We’re not just getting feedback; we’re fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Keisha Tyson Johnson and Amarius Reed | Atlanta Public Schools
USE CASE
Immediate, reliable insights from PLCs and improved teacher engagement
Keisha Tyson Johnson and Amarius Reed
Instructional Coaches
School/District:
Atlanta Public Schools
Grade Level K-12 Teachers
The collective sigh
At Atlanta Public Schools, gathering feedback from teachers during PD days was often met with a collective sigh from both teachers and coaches. Keisha Tyson Johnson and Amarius Reed are the district’s lead instructional coaches, and they braced themselves every time they concluded a session. “At the end of every PD session, we’d pull out those QR codes for teachers to fill out their feedback forms. You can feel the energy drain from the room,” recounts Keisha.
Their struggle wasn’t just about teachers’ reluctance to fill out forms or the reticence of their responses when they did. The district was missing out on valuable insights about the impact that a particular PD session had on teachers. “The feedback we got was often short and superficial,” Amarius explains. “We’d get responses like ‘it was fine’ or ‘learned some stuff.’ It didn’t give us the depth we needed to improve our PD or understand its impact.”
Keisha and Amarius found that the district was investing time and resources into PD, but the return was minimal. Teachers weren’t internalizing the content or creating actionable plans. Coaches then struggled to provide targeted support without understanding what resonated or what challenges remained.
After hearing about Mirror’s profoundly quick impact on student reflection at Tuskegee Airmen Academy, they offered it as way for teachers to provide verbal reflections during and immediately after PD sessions, capturing their thoughts and insights in real-time.
A quick turnaround in engagement
The change in engagement occurred practically overnight once they started using Mirror. Keisha observed, “Teachers were actually excited to give feedback. Instead of avoiding our QR code, they were eager to step up to Mirror and share their reflection on the PLC.”
Amarius was thrilled with the depth of insights they began to receive. “MirrorTalk’s questions are automatically tailored to the specific content of each PD session,” she explains. “This sets teachers up for success by providing them with actionable next steps. We’re not just getting feedback; we’re fostering a culture of continuous improvement.”
The impact extended beyond just gathering better feedback. The 15-second minimum talk time for each question – which initially seemed challenging – even became a catalyst for deeper reflection. Teachers have begun to develop stronger reflective skills, articulating their understanding of the PD content more clearly and expressing their sentiments toward it more effectively.
Results, now!
Within the first two PD sessions where Mirror was offered for reflection, Keisha and Amarius witnessed a dramatic shift:
- Participation in feedback increased significantly. As Keisha noted, “Typically, you get about two or three people that do it [with surveys]. I was like, my god, this is a game changer right here.”
- The average length of reflections increased substantially. Instead of short, one-word answers, teachers were now engaging in thoughtful, verbal reflections.
- PD follow-up sessions became more targeted and effective, directly addressing the needs and questions raised in reflections. As Amarius mentioned, “We can get great data on ‘what should we focus on the next PL day based on the responses from this session?’”
Changing reflective routines for good
The benefits of Mirror continue to ripple through the district. Coaches now have access to collaborative dashboards, allowing them to share insights generated by teacher reflections across schools. Amarius envisions, “We can even get all of the scores and feedback delivered back to the teachers immediately. And then the coach can set cycles of support based around our rubric and things that have been outlined in the reflection.”
Perhaps most surprisingly, teachers have come to enjoy and value the reflection process because they simply enjoy Mirror itself. Keisha observed, “I noticed that people were excited about the fact that they get to talk to it, just like the kids are when they see it. They’re curious and eager to go and do it versus the usual routine of ‘hey, click this link, fill out this form.’”
What started as a tool for PD feedback has become a catalyst for transformation in the district. Teachers are becoming more reflective, coaches more informed, and professional development is more impactful than ever before. Mirror hasn’t just changed how APS gathers feedback – it’s changed how they grow its educators.
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