Starting in the 2017-18 school year, two innovative Nevada educational organizations – Lyon County School District (LCSD) and Northeastern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program (NNRPDP) – will provide video coaching to educators via Edthena to enrich educators’ professional learning. These organizations are utilizing the Great Teaching and Leading Fund grant from the Nevada Department of Education to provide targeted coaching support the using Edthena platform.

LCSD in Yerington, Nevada, will use Edthena with all elementary learning strategists who are responsible for providing professional development to the district’s approximately 200 elementary school teachers. Learning strategists will videotape themselves while providing in-person coaching and receive timely and targeted feedback through Edthena to hone their coaching skills.

“Edthena will streamline our video coaching process and help take it to the next level,” said Amber Westmoreland, Professional Development Manager at LCSD. “Being able to receive immediate and data-driven feedback is a huge asset in helping our learning strategists hone their own instructional practices so they, in turn, can better support our teachers.”

NNRPDP serving Elko, Humboldt, Eureka, White Pine, Lander, and Pershing County School Districts will use Edthena to more efficiently deliver professional learning to teachers as part of its intensive, five-week residency coaching cycle. During the residency, coaches will work with individual teachers or small groups of teachers on concentrated areas of instructional practice.

“Providing individualized, daily, face-to-face professional development to six districts across 51,000 square miles of Northeast Nevada isn’t feasible,” said Sarah Negrete, program director of NNRPDP.  “Video coaching will decrease the physical travel constraints we face, make overall participation in the residency more equitable, and allow us to provide our teachers with daily interaction and feedback during the program.”

In addition to the residency coaching cycle, teachers will use Edthena to upload their classroom videos for National Board certification. “Edthena will provide an easy way for our teachers to record themselves, receive feedback from colleagues, engage in self-reflection, and decide the best work to submit,” said Negrete.

With the Edthena platform, educators quickly and easily upload videos of their classroom instruction from any video camera and then share those videos with coaches and colleagues who provide timestamped comments categorized as questions, suggestions, strengths, and notes. The platform enables educators and coaches to participate in collaborative professional learning cycles. Reports and graphs, linked to the school’s or district’s associated professional standards, help identify teaching trends, determine if the professional development is improving teaching practices, and provide a basis for ongoing dialogue about instructional best practices.

Schools, districts, and teacher education programs in nearly 30 states – including Nevada – are using the Edthena platform to make video observation an integral part of teacher induction, teacher mentoring, PLCs, and peer observation.

To learn more about Edthena, visit www.edthena.com.