Mirror guides my second graders through reflection questions on their own, and then I get data on their answers to help me support each student’s needs.

Melisa Hayes | Hilliard Crossing Elementary, Hilliard City Schools

USE CASE

Creating more autonomous and deeply engaged elementary students

Melisa Hayes

Teacher

School/District:

Hilliard Crossing Elementary School, Hilliard City Schools

Grade Level 2

Discovering M2: A game-changer in guided learning

Juggling time constraints and wanting to engage my students were the main reasons I was so excited to start using M2. This tool allows my kids to reflect on their work at any time. It’s versatile, and any age or ability can use it. My kids can access it at any point of the day, and it fits into my limited schedule.

In my room, M2 is in a corner where kids can go anytime to use it when they want to reflect. MirrorTalk, the software that runs on M2, guides my second graders through reflective questions independently. They get immediate AI-generated feedback, and then I get data on their answers to those questions that help me support each student’s needs. 

And guess what? They love it!!!

Not only is it a reflective tool–it can be transformed into an interactive workspace that supports individual and small-group guided learning. It’s amazing for me as an educator to be able to set up the M2 for small groups. I record instructions, set M2 to turn into a functional whiteboard, program brain breaks, and stretches, and then bring students back to reflection as the foundation of the activity.

Giving voice to the youngest students

I have always faced challenges when having my students reflect on their learning. Time, of course, is always a factor; but also, there is the added challenge of keeping my students engaged enough to reflect on a lesson, subject, or their behavior. M2 lets them take that initiative right in class, creating an environment where even young students can feel autonomy over their actions.

Giving my kids the ability to choose how to give their brains a break and center themselves is such a great way to promote their self-advocacy. M2 does this with the Recharge feature, a series of movement activities aimed at either focus, energy, or rest. Every reflection is also customized for each student. They can color code their “profile” and choose the animation they’d like to be greeted with – one of my kids chooses a high five and always giggles when it comes on!

When used in conjunction with a stronger reflective foundation, MirrorTalk has the ability to help even the youngest learners reach a higher order of thinking. This is something we need to consider more in the age of AI.

Learn more!

Ready to transform your reflective practice? Schedule a live demo with the Swivl team to learn more.

The post Elevating engagement & autonomy in elementary school appeared first on Swivl.

I found the color coding and data on each student extremely helpful. Assessing their tone meant I could immediately see the type of day each student was having.

Kim Sharp | Kleb Intermediate School, Klein ISD

USE CASE

Build reflective skills and improve writing outcomes

Kim Sharp

Instructional Specialist in Digital Learning

School/District:

Kleb Intermediate School, Klein ISD

Grade: middle school

As an innovative Instructional Specialist in Digital Learning for Kleb Intermediate School, Kim Sharp wanted to find new ways to gain insights into her students’ learning and growth. She decided to explore tech solutions that qualified for Title 1 funding. Her research led to Swivl’s new interactive reflection station, M2 embedded with MirrorTalk software.

Kim had her humanities co-teaching partner, Christy Stewart, create custom reflections in MirrorTalk for each of her students to reflect on their writing processes. Their goal was to determine whether offering an option for students to record verbal reflections would help the students improve their written outcomes.

When setting up custom reflections for students to complete with MirrorTalk, teachers have the choice to type out the “goal” of a reflection or to record themselves as they say the goal out loud. Kim and Christy decided to record the goal so the students would hear their teacher’s voice.

Students were initially hesitant about recording verbal reflections with MirrorTalk, but after demoing how to use it, and hearing their teachers’ voices stating the goal, they quickly warmed up. The students even named their M2 “Siggy” after Sigmund Freud.

Improving students’ reflective skills

The more Kim and Christy used MirrorTalk with their students the more they realized that their students don’t know how to reflect on their own. This made them realize that MirrorTalk needed a dedicated place in their classroom. This newly minted reflection station helps students easily build their reflective skills.

After a student records a reflection with MirrorTalk, AI generates immediate feedback based on the student’s response. Each piece of feedback includes something a student did well, and offers an unbiased insight into how students can improve.

Data grounded in education research and theory

As part of the feedback MirrorTalk offers, teachers can access a dashboard containing individualized reflection cards for each student reflection. To generate the data on each card, AI measures the student’s reflection against education research and theories from Piaget, Kegan, Erikson, Vygotsky, CASEL, and more.

Minutes after a student completes a reflection, teachers are able to dive into the data. MirrorTalk presents an overall reflection score comprising sentiment, tone, and mindset scoring. It clearly lays out how a student understood the objective of the reflection, to name a few of the data points.

“I found the teacher dashboard extremely helpful! The color coding on each student’s reflection that assessed their tone meant I could easily see the students that were having a really good day. On the students where the analysis was red, I immediately knew where I needed to focus more one-on-one time.”

Helping students demonstrate how they are thinking

MirrorTalk is enabling Kim and Christy to see a better representation of their students’ thinking processes – in their words, “We’re able to see the students who always think outside of the box, and the students who need more support to think outside of the box.” For Kleb Intermediate School they have found a solution that provides better opportunities for students to process concepts and themes while expressing the depth of their thinking.

Read more about how Klein ISD educators are using MirrorTalk

• Klein ISD –  Monica Shallenberger, the Director of Professional Learning for the Klein Independent School District, uses MirrorTalk to support her teachers amidst stringent state budgets. 
• Hildebrandt Intermediate School – Sarah Marin uses MirrorTalk in her 7th-grade English classroom for project-based learning assessments.

Learn more!

Ready to transform your reflective practice? Schedule a live demo with the Swivl team to learn more.

The post Research-based feedback for students and insights for teachers, within minutes appeared first on Swivl.

With MirrorTalk, students can talk about their successes, challenges, and plans for future work.

Traci Johnson | Rochester Schools

USE CASE

To increase authenticity and ownership

Traci Johnson

English Teacher & Instructional Coach

School/District

Rochester Schools

Grade Level: High School

“Many students seem to struggle with written reflection.” Dr. Traci Johnson is a big believer in the necessity of reflection, especially after a large project or assignment. However, the reflections teachers in her school were getting largely seemed inauthentic, like students were just checking the activity off the list to get it done.

Finding authentic student engagement

“Some reflection prompts worked better than others, but we felt students weren’t doing the work to understand how their successes and struggles helped them grow and how they can apply that to future learning. They were trying to say what they thought the teacher wanted to hear.”

Using MirrorTalk has allowed Traci’s students to engage in more authentic reflection. Students can talk about their successes, challenges, and plans for future work in a less formal manner. Not only are the reflections higher quality, but Traci and her colleagues have been able to share the AI-generated feedback with students so they can work to further improve their reflective skills.

Setting up designated reflection spaces with MirrorTalk and M2

Students and teachers can engage with MirrorTalk on any web-enabled device or on Swivl’s M2 hardware. Traci utilizes M2 to set up a dedicated, portable station that helps students get into their reflective zone.

Traci has been flexible in how she places M2 in her school and how it’s utilized daily, to see what works best. She’s also been observing how others use the device when they borrow it. “In an ideal world, we would have 5-6 M2 devices for teachers to check out to use in their classrooms. Currently, we have two.” Some teachers with large enough rooms have students go to a designated spot to record their reflections. Others have students take it to the hallway to reflect. 

This week, Traci plans to use M2 in her classroom, and due to her proximity to the library, plans to have students use M2 there. They will be reflecting on the research process and how they can transfer the skills they are learning in English class to other courses that require research.

Start a free trial of MirrorTalk

Ready to transform your reflective practice? Download the app or sign up now to try MirrorTalk for yourself. Sign up and get started today!

The post Authenticity over compliance appeared first on Swivl.