Breaking Down Barriers in Early Intervention

Early Intervention Providers (EIPs) are at the forefront of helping children with autism and their families navigate social-emotional development. However, their work often comes with logistical and technological challenges that can impede progress. Many EIPs work in home settings where reliable Wi-Fi isn’t always available, and they need secure, easy-to-use tools for data collection, reflection, and coaching. This is where TORSH has made a transformative impact.

Bridging the Technology Gap

The Building Interactive Social Communication Project (BISC), an innovative early intervention program through Indiana University, turned to TORSH to address key field challenges. EIPs needed a way to record video reflections and review them in real-time without storing data on their devices—a requirement to maintain HIPAA and FERPA compliance. With TORSH, they can:

• Capture video in the field without needing an internet connection.
• Securely store and manage intervention data, ensuring privacy and accessibility for the right team members.
• Engage in structured video reflection, allowing providers to assess and adjust their approaches for better outcomes.
• Collaborate seamlessly, connecting field providers, mentors, and researchers to improve intervention fidelity and effectiveness.

The TORSH Talent platform shows recent video uploads

The Impact: Measurable Improvements for Providers, Parents, and Children

Since integrating TORSH, BISC has reported significant improvements across multiple areas:

• Provider Success: EIPs have quickly adopted the system with minimal training time, allowing them to focus more on their work with families.
• Parent Empowerment: TORSH enables parents to actively participate in their child’s development, fostering a stronger parent-child bond and increasing self-efficacy.
• Child Development: Children demonstrate increased motivation to engage socially and take a more active role in their learning journey.

What Makes BISC’s Approach Unique?

Two key aspects set BISC apart from other early intervention models:

1. A Unique Developmental Sequence – BISC provides a structured approach that EIPs can easily implement. Providers see early progress, reinforcing their confidence and effectiveness.
2. Mediated Learning – The program focuses on fostering an internal desire in children to engage socially and learn, rather than relying solely on external motivation.

Seamless Implementation with TORSH

A major concern for the BISC team was the potential learning curve in adopting a new technology. However, the transition to TORSH was remarkably smooth. Providers quickly adapted to the platform, eliminating the need for additional expensive hardware like iPads. One of the program leaders shared their initial skepticism:

“I was expecting it to take a lot of startup time and a learning gap with providers, and it didn’t. Your team did so well with the implementation. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking, what if this doesn’t work, and we have to buy iPads again (and never get them back)? But thank goodness, everything is smooth.”

The Future of Early Intervention with TORSH

As BISC continues its work, the team seeks to expand research efforts and scale implementation with TORSH. By leveraging data-driven insights and enhancing collaboration between intervention providers, mentors, and researchers, BISC aims to refine and improve intervention strategies that make a lasting impact on children and families.

TORSH is more than just a coaching tool—it’s a solution that empowers early intervention teams to work more effectively, drive measurable change, and ultimately help children learn how to learn.

For more information about BISC and how to participate in their upcoming Early Intervention research, click here. 

To learn more about TORSH and see a demo of the Talent platform, click here.

The post How TORSH is Empowering Early Intervention Providers in the Field appeared first on Torsh.

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES, June 13, 2024 — TORSH, Inc., a leading educational technology provider, is thrilled to announce its new strategic partnership with the Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties, Inc. (ELCPH) to enhance the organization’s coaching initiatives. Through this collaboration, ELCPH will streamline coaching and professional development for the region’s early learning professionals, driving high-quality education to enable young children and their families to thrive.

ELCPH selected TORSH Talent, an innovative online learning platform, to standardize their coaching processes and deepen the impact of coaching activities on teacher effectiveness. The platform offers an extensive suite of professional learning tools for individual coaching, mentoring, observation, feedback, and collaborative learning. Features such as the exemplar library, video recording functionality, rubrics, and more will empower ELC coaches to seamlessly share exemplary resources with educators, continuously monitor teachers’ progress toward their professional learning goals, and streamline coaching processes using standardized CLASS rubrics.

“Early education programs benefit from a streamlined process that generates clear data on coaching effectiveness for continuous improvement,” said Courtney Williams, Founder & CEO of TORSH. “TORSH Talent will aid ELCPH in achieving this synchronicity for their staff.”

Over time, early learning teachers supported by ELCPH will use TORSH Talent to submit videos of teaching practices for coaches to review, who will then share time-stamped, evidence-based feedback on opportunities for improvement. ELCPH also plans to leverage the platform to facilitate direct communication with early learning site directors and providers, providing them with additional, valuable resources to support their staff and improve teaching effectiveness.

“Using TORSH Talent will improve the quality and impact of both in-person and hybrid coaching,” shared Steve Knobl, Ph.D., Executive Director of ELCPH. “It’s all about supporting teachers not only with targeted feedback but also with following through on clear and actionable next steps from their coaching conversations to advance instructional practices.”

Together with TORSH, ELCPH looks forward to deepening the benefits of their coaching for educators, standardizing coaching processes, and ultimately driving positive outcomes for the thousands of young children and families they serve.

About TORSH, Inc.
TORSH, a New Orleans-based education technology company, is dedicated to improving childhood outcomes by increasing educator instructional effectiveness. TORSH Talent, an online coaching and professional learning platform, enables organizations to support educator growth through the entire development cycle of observation, assessment, goal setting, feedback, and coaching. Learn more by visiting torsh.co.

About the Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties
The Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties, Inc. is a 501c3 organization and one of 30 Early Learning Coalitions in Florida. Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) program is for all children who are four years old on or before September 1. School Readiness provides subsidized childcare for low-to-moderate-income working families. The nonprofit serves over 10,000 children between infancy and twelve years old, working with over 300 childcare providers in both counties. Learn more by visiting elcph.org.

The post The Early Learning Coalition of Pasco & Hernando Counties Selects TORSH to Enhance Early Childhood Coaching Initiatives appeared first on Torsh.

Child360 first conducted a feasibility study in 2016‐17 and the outcome suggested that online coaching had the potential to be highly effective. As a result of that first study, Child360 initiated a more robust two-year, full-scale study of online coaching with a larger sample of teachers and coaches. “We decided to continue using TORSH [Talent which was a part of the original feasibility study] in this study because of anecdotal evidence that it allowed teachers and coaches to build trusting relationships through virtual face‐to‐face interactions, to set quality improvement goals, and to track progress toward goals.”

Over the 24 month period, six coaches worked with 215 teachers from 121 child care provider locations to provide resources, offer advice, and collaborate with them to create goals for their early learning programs. In Child360’s traditional coaching model, coaches typically conduct in‐person visits, in which they work one‐on‐one with teachers and administrators to help them improve their early learning programs through a cycle of appreciative inquiry, process consultation, feedback, reflection, and goal setting. The organization sought to determine if the adoption of an online coaching platform could positively impact reach, coaching dosage, and affordability while maintaining the level of quality achieved with their in-person model. 

Participants of the study were involved in all methods of coaching which included in-person, online and a hybrid of in-person and online. Online or hybrid participants engaged through the use of videos, allowing coaches to remotely observe teachers and their classrooms. They also added the use of video conferencing or online chats to conduct conversations in real‐time with teachers to provide feedback. All online activity was captured and tracked within the TORSH Talent platform. 

While most participants were new to the online coaching platform and had a bit of a learning curve when it came to incorporating video into their routines, as the study progressed, both coaches’ and teachers’ increasing familiarity and comfort with technology resulted in a positive overall experience. 

Child360’s 35-page report provides the raw data used to calculate time and cost savings, feedback from coaches and teachers, as well as the protocol documents used by participants. The organization also answers questions related to the impact of adopting an online coaching platform in relation to these key areas:

• Expanding Access to Coaching Supports
  • Online coaching offers the considerable advantage of allowing teachers and coaches to collaborate regardless of the physical distance between them. Unfettered by the constraints of having to meet in person, Child360 coaches could potentially serve a much wider pool of providers. 
• Building Better Relationships Between Teachers and Coaches
  • All teachers reported having positive relationships with their coaches. Through the expanded use of communications platforms  – text, phone, and email – Child360 helped some participants reduce initial worries about transitioning to an online coaching program. Teachers reported that their coaches were encouraging, supportive, and flexible.
• Providing More Affordable Coaching Supports
  • This study prove that online coaching was more affordable for providers than face‐to‐face coaching, resulting in a 22% reduction in total cost compared to traditional coaching.
• Increasing Coaching Dosage for Child360’s Providers
  • Partially due to a reduction in drive time of 68% for online coaches versus in-person, coaches reported that online coaching enabled them to accomplish more in a shorter period of time.

 

Click here to read the full Child360 Online Coaching Program Report.

 

Angela Daliet manages Business Development specializing in Early Education at Torsh. After earning her B.S. from the University of New Orleans, Angela successfully worked as an investment advisor and financial planning firm coach for several years. Upon learning her children’s public school had no immediate plans to reopen post-Katrina, she established the non-profit Save Our Schools NOLA to help leverage students, parents, teachers, and residents as informed, effective advocates for equitable access to local, high-quality schools and programs.

The post Online vs In-Person Early Education Coaching Models: Results From Child360’s Two-Year Study appeared first on Torsh.

CT3’s mission is to transform the quality and culture of education for youth, especially those in traditionally disenfranchised communities. The organization’s transformative and sustainable professional development centers around their innovative and research-validated “No-Nonsense Nurturer” approach to classroom management. Alongside this training, the organization offers real-time teacher and leadership coaching, virtual leadership coaching, and in-depth anti-racist school culture training aimed at building culturally relevant classrooms. With all of their work, CT3 builds capacity with their partners to implement anti-racist practices and to dismantle the systemic structures that have historically impeded self-confidence and academic outcomes among historically disenfranchised youth. (For more information about CT3, please visit https://www.ct3education.com)

Using TORSH Talent for Leadership Coaching Simply Made Sense

Pre-pandemic, CT3 had already found success using TORSH Talent for video support. Once pandemic restrictions and regulations forced schools to transition to the virtual space, CT3 discovered the usefulness of the platform for their real-time leadership coaching work. TORSH provided the organization and its coaches with “eyes on the ground when we couldn’t actually be on the ground. What TORSH has allowed us to do is to keep our people in their homes, and they are still able to give quality feedback and do important work without exhausting themselves flying three red eyes in five days,” Treadwell explained.

Principals and school leaders who were engaged in CT3’s leadership coaching were open to the shift in delivery because “it seemed like the right pivot, at the right time, for the right reasons.” The organization’s main challenge during this shift was to ensure that they were providing the same level of quality and rigor of work in the virtual space. CT3 prides itself on giving really actionable feedback and coaching plans, and our Talent platform allowed associates to continue to provide high-quality support to their partners.

Looking forward, CT3 plans to continue with a hybrid engagement style that combines in-person touchpoints with intentionally designed virtual sessions using the TORSH Talent platform.

A Necessary Emphasis on Anti-Racism and Equity

Although anti-racism was already playing a large role in CT3’s work, the organization re-committed itself to increased anti-racist engagement and education with all of its partners in June 2020. “During this time, we truly have to put equity at the center of our work. We really have to make sure that this time, we are focused on all scholars.”

CT3 has been empowering schools to be bold, act in anti-racist ways, and eliminate some of the policies that led us to the current inequitable state of our educational system. Pandemic difficulties have really highlighted that there are some structures built within schools that were meant to withstand challenging times like these, and some that were not.

In order to really tackle structural problems, schools must hold a mirror up to themselves and their own practices. As the primary thought partner for school leaders, CT3 spends a lot of time talking with principals about habits they have built together, habits they still need to build, and habits they need to break. “Our goal at CT3 is to continue to push our schools not to go back to ‘normal,’ because ‘normal’ didn’t serve all of our kids. ‘Normal’ serves some kids, and this became very clear very quickly, especially in terms of access to technology and use of that technology.”

CT3 hopes that COVID-era conversations surrounding this concern on a macro-scale will provide schools with the momentum to rethink and reimagine the conversation around learning loss, ultimately pushing forward sustainable and meaningful anti-racist solutions.

The post TORSH Talent Facilitates Business-as-Usual for CT3 Despite Pandemic Virtual Shift appeared first on Torsh.

TORSH is delighted to celebrate the fourth year of our partnership with Teach Plus, a service organization that provides professional development for teachers through various training and coaching programs. We sat down with Michael Savoy, their National Managing Director of Teacher Leadership Programs, to discuss the partnership and the ways in which TORSH Talent has allowed Teach Plus to continue with business-as-usual in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We felt fortunate that we had this opportunity to just continue to do the work as we have been doing,” Savoy began.  “Our work is a little different than many other coaching organizations, in that we’re not coaching classroom practice.”  

Michael Savoy, National Managing Director of Teacher Leadership Programs for Teach Plus

The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. The organization empowers expert teachers to advance policy changes and improve instructional leadership and teacher supports; trains and coaches teacher leaders to successfully mobilize and lead teacher teams; and empowers teacher leaders to be change agents among their peers and policymakers.  Since 2009, Teach Plus has trained thousands of teacher leaders across the country who are driving policy changes and improving the instructional practices of teachers to create an education system driven by equity, access, and excellence for all students.  (For more information, please visit https://teachplus.org)

In Search of Solutions to Support Their Dispersed Network of Coaches & Teachers

Four years ago, Teach Plus was searching for a solution to a pressing issue: how to maintain the same level of support and quality of coaching to an increasingly dispersed network of coaches and teachers. 

“Most of us with Teach Plus started out in an in-person position somewhere… but as the organization grew and we were starting to work with teachers spread out in different places, we realized that it didn’t always make sense to hire a local full-time coach.  We wanted to figure out how we could coach our teacher leaders without having to have someone physically sitting there with them all the time,” Savoy described. 

“Where I live is nowhere near any of the work that I do… TORSH gives me that opportunity to affect change on a lot of teachers without having to be physically in those spaces.”  

Though Savoy is based out of Maryland, he and Teach Plus’s other remote coaches are able to utilize TORSH Talent to work effectively with teachers across the country.  This expansion of possibilities and increased accessibility was a driving motive behind the organization’s decision to partner with TORSH.  “Being able to do my work from my space, without having to physically be in DC, or LA, or Chicago – that was where we were headed.  Ultimately, we’re thinking that we could have a teacher leader in the middle of Kansas, and we would still be able to support them and their leadership role without having to spend the money to fly one, or two, or three people all over the place,” Savoy explained.  “TORSH Talent has made it much easier for us to continue to keep our coaches where they are, wherever it is that they are located, and still utilize their talents effectively for supporting our teacher leaders.”  

Supporting Coaches from Coast to Coast

Savoy stressed that this support is vital when it comes to improving the quality of education and educational outcomes. Today, the organization reaches coast to coast and has eleven regional state programs serving teachers in both rural and urban school districts, from high-population-density states like Massachusetts to low-population-density states like New Mexico.  The programs currently support 300 teacher leaders across the United States using TORSH Talent.  

Savoy emphasized just how convenient it is to have “all of the tools in one place” – including features such as video uploads with time-synced comments, coaching rubrics, feedback, observations, coaching logs, and goal setting.  “With TORSH, I have the evidence, I have the feedback – it’s all right there.  It’s time-stamped….You don’t have to sit there and try to remember what you said when you were in the middle of something. The platform allows us to really focus our coaching conversations and provide targeted feedback in a way that simply isn’t an option when relying on memory alone.”  Savoy underscored the ways in which TORSH Talent has been invaluable to Teach Plus.

Virtual Coaching Before it Was Cool

No massive COVID-related growing pains for Teach Plus.  Reflecting on the process of adjusting to the virtual platform four years prior, he emphasized the collaborative nature of their partnership with TORSH and the customizable features of Talent.  “Back then, TORSH Talent was still in the process of being built.  Anytime I needed anything, I could reach out to our customer success rep and say, hey, it would be really great if we could have this feature or that addition… and our contact would say, okay, well, let’s go talk to the developers, and then our request would be completed,” Savoy extolled. 

Looking to the future, Savoy hopes that “virtual coaching options for teachers will become more available.”  

We at TORSH are continually honored to partner with innovative organizations such as Teach Plus, working to empower teachers to improve our educational landscape. 

Interested in learning how to expand the reach of your professional development offerings?

The post The Pre-Pandemic Virtual Coaching Solution That Positioned Teach Plus For Success appeared first on Torsh.

Prior to embarking on a career in education, Davis worked as a business analyst spending her days looking for ways to break models and programs, in an effort to make them better. She now applies those skills, coupled with her advanced researching prowess on her quest to constantly improve educators and mentors, while also pursuing her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction.

Ursula is constantly pushing the limits of learning and boundaries, all in pursuit of improving the teachers and peer-to-peer mentors within her district.

The soon-to-be Dr. Davis recently shared some of the resources that have inspired her during the buildout of the K-12 teacher induction program at RCPS, many of which will also be cited in her dissertation – “Impact of Video Coaching with Elementary Induction Teachers“, which will examine how elementary school induction teachers perceive video coaching as a job-embedded professional development strategy.

The Distance Learning Playbook, Grades K-12
By Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, & John Hattie

The pandemic teaching of mid-2020 was not really distance learning, but rather crisis teaching. But starting now, teachers have the opportunity to prepare for distance learning with purpose and intent – using what works best to accelerate students’ learning all the while maintaining an indelible focus on equity.

Harnessing the insights and experience of renowned educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie, The Distance Learning Playbook applies the wisdom and evidence of VISIBLE LEARNING® research to understand what works best with distance learning. Spanning topics from teacher-student relationships, teacher credibility and clarity, instructional design, assessments, and grading, this comprehensive playbook details the research- and evidence-based strategies teachers can mobilize to deliver high- impact learning in an online, virtual, and distributed environment

Hattie Model of Feedback
John Hattie – Visible Learning

Performance Feedback plays a critical role in the coaching cycle.  It is when the coach presents data on the teacher’s performance they obtained from the Observation they performed.  Feedback can be formal or informal and is thought to be so important to achieving a successful outcome from the coaching experience that some researchers consider it to be an evidence-based practice in and of itself.  Feedback is said to be most effective when it is specific, timely, positive, and corrective if necessary. There are a few ways a coach can deliver their feedback to the teacher; written, face-to-face, or via a video – all of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. 

Davis is currently digesting the wealth of knowledge that is this feedback structure. She is working on a way to deliver this information through a series of trainings for administrators, that they can then redeliver to teachers to apply it to the district’s peer-to-peer feedback model.

Get Better Faster: A 90-Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers
by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo

There are many different coaching models in existence, but most are based on similar principles and are applicable to teachers in Early Education, Early Intervention, K12, and Higher Education.  These models showcase the best practices for improving an individual teacher’s performance. There are 4 broad categories of an effective coaching cycle for teachers: Observation, Modeling, Performance Feedback, and Alliance Building Strategies.

The Beginning Teacher’s Field Guide: Embarking on your first year
By Tina Boogren

The joys and pains of starting a teaching career often go undiscussed. This field guide dives deep into the personal side of teaching, offering crucial advice, empathy, and new-teacher support. The author details six phases every new or first-year teacher goes through (anticipation, survival, disillusionment, rejuvenation, reflection, and second anticipation) and outlines targeted classroom strategies, teaching tips, and self-care practices for each.

* Ursala says: It is as important for administrators who are coaching and working with new teachers, as it is for new teachers to read.

Supporting Beginning Teachers: Classroom Strategies
By Tina Boogren

Give new teachers the time and professional guidance they need to become expert teachers. Investigate key research, and examine the four types of support-physical, emotional, instructional, and institutional-that are crucial during a teacher’s first year in the classroom. Discover essential strategies for K-12 mentors, coaches, and school leaders to develop an effective mentoring program schoolwide. 

Jim Knight, Founder of Instructional Coaching at Learning Forward 2017

Learning to integrate video into instructional coaching takes practice. One mistake that Jim Knight originally made in his own instructional coaching was not utilizing the video strategically and at the right time within the coaching process. Jim reveals his best practices and worst mistakes for instructional coaching with video. Read the entire blog from Edthena here.

* RCPS secured permission from Jim Knight’s Instructional Coaching to incorporate the Watch Yourself and Watch Your Students rubric into their program.

Teaching in the Online Classroom – Surviving and Thriving in the New Normal
By Doug Lemov

A timely guide to online teaching strategies – School closures in response to the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic resulted in an immediate and universal pivot to online teaching. More than 3.7 million teachers in the U.S. were suddenly asked to teach in an entirely new setting with little preparation and no advance notice. This has caused an unprecedented threat to children’s education, giving rise to an urgent need for resources and guidance. The New Normal is a just-in-time response to educators’ call for help. Teaching expert Doug Lemov and his colleagues spent weeks studying videos of online teaching and they now provide educators in the midst of this transition with a clear guide to engaging and educating their students online. 

Video in Teacher Learning: Through Their Own Eyes
By Laura Baecher

Video recording is the only feedback method that allows educators to view their teaching through their own eyes. Video in Teacher Learning provides guidance on how to get started and how to engage in nonjudgmental, descriptive analysis using this powerful tool.  Written for instructional coaches, administrators, supervisors, and individual teachers.

Ursala Davis and the RCPS administration are constantly seeking ways to enhance their teacher induction program, exploring every opportunity to improve and support the educators within the district. We at Torsh are proud to be a part of those efforts, by providing a platform that is flexible enough to support their ever-evolving needs.

Hear what mentors within the RCPS have to say about the value of TORSH Talent to the program.

Interested in how Torsh could improve your school or district’s professional learning program? Click here to connect.

The post 8 Resource Recommendations for Improving K-12 Teacher Retention appeared first on Torsh.

Feedback on Virtual Classes

With the shift to virtual learning, a large K12 public school district is using their LMS to provide coursework to their students. Students are required to attend office hours and live classes with their teachers. Teachers conduct and record these classroom sessions using Microsoft Teams. Once a month, they upload a virtual lesson to TORSH Talent and share it with mentors for feedback using our time-stamped video commenting tool. Based on the feedback, coaches create goals for their teachers in TORSH Talent so the teachers can easily see what needs work and their progress as they achieve goals.

Self Reflection & Evaluation 

A state department of education uses TORSH Talent to encourage teachers to upload videos of their classes once a month. Using our time-stamped video commenting feature, the teacher self-reflects and contextualizes the video to request feedback from their coaches in growth areas. Every other month, teachers attach a lesson plan and corresponding student work to their video so facilitators can perform a comprehensive evaluation using their customized evaluation rubric on TORSH Talent. 

Rubric Adaption for Remote Instruction

One charter school network adapted their in-person observation rubric to meet the needs of remote instruction. Teachers record their virtual classes and upload them to TORSH Talent. Teachers then share the videos with their coaches, who conduct a rubric-based observation. 

Using these adaptations, teachers can receive the same high-quality coaching, in a remote world. Being virtual does not mean anyone has to give up valuable mentorship, and those examples highlight only a few of the amazing TORSH Talent features that facilitate remote workflows. 

More features our users love:

In-Person (Virtual) Observations

Coaches can join a live virtual classroom session to conduct an observation using our in-person observation tool.

Exemplar Library

Share virtual classroom resources and examples of best practices for teachers to view and grow their virtual teaching skills.

Forums

Since it is not as easy for teachers to collaborate in-person, create virtual learning communities using our forums feature as a way to share resources, and facilitate discussion.

Zoom Integration & Chat

Integrate with Zoom to host coaching sessions on TORSH Talent. The recordings will automatically upload and share with the meeting participants. Use our chat feature to stay connected and collaborate via an easy to use direct messaging tool. 

Want to learn more about the benefits of TORSH Talent?
Let us give you a personalized walk-through of the platform.

The post How to Provide High-Quality Virtual Coaching in a Remote World appeared first on Torsh.

Whether you are tracking all of this information using digital files or paper ones, the result is a lot to manage. 

Coaches that utilize TORSH Talent have a distinct advantage. Instead of a desk (or desktop) covered with folders filled with documents for each teacher, they have a system that provides one place to not only capture interactions, it also makes sharing with teachers and their administrators much easier. Their secret – Coaching Corner. 

Coaching Corner is a dedicated space within TORSH Talent where coaches can view and manage all of the educators they coach. This area of the platform also provides coaches with quick access – making it easy to initiate or continue common coaching activities.

Whether you are already using TORSH Talent or exploring platforms to help you improve your efficiency and effectiveness as a coach, here are just a few ways that Coaching Corner can help you get there. 

1. Quickly Access Mentee Records

No more digging through for files. TORSH Talent presents you with a quick and easy way to find information on those you are currently coaching. The system also provides a Recent Interactions list which is automatically populated with users you frequently interact with in order to make working with them easier.

2. Easily Track PD Paths

View everything about a specific user all in one place. The user’s page allows you to see artifacts shared between you and that user, projects with the user, and feedback that they have received and/or given. The page also tracks observations that have been completed or are pending, goals that have been created for that user, activity in the system, and you can access reports for that user.

3. Assess with Insights

Coaches are provided with access to both raw and visual data to effectively monitor and track teacher progress over time. For each teacher, set primary and secondary goals, as well as tag goals to competencies, then use the Insights function for reports. Beyond individual progress, you can also view performance and activity metrics across all of your teachers.

4. Allow Administrator Access 

Access to performance and activity metrics is not limited to coaches. Administrators can also be provided with access to view progress on teachers, as well as to view coach performance.  

These are just a few of the capabilities provided to coaches using TORSH Talent. Explore other features and benefits of Coaching Corner here.

Interested in learning more about the platform and how it could up your effectiveness as a coach?

Request a personalized demonstration with one of our education experts.

The post Four Features of TORSH Talent that Increase Coaching Efficiency & Effectiveness appeared first on Torsh.

Problem-solving in a pinch using only that which is available to you has many different names. But no matter how you refer to it, when the outcome exceeds expectations, it becomes something else: a solution worth sharing.

The following is precisely that. 

Sonia M. Rosen, Ph.D., Director of Inquiry and Reflective Practice for the Independent School Teaching Residency Program (ISTR) at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, brought a unique request to us during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis. As a veteran TORSH Talent user, she was looking for a way to extend the platform’s usefulness to improve an annual in-person event that was going virtual in the wake of the pandemic. 

A bit of backstory.

Each year, the department produces a Spring Gathering. During this highly anticipated event, ISTR participants present the one dimension of their practice on which they have done systematic research, collected data, and ultimately identified ways to systematically learn more about their students. This project is a full year in the making, with each teaching fellow presenting their findings to peers, administrators, and others in the program, all with the intention of facilitating peer conversations. Without this year’s in-person event, Dr. Rosen sought the Torsh team’s help to make this year’s event as interactive as possible.

Erin Murphy, Senior Customer Success Manager for Torsh, worked with Rosen through this unique set of circumstances. Her account of the process, from problem to pay off, is outlined below.

Problem: The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education had to conduct their Spring Gathering presentations virtually due to COVID-19. 

Goal of Spring Gathering: The culmination of the year-long inquiry project for second-year ISTR teaching fellows to present their systematic research. While the presentations are not graded, the goal is to elicit thoughtful conversation and feedback from peers, mentors, and leaders.

Solution: Torsh worked with Dr. Rosen to develop a plan on how ISTR could utilize TORSH Talent to best conduct the Spring Gathering presentations and elicit thoughtful conversation virtually.

We strategized how Groups and Collections features could be used to structure the presentations. 

After a brainstorming session, Torsh provided step-by-step instructions on how the environment was to be set up by an administrator and steps for the presenters to follow to share content. Licenses were easily added using the automated purchasing tool within TORSH Talent to accommodate the additional participants and onlookers. 

The virtual adaptation of ISTR’s Spring Gathering was heralded as a success, with meaningful outcomes such as those cited below:

• The TORSH Talent video-commenting feature allowed participants to provide thoughtful conversation and feedback with one group logging over 1,500 comments of mostly substantive discussion.
  
• According to administrators, TORSH Talent was an easy-to-use solution because of the user-friendly interface. People unfamiliar with the platform were able to get up and running on their own.
  
• Teaching fellows benefited from great feedback, reflection, and the ability to develop content for their portfolios. 

The fruitful discussions, thanks to the TORSH commenting tool, are sure to play a significant role as the Summer and Fall curriculum is expected to be online, which will expand the number of users to include mentors, program directors, fellows, and Penn faculty. Lectures and content will be available for fellows to watch on the front end of any asynchronous teaching and also on the back end for enrichment. And as administrators look to next year’s Spring Gathering, the valuable lessons learned from going virtual have already been added to the event.  

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Fall and the start of school, no matter if it is face-to-face, online, or a hybrid version, evokes many emotions for us. Excitement builds with the shopping of school supplies, meeting new classmates, and, of course, Friday nights under the lights! Even though football is sidelined in many high schools and colleges, for now, we can instill a “GAME on” attitude as we gain momentum into this school year. Here are some considerations to make your lessons effective and positive experiences for your students. 

1. Goals: Setting goals is something all of us in education do almost automatically as a part of each lesson. What is it that we want students to be able to know and do? But a real difference can be made if these are shared with our students (and now also with parents or caregivers) at the onset of the lesson. Writing out the lesson’s goal in student-friendly, concise language will help the student and teacher remain focused and give the parents much needed direction. Going back and reviewing the goal at the end of your lesson solidifies what you hoped to accomplish. Students may discuss with parents or each other whether (or not!) they feel they met the goal. They may even have the opportunity to reteach to someone in a virtual or face to face interaction. Reciprocal teaching is a strategy with great power and effectiveness in the classroom. 

2. Accessibility: Online learning requires just that- access to the internet for all. And online, there are hundreds of apps and sites that have been developed for student interaction. As educators, we need to be sure to use a consistent online space to manage class information, such as Google Classroom or even a Learning Management System (LMS) like Canvas or Blackboard.. Our students and parents need to be able to depend on a “home” they can visit that is simple to use and familiar to them. They can check in to find easy access to announcements, directions, other websites to visit, or assignments to complete. As our students feel more comfortable with online tools, they can use their time more efficiently and constructively. 

3. Meaningful: Last spring, educators were faced with the change from classroom learning to online in the blink of an eye. In a very short time, they were asked to develop activities and lessons that would sustain some sort of teaching and learning, all without much direction or professional development. Were these developed lessons always meaningful? No. Were they oftentimes busy work to, at the very least, keep students engaged in some sort of academic activity? Yes. But now, we are better prepared. Students, parents, and teachers know this learning matters and will make a difference. Our challenge as educators is to figure out how to make our lessons meaningful and effective. What we ask of students now, can look very different than what we asked for in April. Student-driven tasks or choices within an area of study can heighten interest and motivation. Assignments do not all have to be completed in one day but layered as higher-order thinking skills are used. Writing pieces can be shared with peers or parents and responses added to help a young writer develop clarity and voice. Families can become engaged in discussions centered around a current book or short story. These interactions with peers and families can make learning more meaningful for all. 

4. Enriching: The obvious response to this word is to plan our lessons to be as enriching as possible. That’s wonderful and right. But what is very important to remember is how you as a teacher/educator/administrator have the unique opportunity to enrich young lives. All of this important work you do makes a difference. The struggles and the ups and downs are all worth it. Online, face-to-face, or a hybrid plan all present perfect scenarios for us to make lives better. Even the on-screen smile and voice of encouragement have the potential to enrich lives. And a few corny jokes along the way can’t hurt either! 

Schools are changing direction as we speak. What we write or do or plan today may have a completely different look tomorrow. How do we best engage and enrich our children’s lives, with meaningful lessons and accessibility for all? It’s not easy work, but teachers can, and should do it.

Diane Noonan has been an educator for 36 years in a small midwestern school in Iowa, teaching both elementary and middle school children. She received her National Board Certification in 2001 and has also been an instructional mentor to new teachers for the past 20 years. Diane is passionate about creating classrooms where students feel a sense of belonging and develop a true love of learning.

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