PD Perfection: Utilizing Video for Observation, Evaluation, and Professional Growth

At PD Perfection we believe that teachers should determine their individual professional

growth plans and have access to the support of colleagues and supervisors. In order to do so, we
have partnered with the Teaching Channel TEAMs to bring districts observation, evaluation, and
professional growth tools. This is an alternative assessment that can be used in replace of your
districts current evaluation tool. We bring video into the classroom, so that teachers can record
instruction, periodically, throughout the school year. The teacher then selects clips of lessons or
entire lessons to be viewed by peers or supervisors for feedback.
This partnership allows for teachers to have access to cutting-edge professional
development resources provided by Teaching Channel and stakeholders within the District.
Teaching Channel Teams is a private, video-enabled collaboration platform that enables teachers
and instructional leaders within the District or a school to work together to improve
effectiveness.
At the center of Teams is Teaching Channel's award-winning library of teaching videos
that can be enhanced with district- and teacher-created videos. Additionally, Teams provides
tools for deep collaboration around video and creates personalized learning experiences for
significant, sustained improvements in instructional practice. Educators use four types of videos
in Teams to learn new approaches, reflect on their own and each others practice and analyze
specific areas of practice. Administrators, supervisors and teachers have access to the following
features:
1. Teaching Channel (Tch) library: more than 900 videos on subjects and topics across
grades PreK-12;
2. Tch Uncut Classrooms: full-length videos that allow teachers to see lessons from start to
finish, providing opportunities to calibrate observation and feedback protocols;

3. Our own video library: upload, share and tag videos featuring your own teachers,
highlighting examples of instruction reflective of state- or district-specific standards and
rubrics;
4. Teacher created videos: all Teams teachers can upload videos of their own instruction and
designate whom to share them with for reflection and analysis
The District will be able to take in-person collaboration online and create district-wide
practice-focused communities to build internal capacity. Public or private groups can be created
around:
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Common Core Math/Language Arts

Coaching/mentoring
Instructional Rounds
Content area
Grade level
ELL
Leadership
PLCs and more

Through the use of this program, District staff will be able to communicate with
colleagues about strategies and specific areas of practice using the Direct Messaging, Q&A,
Posts, and time-stamped video Notes features that promote intentional viewing and reflection.
Teachers will be able to upload videos of their own classrooms and choose who they would like
to share these videos with, within the District. Department leaders and other instructional staff
will have the ability to provide easy access to essential state, district and school resources by
uploading them to the Paterson Public Schools private Teams site. Videos, presentations, links,
and examples of student work for discussion and analysis can also be shared via the Resources
feature. The District Teams Coordinator will manage the private Teams site with tools for
customization, tagging, and analytics to understand our professional learning in practice.
Collaboration is the key to professional growth and school effectiveness. The teacher and
supervisor work together to decide when teachers will submit videos for evaluative purposes.

The supervisor will, at that time, use our Teacher Video Observation Rubric to assess the
teachers growth at selected times during the school year. This process is not punitive. Instead, it
opens up the doors to the development of trusting relationships between the teacher, their
colleagues, and supervisors. Our process fosters the development of critical friends, peer
coaching relationships, study groups, and professional learning communities the use of our userfriendly Teacher Video Evaluation Rubric and theTeaching Channel TEAMs platform.