Edthena is revolutionizing teacher professional learning with the launch of the AI Coach™ platform. This first-of-its-kind solution helps schools and districts provide all teachers with supportive coaching in order to improve teaching effectiveness. The AI Coach platform uses artificial intelligence to guide teachers through coaching cycles aligned to common growth areas.
While working inside the AI Coach platform, teachers have a conversation with Edie, their virtual coach. Edie asks teachers about their professional goals, and then teachers analyze and reflect on videos of their classroom instruction by adding time-stamped comments.
Edie takes a guide-on-the-side approach to help teachers summarize the evidence found during video analysis and develop action plans to increase impact with their students. As part of their conversation with Edie, teachers develop a short-term goal, identify a strategy for change, and commit to a timeline for implementation. This evidence-based process enables teachers to receive many of the benefits of instructional coaching even if an in-person coach is not available.
“Quality coaching is essential to helping teachers succeed in the classroom. However, ensuring that a coach is available for every teacher on a regular basis to support ongoing reflection was a near-impossible task until now,” said Adam Geller, founder and CEO of Edthena. “The AI Coach platform is a support tool for teachers that complements the efforts of school leaders and instructional coaches.”
The AI Coach platform helps school leaders and instructional coaches support teachers’ continuous learning and growth.
“Ideally, we’d have enough coaches and time to go visit every teacher in-person, but that’s just not possible, and it means that some teachers are getting ongoing support of a coach while others aren’t,” said Valerie Minor, coordinator of professional development and leadership at Keller Independent School District in Keller, Texas. “I see great value in being able to offer all teachers access to AI Coach which can guide them through cycles of self-reflection and empower them to continue their professional learning.”
Trained by experienced instructional coaches, the AI Coach platform personalizes the coaching cycle for each teacher’s self-identified focus areas. For example, if a teacher indicates they are interested in observing for “checks for understanding,” the AI Coach platform provides related observation tips for the video analysis. Then, when it’s time for the teacher to develop a strategy for making progress against their goal, the platform offers curated content to help the teacher learn more about “checks for understanding.”
“AI Coach by Edthena is not meant to replace existing coaches,” said Geller. “Instead, the platform is meant to help every school and district provide more coaching and feedback than they can deliver today due to not having coaches or not having enough coaches.”
AI Coach by Edthena is in continued development and testing with teachers this spring. Schools and districts will be able to share the AI Coach platform with all of their teachers starting in fall 2022. To learn more about the AI Coach platform and to join the waitlist for access, visit www.YourAICoach.com.
About Edthena
Edthena is the leading provider of innovative technologies to support educator professional learning and streamline feedback to teachers. The company offers AI Coach by Edthena, an artificial intelligence-driven solution to guide teachers through coaching cycles; the Edthena Video Coaching Platform, the classroom observation and collaboration platform for using videos as part of professional development; and Edthena Organization Libraries, a platform for schools and districts to curate and share best-practice teaching videos. 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 www.edthena.com/blog/.
