This article introduces the key benefits of integrating Mirror into your Reflectivity program. Mirror is an AI-powered device that prioritizes reflection, captures video evidence, and manages small groups. Its integrated MirrorTalk software uses AI to measure learning via customized verbal reflection prompts. Durable, mobile, and uniquely sized, Mirror is a versatile teaching assistant that promotes professional growth, innovative teaching practice, and peer collaboration.
Reflection helps you see more in your classroom
Teachers often focus on superficial aspects when observing their classes, overlooking crucial elements like student comprehension gaps, patterns within repetitive student misbehavior or passive engagement. Regular reflection can help prioritize their insights and strengthen their metacognitive abilities. To address this:
- Teachers regularly reflect on MirrorTalk on lesson goals and activities.
- Teachers record using Mirror hardware to capture 180-degree classroom views, track teacher movement, and collect isolated student audio, automatically exporting the video to Reflectivity.
- In Reflectivity, teachers use time-stamped annotations to identify off-task behavior and bookmark moments of perceived understanding.
- During the next reflection with MirrorTalk, teachers compare video insights with new realizations to draw conclusions about necessary adjustments they need to make.
This reflect-record-reflect cycle enhances teachers’ self-critique and problem-solving skills and fosters autonomy. This means they require less administrator intervention overall and build resilience when they receive formal observation feedback.
Reflection makes teachers more coachable
The synergy between MirrorTalk and Reflectivity can revolutionize coaching. MirrorTalk is a powerful tool for private reflection, allowing teachers to engage in honest internal dialogue and build self-awareness. This process primes teachers to become more adaptable, flexible, and receptive during 1:1 conversations with their coaches.
Incorporating Mirror hardware helps coaches build seamless video coaching programs:
- Coaches set up customized prompts in MirrorTalk for teachers to reflect on before recording their class
- Teachers use Mirror hardware to capture 180-degree views of their class, intelligently track their movements, and collect isolated audio of teachers and students with Mirror’s remotes (meanwhile, their video automatically exports to Reflectivity)
- Finally, teachers return to MirrorTalk to reflect once more before receiving feedback in Reflectivity using the time-stamped annotation feature.
Reflectivity completes the cycle by facilitating rich, structured interactions between teachers and their coaches through the Discussions feature, inspiring their goals for their next cycle. This integrated approach, combining personal introspection through MirrorTalk, video recordings with Mirror hardware, and conversations within Reflectivity, creates sustainable and transformative video coaching programs.
Reflection inspires teachers to pursue challenges
Providing teachers access to Mirror and Reflectivity empowers them to pursue more challenges in their own professional growth. A popular mechanism is through National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification, a multi-year process involving deep reflection on one’s planning process, incorporating videos from the classroom, and providing supportive student evidence.
- With Mirror hardware, teachers can record their classroom displaying an expansive view of both instruction and a collection of crisp audio of teacher and student discourse.
- Teachers export their videos to Reflectivity to annotate for self-reflection.
- Teachers share the video with peers on Reflectivity to facilitate discussions which helps them narrow down the perfect exemplar to attach to their NBPTS submission.
- Next, teachers set up students to participate in project-based and hands-on activities using Mirror hardware.
- In MirrorTalk, teachers gather insights on student engagement and collect evidence of student learning to attach to their NBPTS submission
Reflection fortifies professional learning communities
Teachers spend an excessive amount of time during in-person and virtual PD workshops analyzing and discussing student assessment data. However, many organizations do not have formal data dialogue protocols to ensure these conversations stay aligned, structured, and impactful.
When students reflect with MirrorTalk, they gain a “whole-child” analysis automatically, significantly reducing the time it takes to gather data points from various student artifacts. Mirror’s AI provides insights on individual and whole class content understanding, challenge level, mindset, cognitive bias, and more. Trends are easily identified in MirrorTalk’s dashboard, giving teachers a head-start during PD time and a basis for ongoing discussions in Reflectivity long after the workshop ends.
Multi-layered reflection using MirrorTalk and Reflectivity is the key to organization-wide collaboration and self-sustaining professional development.
- First, teachers reflect in MirrorTalk on their progress and pain points.
- Next, they incorporate student reflection data from MirrorTalk to discover learning gaps and developmental concerns.
- Finally, using Reflectivity’s Topics feature, teachers share findings, identify commonalities, and create actionable game plans in the discussion threads that help everyone succeed.
Mirror and Reflectivity were made for each other
The integration of Mirror, MirrorTalk, and Reflectivity creates a powerful ecosystem for professional growth and collaboration in your organization.
By combining Mirror’s innovative hardware and AI-powered MirrorTalk software with Reflectivity’s robust collaborative platform, everyone in your organization gains access to a comprehensive toolkit that transforms the way they approach professional development.
As teachers become more self-aware, adaptable, and collaborative, the ultimate beneficiaries are the students, who reap the rewards of innovative, responsive teaching practices. And isn’t that the whole point?
Pilot Mirror and Reflectivity
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