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.

MirrorTalk makes it so easy for students to verbalize what they have actually learned and communicate how they feel about it.

Ashlyn Sutton | Park County School District #16

USE CASE

SEL and small group learning

Ashlyn Sutton

Teacher

School/District:

Meeteetse SchoolPark County School District #16

Grade Level 3-5

In rural Wyoming, Ashlyn Sutton is redefining education at Meeteetse School. Unlike their urban counterparts, rural schools like Meeteetse often struggle with limited resources, smaller staff, and the need for teachers to wear multiple hats. As a first-year math and science teacher for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, Ashlyn faces unique challenges. She juggles multiple curriculums and age groups and teaches in small, isolated community. She was also grappling with engaging her students in meaningful reflection and communication. Before MirrorTalk, finding efficient ways to meet all students’ needs was a constant struggle.

Taking rural students further with SEL

MirrorTalk motivated Ashlyn to embrace her challenges. She set a vision for her classroom that goes beyond traditional academic instruction. Ashlyn explains, “I tell my students it’s not just about knowing how to multiple, divide, and read passages, you also have to communicate, respect others, and work as a team. My goal is to teach them responsibility and soft skills they will need in life.” Her holistic approach is crucial in a rural setting, where students may have limited exposure to diverse perspectives before entering the real world.

MirrorTalk’s efficiency in guiding student reflections and providing immediate data on each student has been a game-changer in Ashlyn’s multi-grade class. “It’s been so easy for students to verbalize to MirrorTalk what they have actually learned and communicate how they feel about it,” she notes. And students love talking to MirrorTalk, which has transformed Ashlyn’s ability to foster deeper connections with them. “My goal has always been to get my kids comfortable enough to tell me, ‘Hey, I’m feeling this way because something happened at home, or I’m feeling this way, because of something in the lesson.’” When Ashlyn spoke with us she admitted, “students feel more comfortable talking to MirrorTalk than they do to me,” but these higher quality responses combined with MirrorTalk’s ability to rapidly analyze the students’ reflections have allowed her to gain deeper insights into their understanding, motivation, and mindset.

Even small class sizes need small group support

For new teachers – especially those supporting as many subjects and grades Ashlyn does – small group lesson planning can be an impossible task. The process is incredibly time-consuming for Ashlyn, and requires to prepare extensive, differentiated resources to cater to each of her student groups effectively and appropriately. Moreover, managing multiple small groups often led to classroom chaos, with some students disengaging or going off-task while Ashlyn’s attention was divided.

With M2, Ashlyn can create Workspaces for each subject and grade level in just two minutes. These step-by-step activity workflows allow Ashlyn to place M2 at different stations in her classroom to guide small group instruction. When students are finished with an activity, they reflect on their experience together, guided by prompts MirrorTalk automatically creates when the activity is set up. This not only saves valuable time and enhances classroom management, but increases Ashlyn’s autonomy to provide more targeted support to students who need it most.

From the automatic reflection prompts to facilitation of small group instruction, Ashlyn is leveraging MirrorTalk’s myriad capabilities to navigate her first year of teaching in a rural environment with confidence. For Meeteetse’s students, Ashlyn and MirrorTalk are nurturing them into well-rounded individuals who can thrive in any environment.

Learn more!

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

The post M2 brings small group and SEL support to rural classrooms appeared first on Swivl.

Students leave MirrorTalk feeling empowered by its feedback because they pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone.

Julie Witczak | Deerfield Public Schools District 109

USE CASE

SEL, self-expression, self-improvement, confidence, motivation

Julie Witczak

Communication Media Arts Teacher (CMA)

School/District:

Deerfield Public Schools District 109, IL

Grade Level 7-8

At the end of a project, my students often turn in journals with reflections about their experiences. I have a hard time grading them because I know how hard they worked on these projects, but the journal entries just don’t represent their efforts. I wasn’t seeing the evidence of the work I knew they were capable of. They also often forget to journal daily or update their entries. They take their final work day to write the entire reflection and numerous things are missing or forgotten, so I end up with a lot of simple answers to complex questions.  

When I introduced MirrorTalk for verbal reflection, students finally took the initiative to talk to it and they didn’t have to be reminded – they were excited to do it! Students also had a lot more to say when speaking rather than writing and MirrorTalk’s personalized feedback makes them each feel individually heard. If I had conducted 1:1 verbal conversations with each student instead of MirrorTalk, my entire class time would be spent listening and I wouldn’t have time to analyze their responses thoroughly or offer fair and accurate feedback.

Instead, through MirrorTalk’s dashboard, I’m able to understand and address students’ immediate problems through their reflection scores. After each reflection they also get immediate feedback directly from Mirror, which they accept more readily because they don’t feel judged. Their reflections are now more detailed, exciting, and structured and the students actually apply the feedback in future assignments.

I’ve been inviting students to use MirrorTalk on M2 as an option for every project. I had 5 students per class take me up on it during our first project and participation has tripled since then! Offering choice for using MirrorTalk means students experience more enjoyment over their mandatory journal entries which were often hastily written and painful for them to finish. And as opposed to journaling which doesn’t give the students immediate feedback, MirrorTalk engages them daily and they thrive on its feedback.

Some of my students have even begun to open up more. I’ve gotten to know them better by listening to their thoughts and expressions. Students leave MirrorTalk feeling empowered by its feedback because they pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone.

I have one student in particular who asks me for her reflection score daily. For her, the score is a measure of her daily improvement. When she reflects with Mirror, the next day, her goal is to raise that number. It’s great to see she cares about working on these skills. 

I’m excited to take time over the summer to plan out my next steps with MirrorTalk. I have a class I’ve looped with for two years. They will be 8th graders next year and they meet just once a week for only 27 minutes. I want to start the year with a set of SEL-focused questions and by the end of the year, I expect to have a full dashboard of responses about their experiences from the past three years they have been together. Then I’ll share their reflections with the incoming 6th graders who will start this class with me for the next three years. My current kids can share their struggles, challenges, and growth, and my future kids can hear words of wisdom from kids who have just graduated. I’m excited about this possibility!

I also advise the GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance) at the middle school. I’m certain that MirrorTalk will offer them a safe space to reflect on their identity journeys and how sharing their experiences may positively impact future students who join the organization.

I am so excited to see where MirrorTalk will help me take my students next year and beyond!

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 MirrorTalk helps students motivate themselves appeared first on Swivl.

Wendy Miller has spent nearly 30 teaching Special Education, so she knows a thing or two about differentiating support for her learners. Enter Wendy’s classroom and you’ll find a vast wonderland of multi-modal interactive tools to offer engagement and stimulation. She has robotics, lego systems, and sensory stations galore. What she didn’t have was a way for her students to reflect on their learning in a format that was comfortable for them and scalable for her. That is until she had them reflect with Mirror.

In the past, student reflection in Wendy’s classroom was something only possible to observe on the spot—during verbal, one-on-one conversations with each of her 12 students. However, this method had significant limitations, especially for her students with autism. These students’ interpersonal dialogue is often mired by their extreme anxiety or challenging articulation. While Wendy has built a strong rapport with each of her students with autism, it was almost impossible for her to immediately spot each student’s specific learning gaps.

A verbal reflection tool 

When Wendy was first introduced to M2 by Swivl, she thought it could be a viable solution to alleviate pressure for her students to communicate, but she couldn’t imagine the impact it would have within her classroom.

M2 has enabled her students with autism to be more open and expansive than ever before about what they’re learning.

“I hear much better language samples when they use M2 than when we talk face-to-face, which has been so powerful. Even my students with the most challenging articulation, M2 seemed to know what they were saying. I was so impressed because most people cannot even understand what the child is trying to say, and here’s a solution that not only understands what they’re saying, it is also helping me identify learning gaps.”

Time-saving insights 

Wendy’s students, on average, spend two minutes at M2 reflecting on a lesson. M2’s AI-powered reflection tool, MirrorTalk, then synthesizes the student’s response for understanding, mindset, and social-emotional wellness, saving Wendy up to 20 minutes per day, per student. These instantaneous insights are helping Wendy streamline time spent tracking longer-range goals so she can instead focus on sustaining the core relationships she has built with each student.

“I work with my students for three or four years before they move on so I really get to see how they can grow and change, but these reflections give me more specific data to address their IEP goals and define the next step in their communication and their interactions for their social-emotional learning goals as well.”

Elevating student feedback 

For Wendy, M2 is the ultimate integration of social emotional learning, academics, and technology. Now she relies on M2 to elicit higher quality reflections from her students and the data that MirrorTalk extracts from each reflection reveals the hidden lessons they are really experiencing in her class. And for the first time, she has been able to provide her students with the kind of specific and individualized feedback that every learner – on the autism spectrum or not – deserves.

“Normally we just say ‘good job,’ and we move on but can’t go much deeper than that. With the data and feedback that MirrorTalk’s dashboard provides, I can help them improve their grammar, use of adjectives, and level of detail in their responses. It’s been so powerful to really help each child improve their speech.”

Pilot M2 in your school or district

Ready to transform your reflective practice? Schedule a consultation to learn more about M2 by Swivl and plan a pilot program to test its effectiveness in your school or district.

The post M2 helps students with autism reflect for the first time appeared first on Swivl.

MirrorTalk makes it easy to give individualized feedback to every student.

Marcy Curr | Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25

USE CASE

Help students improve communication skills through reflection

Marcy Curr

Speech and Debate Teacher

School/District

Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25

Grade Level High School

Reflection challenges in speech and debate

Idaho-based speech and debate teacher Marcy Curr has always valued reflection for herself and her students – who are 2024 Debate State Champions. However she faced a few obstacles when she asked her students to reflect on their speaking skills and debate performance.

Marcy began to observe a disconnect between the types of reflection she asked her students to complete and the nature of the course. “I’ve always struggled with asking my students to complete written reflections because this is a verbal communication course.” She tried giving students rubrics for self-assessment but felt they did not foster an authentic reflection experience. Time constraints also limited the amount of personalized feedback she could give students. “There’s not enough time in a day to give feedback to each of our students.”

Providing immediate feedback holds extra value in Marcy’s classes – she seeks to help students improve speech and communication skills that can be challenging to self-correct. “If I wait for the end of the speech to give feedback, they don’t remember what they did,” she explains. Overall, Marcy needed a more engaging and efficient tool for reflection and feedback.

A smooth experience leads to real progress

Marcy sees a direct connection between introducing MirrorTalk as a reflection tool and seeing an improvement in her students’ communication skills. “With MirrorTalk their next speech is better because they’ve taken time to reflect in between speeches on what they could improve on.”

With students reflecting and receiving feedback with MirrorTalk during class, she now has more time to review speech recordings with individual students and provide coaching to them. “MirrorTalk lightens the burden for teachers,” Marcy explains. 

MirrorTalk’s reflection feedback and scoring system also acts as a new source of motivation for her students, pushing them to meta-reflect on their own reflections and seek areas of improvement. “They’re watching their reflections to see where it’s says, ‘next time to improve your reflection work on this.’” This process of self-analysis, sparked by a desire to see their scores rise, has led to a deeper engagement with their reflection process.

Part of why Marcy and her students have adopted MirrorTalk so quickly is its ease of use. “The guided process was super easy,” Marcy explained, describing the reflection workflow. Getting acclimated to the tool was also a breeze for her. “It made me feel like anyone in my department could easily get started with MirrorTalk.”

Daily reflection and more feedback

Day to day, Marcy’s students use MirrorTalk to reflect on their speech and debate skills, identify areas of improvement, and refine their work. “I make them watch and evaluate videos of their speeches,” Marcy explains.

MirrorTalk allows her to shorten the time frame between when students learn or practice a skill, and when they reflect on it. During debate practice, students will deliver speeches, and then immediately go to their MirrorTalk and reflect. “We did a reflection after every single one of their speeches,” Marcy notes about a recent practice session.

When written notes from a teacher might be impractical, MirrorTalk has opened up new opportunities for reflection and feedback. “My students frequently have to get up and give a one minute introduction speech. I can’t type meaningful feedback in that time frame. Instead, I’m going to record them. Then, they’re going to use MirrorTalk to reflect.”

Marcy has already planned expanded use cases for MirrorTalk into her upcoming courses. “In my syllabus for next trimester, I’ve built in reflections a couple of times a week using MirrorTalk.”

Start a free trial of MirrorTalk

Ready to transform your reflective practice? 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 Elevating student speaking skills through reflection appeared first on Swivl.

At my school, we believe that self-reflection is imperative for engagement and engagement is the pathway to academic success.

Gabe Nemiroff | Albuquerque Talent Development Academy

USE CASE

To reflect after each class activity, ELL support

Gabe Nemiroff

Social Studies Teacher

School/District

Albuquerque Talent Development Academy

Grade Level 10 + 11

Gabe Nemiroff, a high school Social Studies teacher, is part of a charter school in New Mexico determined to center reflection within their curriculum. His students were already acclimated to reflection as a monthly requirement, even before being introduced to Swivl. For Gabe and his administrators, “MirrorTalk was an obvious new tool on the market to promote that exact thing, to help us grow something that we already do, but have been doing primitively for a long time.”

His goal is to use MirrorTalk to streamline existing processes, while creating an environment where students reflect more frequently, and with more candor.

How Gabe and his students use MirrorTalk

As an educator and advisor, Gabe is responsible for reviewing monthly reflections from 20 students. Initially, it seemed that introducing MirrorTalk would be a learning curve. “I was expecting a little hesitation at first but was surprised how little there was. I think the screen-based verbal engagement hits them in a more comfortable place. The result has been that they are able to be more candid.”

Student reflections have become an unfiltered experience. Gabe can now interact with student reflections in a “raw,” multi-faceted way, through student tone of voice and body language, and with the support of the AI-powered assessment MirrorTalk creates for each reflection.

An unexpected solution

Gabe is also experimenting with using MirrorTalk for building verbal speaking confidence of ELLs, by customizing prompts to prepare them for the WIDA test, New Mexico’s assessment of academic English language proficiency. “At our school, our students are always nervous about taking the WIDA test. They always tank the speaking portion, and before MirrorTalk we didn’t have an efficient way to support them in building their speaking confidence.”

“I think it helped with their comfort levels, working with an interface. And I’m excited to see the results.”

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 A raw and candid shift in reflection  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.

By June 2021, half of American schools were using a hybrid learning model. 

Since then, schools have invested in hardware and software. Teachers have expanded their tech skills.  It’s been a crash course in using tools and talents to stay connected and solve problems, even when apart.

Now, administrators are applying the same tools and talents to one of the most urgent issues in education: teacher support. 

Let’s look at how two innovative districts re-imagined teacher support using classroom video to build relationships and maximize educator growth.

But first, let’s review current teacher support practices, and why they’re inadequate for helping teachers with the challenges of a return to in-person instruction.

New tools can help improve old teacher support models

Student behavior issues and academic skills gaps make today’s classroom challenges uniquely acute.

Traditional teacher support practices, including new teacher mentoring, observations, one-size-fits-all PD, and walk-throughs, are inadequate to address current instructional challenges because feedback happens too slowly and too infrequently. For most teachers, support drops significantly after year one. 

Some districts have invested in instructional coaching, formal peer collaboration like professional learning communities (PLCs), and personalized professional learning paths. 

While these structures are an improvement, they also bring challenges. Substitute shortages and other stressors on personnel make it impractical to get coverage to observe a colleague’s class. Travel across district makes coaching time- and resource-intensive.

Without a common place for capturing instruction, reflecting, discussing, and planning next steps, support efforts can feel wasted or one-off. 

The perfect storm has emerged, where teachers need more support than ever, and districts need support to be more efficient than ever. The good news? Many districts have already discovered tools and systems that can help make it happen.

Here are two examples. 

How an Arizona district leverages classroom video to support early-career and “singleton” teachers

Littleton Elementary, a district of seven physical and one virtual schools in Avondale, Arizona, was first introduced to Swivl Robots to support remote instruction. 

“Then, we realized the power of video and streaming,” Director of Instructional Technology Jim Verrill said.

Jim and his team saw how Teams by Swivl paired with Robots would address the district’s challenges in supporting high-quality instruction for all students with many early-career teachers on staff.

Littleton has implemented a continuum of teacher support practices all based on classroom video:

• Self-reflection: Principals encourage teachers to identify instructional challenges through self-reflection
  
• Peer collaboration: Singleton teachers collaborate cross-district with colleagues teaching the same subject. Content or grade-level teams record, share and reflect on lessons to maintain curricular alignment.
  
• Coaching: Coaches have increased their frequency and depth of feedback by having teachers share and discuss classroom video through Teams.
  
• Admin support: Leaders assess school progress through remote walkthroughs, where they view and discuss short instructional videos around key themes. 

Through self-reflection, collaboration, coaching and admin support, Littleton has developed an efficient, effective way to build relationships and encourage educator growth.

These Florida coaches use video to expand teacher support and reduce distractions

While traditional coaching can be powerful for teacher support, it comes with the potential for distraction. 

“What we want teachers to do is maintain their power in the room,” St. Lucie Instructional Specialist Dana Miller said. “And we don’t want distraction for students.” St. Lucie Public Schools is a Florida district with 50 schools and over 40,000 students.

St. Lucie had a strong foundation of coaching pre-pandemic, and they used their Robots to help absent students stay up-to-speed with missed work.  They now leverage Swivl Robot + Teams with Jim Knight’s Coaching Framework to make their coaching more efficient and discreet. 

St. Lucie does not require teachers to record themselves, but offers Robots to teachers looking for support. After teachers self-reflect, coaches encourage teachers to identify where they may want to work with a coach. Because teachers have already captured video, teacher and coach can discuss without having to schedule a new observation. 

This year, St. Lucie coaches have pushed their work further using Robots for live-streamed lessons with in-ear coaching. 

“As a coach, we see a problem in the moment, and we can help the teacher make a fix right away,” Dana said. “We use as few words as possible so the feedback is quick, immediate, and not distracting to the teacher.”

In a time of uncertainty, the need for teacher support is clear

While much is uncertain for school and district leaders in the coming months, a few things are certain. 

Teachers will need support to overcome challenges and help students continue to make academic progress. These support interventions will need to be effective, but also time and resource efficient because of the circumstances districts face. 

As both Littleton and St. Lucie demonstrate, it’s time to repurpose the tools and talents adopted for hybrid and remote learning. It’s time to offer teachers a continuum of support options and pathways to get help. And it’s time to make classroom video the centerpiece of teacher growth.

The post From Florida to Arizona, Districts Have Reimagined Teacher Support appeared first on Swivl.

We love seeing how our Swivl Community keeps connections and relationships at the forefront of all they’re doing this school year, while still offering robust teacher support. A great example of these efforts is Littleton Elementary School District #65 (LESD) in Arizona.

Teachers at LESD are incorporating the Swivl Robot+Teams (Teams is now Reflectivity) into their classrooms. By live streaming with Swivl Robot+Teams, teachers are able to broadcast their lessons to remote learners. Using these tools gives remote students a view of everything going on within the classroom, which helps them feel more connected.

In this video, Jim Verrill (Director of Instruction Technology/Integration) and Rio Stinger (Tres Rios Elementary Teacher) talk about their experience using Swivl Robot+Teams in their classrooms.

Littleton Elementary School District at a glance:

• Location: Avondale, Arizona
• # of teachers: 334 teachers
• Grade level: K-8
• Swivl products used: Teams+Robot
• Started using Swivl Teams+Robot in 2021 

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