Laurel Uses Video to Identify What She Needs to Re-teach

Back in August, Laurel Urquidi – a fourth grade teacher in the St. Vrain Valley School District in Colorado – was nervous about using video for instructional coaching and reflection. She thought seeing herself on video would be uncomfortable, and that uploading and recording videos would be too time-consuming.

What she didn’t anticipate, though, was that using Edthena would be easy, and that it would actually enhance her ability to notice everything that was happening in her classroom, which in turn would improve her instruction.

“Using the platform for the first time with my induction coach, I loved the tools for reflection,” Laurel said. “Uploading the video didn’t take any time at all…But the big ‘aha’ moment for me was when I was able to catch a side-comment from one of my students in my video. It let me know what I needed to go back and re-teach.”

Laurel said that she wouldn’t have known what to re-teach if she hadn’t reflected on that lesson using video.

Laurel is one of a number of teachers using video for instructional coaching in the St. Vrain Valley School District, which was recently named a “Future Ready District” by the U.S. Department of Education – one of only nine districts in the country to receive the distinction.

You can read our Partner Profile on St. Vrain here.