NEW ORLEANS, January 18, 2016 – Torsh, an educational software company that provides a video observation platform used for teacher development, announced today that they will be presenting at the New Teacher Center’s 18th National Symposium on Teacher Induction scheduled for February 21-23, 2016. The symposium’s theme this year is “Learn Together, Dream Together” and its various seminars will highlight challenges and best practices relating to new teacher development. This yearly event attracts close to 1000 beginning teachers, their mentors, and educators who manage teacher induction programs at the school or district level.
Courtney Williams, CEO of Torsh and Marc Dembowski, Educational Technology Program Consultant for New Teacher Center (NTC) will lead a joint session entitled “Coaching and Mentoring in a Video World.” This seminar will examine the research behind video technology in the classroom, explore how NTC leverages video for learning, and share testimonials and best practices surrounding video’s role in teacher professional development.
“Schools are just beginning to reap the benefits of video technology in the classroom,” said Courtney Williams. “NTC is an excellent example of an organization that is currently leveraging video to support teacher professional growth and development. Through our presentation at the symposium, we want to share with a wider audience the benefits, best practices, and challenges that NTC and some of our other clients have experienced with video.”
The joint presentation will also give attendees a closer look at Torsh TALENT, Torsh’s signature product that is currently used by NTC. Torsh TALENT is a video-based observation, feedback and data management platform that gives educators an opportunity to reflect on practice, collaborate with others, measure the effectiveness of instruction, and receive high quality coaching at scale. Attendees will get an inside look at how NTC uses the video annotation, collaboration and feedback tools on Torsh TALENT in their work with new teachers.
Torsh has been partnering with NTC since 2012, most notably with NTC’s e-Mentoring for Student Success (e-MSS) program. Through Torsh TALENT, NTC is able to remotely mentor and coach new teachers, which improves their effectiveness and desire to continue teaching.
“Prior to using Torsh TALENT, conducting video observations was very difficult,” said Marc Dembowski. “Sharing a 15 minute video cannot be done through email, and we also did not want to use a public site to store our videos. [Additionally] … video observations had been optional for our teachers because of all the inherent challenges. Now it is a part of the expectations. All of our beginning teachers are using TALENT to conduct video observations with their mentors.”
All symposium attendees are invited to attend the “Coaching and Mentoring in a Video World” session on February 22nd at 2:50 pm. After the session, educators will have the opportunity to learn how Torsh TALENT can be utilized at their school or organization.
The Symposium is being held at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue, Washington. More information is available here.
