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 challenge: traditional PD feedback falls short
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, faced a common challenge: superficial feedback that provided little insight into PD effectiveness.
“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. The feedback they received was often limited to brief responses. 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.”
Transforming Professional Development
After hearing about MirrorTalk’s success at Tuskegee Airmen Academy, the coaches introduced MirrorTalk as a tool for real-time verbal reflections during and after PD sessions. The impact was immediate:
The participation rate in feedback collection increased dramatically. 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.”
Teachers embraced the 15-second minimum talk time for each question, leading to deeper, more meaningful reflections. Instead of avoiding feedback, they were eager to engage with MirrorTalk and share their thoughts about the PLC sessions.
Enhancing Instructional Coaching
The implementation of MirrorTalk didn’t just improve PD sessions—it also revolutionized the coaching process. Amarius and Keisha discovered several key benefits:
- Coaches gained access to collaborative dashboards, enabling them to share insights across schools
- Real-time feedback allowed for immediate adjustments to coaching strategies
- The quality and depth of teacher reflections provided coaches with actionable data for planning follow-up support
“We can get great data on ‘what should we focus on the next PL day based on the responses from this session?'” explains Amarius. “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.”
Long-term impact and cultural shift
What began as a solution for PD feedback has evolved into a catalyst for district-wide transformation. Teachers now actively engage in the reflection process, finding value and even enjoyment in using MirrorTalk. As Keisha observed, “I noticed that people were excited about the fact that they get to talk to it, just like the kids. They’re curious and eager to go and do it versus the usual routine of ‘hey, click this link, fill out this form.'”
The results speak for themselves:
- Significant increase in feedback participation
- Substantial improvement in reflection quality and depth
- More targeted and effective PD follow-up sessions
- Enhanced coaching support based on specific teacher needs
Through MirrorTalk, Atlanta Public Schools hasn’t just changed how they gather feedback—they’ve transformed how they develop their educators and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
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