This week in our Instruct newsletter "S’Cool Tools," we share the real experiences of three teachers using three different tools, written in their own words.
If you’d like to be featured in our S’Cool Tools column, click here to leave your very own Teacher Case Study.
Torsh TALENT
Written by James, a math teacher and intervention coordinator at a high school in Massachusetts. James’ school has high populations of special ed, ELL and low income students.
EdSurge: What was the problem in your classroom or school that you were trying to solve when you implemented Torsh TALENT?
James: I used this product through the a fellowship to record classroom video. After a few months, I began to use the product more extensively, approximately every other week, to record a particular instructional routine I was working on. I wouldn't describe it as a "problem," but this product allowed me to more critically analyze, monitor, and improve my practice.
Describe how you used the product.
I would record myself teaching at least twice per month, analyze the video on the Torsh platform, and creating action steps for myself to move my instruction forward.
What worked and what didn’t?
The time-synced comments are fantastic. The platform is very straight forward, so it allows for easy access to your own videos and minimal challenges with uploading additional resources.
Teacher Impact Reports
Patrick is a Math, Science, STEM & Assessment Coordinator at an Illinois district. Patrick’s district has 1:1 devices and has uses project-based curriculum. The school has high populations of special education, ELL and low income students.
EdSurge: What was the problem in your classroom or school that you were trying to solve when you implemented Teacher Impact Reports?
Patrick: As a school district, we were trying to find a data warehousing and analytics provider that was dynamic enough to support our ever changing and growing assessment needs.
Describe how you used the product.
Since using the product, we've been able to continually grow the amounts and types of assessment data that we're inputting into the system. Education Data Solutions (EDS), the parent company, has also integrated with our school information system (SIS) to access much of our historical assessment data as well. This has enabled Teacher Impact Reports to generate locally normed reports as well as set locally normed student growth targets based upon regression analysis applied to our historical data. This last part has been invaluable to our district. As a district with a diverse population of students and substantial student enrollment in special programming, it's essential that we be able to see our students' data not just at grade, sex, age, district, school, etc..., but also as demographic subgroups and programmatic subgroups so that the ways in which we're assessing and reporting around student growth are meaningful and not just broad stroke.
What worked and what didn’t?
What has worked the most is that EDS has done the heat lifting. My prior experience with most product vendors who were offering customizable solutions, were putting the leg work back on the district and simply "consulting" instead of really customizing. Our use of Teacher Impact Reports has been the total reverse. We consult with them and then they put together the solutions package. Owing to their size, the turn around time isn't overnight, but we've anticipated those turn around times and collaborate ahead of time accordingly.
Listenwise (formerly ListenCurrent)
A library technician from California uses Listenwise with elementary, middle and high school students. The school has high populations of special education, ELL and low income students.
EdSurge: What was the problem in your classroom or school that you were trying to solve when you implemented Listenwise?
Teacher: The problem I was experiencing in my school was finding current events materials that were differentiated, for mainly my EL students who needed more support with the reading materials, but would be able to participate in full class discussions.
Describe how you used the product.
We used Listenwise to research current events that students would share during whole class discussions, as well as used the articles to support their writing.
What worked and what didn’t?
Things that worked well were that the listening to the article, being able to slow down the rate of the speaker, and being able to adjust an individuals' reading selection. Many students used terminology from the articles appropriately and it helped their verbal and written academic language flourish over the course of the year.
