Memphis City Schools has partnered with Teachscape to install a city-wide system of video capture systems that will allow for improved teacher professional growth. The city expects to use the system for teacher development, support, as well as evaluation. Each school will have at least one device as part of the district’s long term goal of creating a library of successful teaching practices that can be used to instruct Memphis teachers.
“The use of Teachscape’s video technology allows our teachers to be their own first observer,” said Monica Jordan, coordinator of reflective practice and teacher support at Memphis City Schools. “Teachers have so many ways in which they can use video to enhance their practice. They can use it for self-reflection, feedback, instructional planning, lesson prep, co-teaching, and more.”
Memphis teachers first had the opportunity to use video for professional growth as part of the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ms. Jordan added, “As a result of the MET Project, teachers started using video to deconstruct and analyze their lessons and saw its value in improving their teaching effectiveness, and ultimately student achievement.”
Use of video for teacher evaluations has been a growing, yet contentious, issue in recent years. One other example of the possibility of using video for evaluations is the proposed Teacher Performance Assessment for pre-service teacher candidates. Wisconsin, as well as some other states, have discussed the future possibility of having teaching candidates record sessions of themselves teaching. Those sessions would be judged by master teachers or administrators to analyze readiness for that candidate to enter the teaching field.
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