NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES, June 13, 2024 — TORSH, Inc., a leading educational technology provider, is thrilled to announce its new strategic partnership with the Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties, Inc. (ELCPH) to enhance the organization’s coaching initiatives. Through this collaboration, ELCPH will streamline coaching and professional development for the region’s early learning professionals, driving high-quality education to enable young children and their families to thrive.

ELCPH selected TORSH Talent, an innovative online learning platform, to standardize their coaching processes and deepen the impact of coaching activities on teacher effectiveness. The platform offers an extensive suite of professional learning tools for individual coaching, mentoring, observation, feedback, and collaborative learning. Features such as the exemplar library, video recording functionality, rubrics, and more will empower ELC coaches to seamlessly share exemplary resources with educators, continuously monitor teachers’ progress toward their professional learning goals, and streamline coaching processes using standardized CLASS rubrics.

“Early education programs benefit from a streamlined process that generates clear data on coaching effectiveness for continuous improvement,” said Courtney Williams, Founder & CEO of TORSH. “TORSH Talent will aid ELCPH in achieving this synchronicity for their staff.”

Over time, early learning teachers supported by ELCPH will use TORSH Talent to submit videos of teaching practices for coaches to review, who will then share time-stamped, evidence-based feedback on opportunities for improvement. ELCPH also plans to leverage the platform to facilitate direct communication with early learning site directors and providers, providing them with additional, valuable resources to support their staff and improve teaching effectiveness.

“Using TORSH Talent will improve the quality and impact of both in-person and hybrid coaching,” shared Steve Knobl, Ph.D., Executive Director of ELCPH. “It’s all about supporting teachers not only with targeted feedback but also with following through on clear and actionable next steps from their coaching conversations to advance instructional practices.”

Together with TORSH, ELCPH looks forward to deepening the benefits of their coaching for educators, standardizing coaching processes, and ultimately driving positive outcomes for the thousands of young children and families they serve.

About TORSH, Inc.
TORSH, a New Orleans-based education technology company, is dedicated to improving childhood outcomes by increasing educator instructional effectiveness. TORSH Talent, an online coaching and professional learning platform, enables organizations to support educator growth through the entire development cycle of observation, assessment, goal setting, feedback, and coaching. Learn more by visiting torsh.co.

About the Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties
The Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties, Inc. is a 501c3 organization and one of 30 Early Learning Coalitions in Florida. Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) program is for all children who are four years old on or before September 1. School Readiness provides subsidized childcare for low-to-moderate-income working families. The nonprofit serves over 10,000 children between infancy and twelve years old, working with over 300 childcare providers in both counties. Learn more by visiting elcph.org.

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Watch this on-demand webinar to hear an enlightening conversation among members of the Central Region Educational Cooperative (CREC) who oversee coaching and professional learning for early childhood educators in school-based settings. During the webinar, they discuss:

• How Practice-Based Coaching is improving literacy practices, social-emotional practices, and individual student supports
• How TORSH Talent, an online learning platform, is being used by coaches and practitioners to set and track goals, ensure fidelity of practice, and support individualized coaching and self-reflection
• Lessons learned and practical advice for implementing practice-based coaching using TORSH Talent 

Whether you have been using Practice-Based Coaching for a while or are just considering the approach, this webinar will provide you and your team with insights and guidance to strengthen and streamline professional learning for your early childhood educators.

Fill out the form to watch the on-demand webinar.

Webinar Presenters:

Amanda Rottman, M.Ed.
Early Childhood Instructional Coaching Coordinator, CREC

Amanda Rottman serves as the Instructional Coaching Coordinator for the Early Childhood Instructional Coaching team. Her background includes teaching experience in inclusive classrooms throughout NM. With a dedicated focus on Early Childhood Education, Amanda collaborates with stakeholders to ensure that all children have access to high-quality learning opportunities.

Ginger Towle, M.Ed.
Early Childhood Instructional Coaching Coordinator, CREC

Ginger Towle is an Early Childhood Instructional Coaching Coordinator for the Central Region Educational Cooperative, CREC. Her background includes years of teaching experience in preschool, elementary, and higher education. She currently supports coaches at the CREC in implementing Practice-Based Coaching for preschool teachers. Ginger also collaborates with stakeholders to ensure that all children have access to a high-quality education in New Mexico.

Terri Tapia, M.A.
Early Childhood Instructional Coaching Lead Coordinator, CREC

Terri Tapia is the Early Childhood/ECLIPSE Instructional Coaching Lead Coordinator with the Central Region Educational Cooperative. She is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her master’s degree in educational leadership from New Mexico Highlands University, graduating summa cum laude. Her philosophy for early childhood education (birth through age 8) centers on ensuring that each and every young child in New Mexico’s classrooms is ready to learn by having a strong sense of self, and feeling competent and capable. She believes that Practice-Based Coaching supports early childhood and elementary teachers in enhancing their teaching practices, which in turn, creates high-quality educational experiences for young children and students.

For the past 20+ years, Terri has led several educational programs including NAEYC Accredited Preschools, Tribal Head Start Programs, New Mexico’s Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System (FOCUS on Young Children’s Learning), and the development of the Early Childhood/ECLIPSE Instructional Coaching program, supporting over 800 early childhood and elementary educators across the state.

Katrina Gallegos, M.Ed.
ECLIPSE/ECIC Coordinator, CREC

Katrina Gallegos is an ECLIPSE/ECIC Coordinator for the Central Regional Educational Cooperative. She is from Albuquerque, New Mexico with a background in Early Childhood Education and a passion for supporting children, families, educators, and communities in New Mexico.

Katrina received her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Eastern New Mexico University. She also attended Lesley University where she obtained a master’s degree in Integrating the Arts Across the Curriculum. Katrina taught Special Education for eight years for 3–4 year olds.  During this time, she designed and taught a Learning to Learn class that supported children on the autism spectrum.

Katrina is dedicated to supporting coaches and teachers with Practice-Based Coaching (PBC) to enhance teaching practices that support all students’ learning outcomes. Her strengths are in the areas of social emotional and literacy practices.  Katrina enjoys hosting the Connections: The Heart of Early Childhood Podcast.

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Watch this on-demand webinar to hear from Dr. Christi Moore, Director of Professional Learning at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), how DECAL has built, expanded, and sustained professional learning programming across the state using the online learning platform (OLP) TORSH Talent.

During the 45-minute webinar you’ll learn tips for how to:

• Utilize synchronous and asynchronous coaching to provide educators with targeted feedback on practice and make learning digestible for busy schedules
• Use standardized rubrics and frameworks so 1:1 coaching is aligned to evidence-based practices and providers stay on track with portfolio completion
• Create the space for self-reflection so that both educators and coaches can easily revisit and build upon their learnings
• Leverage data, insights, and reporting in all facets of your professional strategy to support informed decision-making 

Take advantage of this opportunity to see how one enterprise-level program provided more coaching to educators with greater efficiency and, as a result, cultivated high-quality educators who improve developmental outcomes for the families and children they serve.

Fill out the form to watch the on-demand webinar.

Webinar Presenters:

Dr. Christi Moore 
Director of Professional Learning at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL)

Christi Moore is the Director of Professional Learning at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL). She guides the work of the Professional Learning Unit, which oversees DECAL’s early learning workforce development and professional learning initiatives. In 2011, Christi earned her Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education from Georgia State University. She has a variety of experiences in education, including service as a classroom teacher in Georgia’s Pre-K and in K-5 classrooms, as well as working as a guidance counselor in a middle school setting. She has also worked in teacher education, serving as a language and literacy instructor in a university teacher preparation program and as a facilitator and trainer for a non-profit professional development center. Before joining DECAL, Christi led the development of an award-winning online learning platform for teachers of children ages birth through third grade.

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NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES, May 17, 2024 — TORSH is excited to announce its strategic collaboration with Indiana University’s Special Education program. Their partnership will implement a five-year research project investigating a framework of systematic support to early intervention providers who serve families of toddlers with autism and its effects on provider, parent, and toddler outcomes.

The research team behind this project selected TORSH Talent, a HIPAA-secure web-based platform with a mobile app, to centralize collaboration between the university’s team of intervention consultants and study participants, made up of early intervention providers selected from across multiple states. Kathryn Horn, Intervention Coordinator with Building Interactive Social Communication (BISC) at Indiana University, said, “Using TORSH Talent will make participation in this research project seamless and easy for all participants, storing and transmitting our data to allow for analysis of BISC’s impact on provider, parent, and child learning.”

TORSH’s innovative platform is a useful resource that enables providers to collaborate with the research team. The free mobile app and video recording features allow providers to capture parent-child interactions remotely by seamlessly uploading data and video clips into the platform. The app stores curated resource collections for providers’ easy access to needed tools for weekly sessions with families and allows them to submit self-reflection notes. Secure user permission management maintains the integrity of the study, protecting the “double-blind” nature of data collection and analysis.

“TORSH embraces this unique opportunity to enable critical research on ways to empower the early interventionists who provide essential early intervention services to children with specific developmental needs,” said Courtney Williams, Founder and CEO of TORSH.

About TORSH, Inc.
TORSH, a New Orleans-based education technology company, is dedicated to improving childhood outcomes by increasing educator instructional effectiveness. TORSH Talent, an online coaching and professional learning platform, enables organizations to support educator growth through the entire development cycle of observation, assessment, goal setting, feedback, and coaching. Learn more by visiting torsh.co.

About Indiana University Graduate School of Education, Special Education
Indiana University’s Special Education program prepares teachers and researchers to work with all kinds of learners. The faculty and staff of the School of Education embrace an ambitious mission “to improve teaching, learning, and human development in a global, diverse, rapidly changing, and increasingly technological society.” Through fieldwork, collaborative coursework, and research experiences, students gain knowledge and confidence to pursue educational careers. More information is available by visiting education.indiana.edu and the PI’s faculty profile.

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