Urban Teacher Residency Partnership Program Expands its Use of Video Coaching with Edthena

Video-based classroom observation platform helps teacher residents easily upload and share videos to receive feedback on their teaching practices 

SAN FRANCISCO (February 7, 2017) – The award-winning Urban Teacher Residency Partnership Program (UTRPP), a collaboration between the University of South Florida and Hillsborough County Public Schools, has expanded its use of video coaching with teacher residents through the implementation of the Edthena platform. The UTRPP is using the video-based classroom observation platform to streamline – and enhance – the way teacher residents are uploading, storing, sharing, and receiving feedback on videos of their classroom practice as part of their ongoing professional learning process.

The UTRPP integrates both coursework and fieldwork, giving its teacher residents more than 2,000 hours of mentoring in K-5 classrooms in Hillsborough County Public Schools. In partnership with the district, the UTRPP received an Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) federal grant in 2014 to support the evaluation of this innovative model of teacher preparation. As a recipient of this grant, the residency is seen as a national model for what is possible in teacher preparation.

“A signature pedagogy in our clinically-rich program has been our use of video as part of our content coaching cycles with our residents,” said Dr. Sarah van Ingen, co-director of the UTRPP. “The use of video was really powerful, however, we kept running into technical issues around recording, uploading, storing, transferring, and tagging the videos. The implementation of Edthena solved these issues for us and saved us valuable time so that we could expand our use of video exponentially.”

With the Edthena platform, teacher residents can quickly and easily upload videos of their classroom instruction from any video camera and then share those videos with mentor coaches who provide timestamped comments categorized as questions, suggestions, strengths, and notes. The platform enables the residents and coaches to participate in collaborative professional learning cycles, as well as store and organize videos throughout each semester. 

“With Edthena, our residents reflect on their teaching and share evidence of their teaching practices with their mentors and coaches,” said Dr. van Ingen. “For us, innovative teacher preparation is not just about having our residents teach more hours than the average student teacher, it’s about providing the residents with the timely feedback they need to increase their effectiveness in the classroom. Edthena helps us provide this feedback.”

Schools, districts, and teacher education programs in more than 30 states are using the Edthena platform. It helps these organizations make video observation an integral part of teacher induction, teacher mentoring, professional learning communities (PLCs), and peer observation. 

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

About Edthena

Edthena is the leading classroom observation platform for using teaching videos as part of professional development. Teachers upload classroom videos to share with colleagues who leave time stamped comments. Edthena also offers specialized collaboration tools to help organizations implement best practices for video-based professional learning. Edthena is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations such as SIIA, District Administration, and Tech & Learning. For more information, visit www.edthena.com. For more news about Edthena, visit blog.edthena.com.