always gives me great objective feedback like – ‘hey, your pacing might be a little too fast at this point in the lesson because it seems like the students aren’t engaging as much with you.‘”

The common denominator for Ella and her students

One day Ella Burgos stood at the whiteboard, explaining unit fractions to her fourth-grade math class. Despite her decade of teaching experience, she couldn’t help but notice that some students’ eyes were glazing over. Frustration crept in as she tried different explanations, and a student who needed help most—who excelled in reading, writing, and verbal reasoning, but struggled with mathematical concepts—still looked confused.

“I know what a fraction is, but what makes it a unit fraction?” the student asked for the second time.

Ella started to repeat the same explanation, when she remembered her new classroom assistant. With M2 settled at the student’s desk and set to Student Mode, the student read the instructions from her worksheet to M2.

M2 jumped into action immediately, describing how unit fractions work and detailing the steps she should take to try solving the particular problem that the student was working on. 

The student’s eyes widened as she turned to Ella and said “Wait–that’s it?” 

“That’s it,” replied Ella. And that’s when Ella realized the power of the tool she had at her fingertips. 

Ella marveled as comprehension dawned on her student’s face—the same explanation she’d given, but somehow more accessible coming from M2. Instead of feeling replaced, she felt relief. This would become a turning point in how she approached her teaching.

The students constantly ask, ‘When can we use M2 again? They just want to talk to M2 all the time and ask it questions.’

Ella Burgos | Forest City Adventist School, FL

An unexpected bond was formed

What surprised Ella most wasn’t just the academic support M2 provided, but the social connection her students formed with it. Her students eagerly shared their thoughts and experiences with M2, delighting in having another “presence” that listened and responded to them.

Her students are still deciding on a clever and beloved name for their new friend, and we’ll be sure to update this story here when they do. 

Transforming what it means to be a reflective educator

Beyond giving Ella advice on her pacing or supporting her students in their time of true need, M2 with embedded MirrorTalk software encouraged her to reflect on her teaching practices—something she admits teachers don’t always prioritize consistently.

“I did personal reflections on my M2 lessons when I got home,” Ella says. “M2 asked me questions like ‘How am I going to teach fractions better?” 

It takes me five to ten minutes to reflect, but without taking this step, tomorrow comes and I find I’m not actually ready to tackle this lesson.

Ella Burgos | Forest City Adventist School, FL

At first, she couldn’t answer these kinds of questions readily. The reflection prompts motivated Ella to research new approaches and strategies, preparing her to tackle upcoming lessons more effectively. While reflection requires time, Ella found the investment worthwhile: “It takes me five to ten minutes to reflect, but it makes me think. Without taking this step, tomorrow comes and I find I’m not actually ready to tackle this lesson.”

Rather than feeling like additional work, these reflection moments helped Ella become more proactive and prepared, ultimately saving her time and improving her teaching effectiveness.

A partner for every teacher

For Sabrina Miller, Associate Superintendent overseeing 30 schools in her organization, the potential of M2 extends far beyond a single classroom. After witnessing Ella’s experience, she immediately saw broader applications—particularly for their multi-grade classrooms.

“Two-thirds of our 30 schools are multi-grade schools,” Sabrina told us. “The idea that normally we tell them ‘teach one grade level, send the other grade levels to do work’—those kids don’t have access to a teacher. The possibilities of them sitting with an M2 that’s doing more extension of what they just learned with the teacher is an amazing possibility.”

And after Ella and two of her students presented how easy it was to get setup with M2 and get feedback on her very first session with it a recent principals’ meeting Sabrina received immediate interest: “Before the meeting was over, I had received emails from about five principals that said, ‘We’re ready, sign me up, I want one.” 

Turning off autopilot to make room for her new co-pilot, M2

For Ella, M2 is not about replacing her expertise, but augmenting it—providing a second voice in the classroom that helps reach students through a different voice and perspective. It’s supporting her in being more aware of her pacing, more diverse in her instructional approaches, and more consistent in her reflective practices. She’s no longer teaching solo – on autopilot – she’s got an essential ally that’s helping her rediscover her passion for teaching, even in year ten.

Learn more!

Meet M2 – every teacher’s intelligent co-teacher and every coach’s new best friend. MirrorTalk powers it and it helps you take your coaching to catastrophic heights. Learn more.

The post A lesson in chemistry: when students connect both with their teacher and M2 appeared first on Swivl.

I call it my co-pilot…It’s instantly become a unique part of our classroom.

Lauren Briones-Campos | Watts Elementary, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD

USE CASE

On-the-spot feedback for every lesson, student engagement

Lauren Briones-Campos

Teacher

School/District:

Maxine & Lutrell Watts Elementary, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District, TX

Grade Level

Kindergarten

Dealt a challenging hand

Lauren, a Kindergarten teacher with 15 years of experience, faced a unique set of classroom dynamics this particular school year. Her 21-student classroom presented a distinctive combination of challenges: an unusually rambunctious group, students across varying learning levels, and eight children with speech issues requiring special attention.

As a seasoned professional, Lauren had the pedagogical toolkit to address these challenges piecemeal. However, this year’s particular combination created a complex teaching environment where traditional approaches weren’t quite hitting the mark.

“I have high learners and learners that need differentiation,” Lauren explains. “Then I also have eight students with speech issues, so I am constantly thinking about how to make sure I’m teaching them sentence structures and encouraging their language development, while also keeping everything at an appropriate kindergarten level.”

Despite her wealth of classroom experience, Lauren’s introduction to M2 found her struggling to identify the right focus for her professional development. “I wasn’t sure what to target for myself,” she reflects. Like many experienced educators in this position, she faced the challenge of not knowing what she didn’t know.  

M2’s first day on the job

From the first day Lauren brought M2 into her classroom, things began to change. Without requiring extensive training or setup time, M2 quickly became part of her teaching routine.

Lauren initially used M2 during morning meetings to observe her students’ language development. She simply entered her learning objective and let M2 observe. What happened next surprised her.

“It gave me advice about exactly what I hoped it would,” Lauren explains, which surprised her because she didn’t even identify her objective. M2 was able to pick up exactly what Lauren had been struggling with, immediately provided feedback about creating a calmer environment, addressing the very interruptions that had been frustrating her all year long. 

M2 also offered her specific guidance on using sentence frames and addressing students by name. “It would identify exactly which sentence frames to use with particular students. I’d say to students: ‘Okay, let’s try this again. I want you to share again but use this phrase.’ Then my students would repeat after me and finish the blank,” Lauren recalls.

Targeted results, at the right time

The impact of having M2 as a co-teacher was immediate and significant. Lauren found herself receiving actionable, in-the-moment feedback that she could implement right away rather than analyzing her lessons when students had already gone home.

One of the most surprising benefits came when addressing classroom management, and Lauren ended up using M2’s feedback as leverage to encourage better behavior. Lauren shares her playful idea: “I would tell my students – ‘M2 says it doesn’t seem like calm classroom environment in here.’ Then I whispered ‘Your voices have to match mine so M2 knows that we are calm and learning!’ They immediately changed their behavior because M2 noticed what was happening—even though I had been saying the same thing all year!”

M2 also gives Lauren regular feedback on her pacing, noting that in one lesson she hadn’t been giving students enough time to decode words before providing them with guidance. She also appreciates how she can adjust M2’s feedback interval based on her lesson format—whether she wants tips every minute during mini-lessons or every five minutes during station work and small groups.

Her students’ ally

Rather than causing disruption, M2 quickly became an accepted part of the classroom community. Students were naturally curious about M2, asking what it was for and what to call it. They showed remarkable patience when Lauren needed to check feedback or set up her objectives.

They immediately changed their behavior because M2 noticed what was happening—even though I had been saying the same thing all year!

Lauren Briones-Campos | Watts Elementary, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD

“I call it my co-pilot and my students accepted it as such,” Lauren explains. “They know to wait patiently, just like when I’m turning pages in a teaching guide. It’s instantly become a unique part of our classroom.”

Lauren also found that students were less distracted by M2 than they would be by a human observer entering the classroom, which means: fewer disruptions and more focused learning time.

Her coach’s ally too

Heather Thornblom an instructional coach at Lauren’s school, sees additional advantages to M2’s presence. “As an instructional coach, it’s really hard to keep up with everyone, observe every teacher and try to offer corrections after we debrief,” Heather explains. 

M2 also takes one negative emotional aspect out of the observation process, whereby some teachers feel like they’re not allowed to own their growth. Rather than having coaches always be the ones to identify areas for improvement, teachers come with specific feedback they’ve already received from M2, asking instead for help with implementation. “The coaching cycle is strengthened because the request for guidance and support is their idea, not me coming in saying ‘you need to fix this,'” Heather observes.

The coaching cycle is strengthened because the request for guidance and support is their idea, not me coming in saying “you need to fix this.”

Heather Thornblom | Watts Elementary, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD

Ready for every classroom, today

The remarkable simplicity of M2 is what makes it truly revolutionary. “It was extremely easy to get started with M2, which required little to no training,” Lauren explains. With minimal setup—just entering an objective and setting feedback frequency—teachers can transform their practice immediately. This plug-and-play approach means M2 can enter any classroom.

It was extremely easy to get started with M2 – which required little to no training.

Lauren Briones-Campos | Watts Elementary, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD

For Lauren and teachers everywhere, M2 has become the trusted partner that provides precise, in-the-moment feedback when it matters most. No more waiting for scheduled observations or deep lesson analysis when students have already gone home. By providing that crucial second set of eyes with specific, actionable suggestions, M2 helps teachers engage more students, continuously improve teaching practice, and make even the most challenging classroom dynamics more manageable. 

Your classroom, your challenges, your co-teacher

Meet M2 – every teacher’s intelligent co-teacher and every coach’s new best friend. MirrorTalk powers it and helps you take your coaching to catastrophic heights. Learn more.

The post A teacher with 15 years of wisdom discovers M2: her powerful new co-teacher appeared first on Swivl.

It’s no longer me just observing, writing notes, having a meeting, and only then creating a solution. It’s me seeing the data and showing up to our first meeting with solutions.

Michelle Ashmore | Newnan High School, Coweta County School District

USE CASE

On-the-spot feedback for every teacher, regardless of experience level; massive improvement and scalability in coaching conversations

Michelle Ashmore and Allison Hurston

Instructional Coaches

School/District:

Newnan High School, Coweta County School District, GA

Grade Level

Adult/Professional Development

What fire will we extinguish today?

Michelle Ashmore and Allison Hurston, instructional coaches at Newnan High School in Georgia, struggled to keep up with the demands of supporting their diverse teaching staff. With limited time and resources, they found themselves constantly “putting out fires” rather than implementing strategic coaching plans.

“As instructional coaches, we get requests all the time,” Allison explains. “Sometimes teachers invite us into their classrooms; sometimes they don’t. And even when we observe, we’re only seeing a short snippet. There’s no way we can capture the essence of what a teacher is doing unless we were in there every day.”

This reactive approach meant they couldn’t connect meaningfully with every teacher, and the interactions they did have often felt rushed and surface-level. That changed when Newnan High introduced M2—the intelligent co-teacher that provides real-time instructional feedback and a space for active teacher reflection. 

M2’s eyes open our own

Within just days of implementing M2, Michelle and Allison noticed a fundamental shift in their coaching workflow. Instead of spending precious time identifying issues through limited observations, they could now focus on what they do best: delivering targeted solutions based on comprehensive data.

“It’s almost like a second pair of eyes for us,” Michelle says. “We’ll still go into classrooms, but M2 gives us a different lens to look through. It shortens the time between observation and action—I can go back in a day versus it being a week.”

The traditional five-step coaching cycle has been streamlined. “It’s no longer me just observing, writing notes, having a meeting and only then creating a solution, then having another meeting,” Michelle explains. “It’s me seeing the data and showing up to our first meeting with solutions.”

M2 gives us a different lens to look through. It shortens the time between observation and action—I can go back in a day versus it being a week.

Michelle Ashmore | Newnan High School, Coweta County School District

Showing veteran teachers new tricks

Perhaps most surprising has been the enthusiastic adoption by one of Newnan’s most accomplished veteran educators. Susan Turner, a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher with over 20 years of experience, has become one of M2’s biggest advocates.

“I can’t even describe how excited she was,” Allison said. “She was absolutely glowing. She talks a mile a minute—what she calls ‘Turner time’—and at one point, M2 suggested she slow down because her pace might be surpassing what kids could understand.”

Susan took this feedback and immediately adjusted her teaching in the moment. For her next class, she proactively addressed her pacing, which students immediately benefited from. 

I thought I knew all the tricks, but [M2] is helping me really pay attention to my kids in the moment.

Susan Turner | Newnan High School, Coweta County School District

What’s remarkable is that Susan had initially been skeptical of AI tools. Allison said, “She would leave conferences saying, ‘I’m too old for this. I’m not doing this AI stuff.’ “Now she’s spearheading other teachers in her department to use it.”

Susan herself admits the impact: “I thought I knew all the tricks, but [M2] is helping me really pay attention to my kids in the moment.”

Building teacher leaders from their newest crop

While veteran teachers are finding new insights, newer educators are using M2 to build confidence and resilience. James Drayer, a third-year Geometry teacher, has been dealt a challenging hand, but consistently strives to rise above. During his first year at Newnan—amid the aftermath of a tornado that forced classes into trailers with limited resources—James found himself trying to balance the school’s situation in addition to classroom management challenges that every first-year teacher faces.

One of the first to jump at trying M2, Allison said that James is “using M2 to get feedback on how his class flows, looking for choppy transitions or ways to explain concepts differently.”

James also uses M2’s recording feature which automatically tracks and zooms in on him as he teaches to understand his true presence in his classroom. This eye-opening reflection opportunity combined with the daily feedback M2 provides has accelerated his growth significantly.

James has made such progress in his various strategies and practices that he’s been chosen to present at Coweta County’s Innovation Summit this summer, demonstrating techniques he refined with M2’s assistance.

From fighting fires to strategic, supportive coaching

For Michelle and Allison, M2 has fundamentally changed how they approach their roles as instructional coaches.

It cuts out the guesswork of how to support every teacher and gives them back the time they need to actually implement strategies that help teachers overcome their challenges. “It makes us more effective. It makes the teacher more effective,” Michelle concludes. “And it addresses every teacher’s biggest challenge: time.”

M2 addresses every teacher and coach’s biggest challenge: time

Allison Hurston | Newnan High School, Coweta County School District

The non-evaluative nature of M2’s feedback has also created a safer space for growth. Michelle says. “With M2, our teachers know their feedback will not go toward their evaluation or be sent punitively to an administrator. They share their reflections with us, and I can immediately take a solution-oriented approach rather than one that involves a fire extinguisher.”

This changes the entire tone of coaching conversations and helps them in their mission to support every single teacher at Newnan: “We can immediately start with the positive: ‘I saw your reflection and what you said. I’m here to help you. Here are some strategies'” says Michelle. 

We can immediately start with the positive: ‘I saw your reflection and what you said. I’m here to help you. Here are some strategies.’

Michelle Ashmore | Newnan High School, Coweta County School District

With M2 as their trusted partner, Michelle and Allison don’t just solve problems—they empower teachers to join them in crafting solutions, creating a culture where both veterans and newcomers thrive.

The next frontier in coaching has arrived

Meet M2 – every teacher’s intelligent co-teacher and every coach’s new best friend. MirrorTalk powers it and helps you take your coaching to catastrophic heights. Learn more.

The post Balancing confidence: M2 uses AI to help coaches transform teaching at both ends of the scale appeared first on Swivl.

An experiment becomes an intentional practice

Meagan Macdonald is an instructional coach at Barrington School District 220’s middle school. With a staff of 90 teachers, managing effective coaching cycles while offering meaningful reflection time seemed impossible to balance.

For Meagan, their reflection goals were centered around student outcomes. She experimented with the tool after the school’s initial success using MirrorTalk’s voice-guided reflections for students. After completing several “test” reflections, she immediately realized that MirrorTalk could bolster adult learning outcomes as it had done for students.

This breakthrough came when she reflected on a challenging coaching cycle she experienced earlier in the week. “The feedback MirrorTalk gave me was awesome! It was so intuitive and uncovered a lot of assumptions I was making about the situation,” she recalls. “The advice it gave me targeted a specific strategy I could try, helping me quickly turn things around with this teacher.”

Realizing the immense impact it could have on her teachers’ reflective practice, she invited all the teachers she works with to use MirrorTalk. Soon, coaches all over Barrington adopted it for their coaching cycles, too.

MirrorTalk made the impossible, possible

The transition from student tool to coaching asset was natural. One of the biggest challenges in Meagan’s role before had been scheduling meaningful reflection time for teachers within the constraints of everyone’s busy school day. Effective coaching cycles require precise timing for post-observation feedback, which often proved impossible to coordinate.

MirrorTalk helped Meagan and other coaches in her district navigate these complexities by enabling teachers to capture their thoughts immediately after classes when coaches can’t typically be present. Teachers reflect while teaching is fresh and they’re still in their element and MirrorTalk gives them practical advice they can apply in their lessons immediately. 

For Meagan, this was a huge turning point: “Every time a teacher gets MirrorTalk feedback with different strategies, instantly they say to themselves ‘hmm, I could try that.

It’s made them so much more receptive to new ideas and strategies when we meet for 1:1 conversations.

Meagan MacDonald | Barrington Middle School, Barrington School District 220

MirrorTalk drastically improved coaching conversations

As Meagan observed, teachers had already started gathering data for themselves with MirrorTalk, which formed the foundation for deeper, more focused coaching conversations when they met with their coaches. Instead of starting from scratch during each meeting, coaches and teachers build on captured data from reflections, leading to more strategic and focused improvement plans.

As Meagan explains, “MirrorTalk instructs teachers to build reflective habits and learn from their own experiences.  It helps us move everyone along in the right direction, and make better decisions, faster. When you only have 44 minutes with each teacher, MirrorTalk helps us immediately dive into executing a strategy, rather than ruminating on it.”

MirrorTalk elevated teacher collaboration

As capacity improved, Meagan and her coaches expanded MirrorTalk usage to their PLCs. As each group of teachers completes reflections with MirrorTalk, MirrorTalk automatically generates Group Lessons which provide the coaches general insights on how the group perceives the sessions and considerations for coaches when planning next steps.

These Group Lessons not only impacted 1:1 time with teachers but increased buy-in for their coaching program throughout the district.

Now every time we meet for PLCs, teachers are genuinely excited about the improvements they’re making and come to the table with curiosity about what others are trying. The feedback we get when teachers reflect on their PLCs helps us make this time together more engaging and useful for everyone. It’s a huge win for everyone!

Meagan MacDonald | Barrington Middle School, Barrington School District 220

The changes don’t stop here

By making reflection more accessible and insights more rapid and actionable, MirrorTalk has helped create a healthier professional environment throughout Barrington that bridges crucial gaps in teacher development and coaching capacity. 

Best of all, their investment in a student support tool has paid off in unexpected ways: it created a culture where teachers constantly improve, which ultimately benefits the same students who inspired them to adopt the tool in the first place.

The next frontier in coaching has arrived

Meet M2 – every teachers’ intelligent co-teacher and every coach’s new best friend. MirrorTalk powers it and it helps you take your coaching to catastrophic heights. Learn more.

The post Changing the coaching game, one reflection at a time appeared first on Swivl.