This post is sponsored by Swivl.
Imagine that a student finishes up a science lab. Or a book. Or even learning about a new subject.
What if they don’t think about what they’ve learned – and how it fits in the big picture and what to do with it? A lot of the power and promise of that learning is lost.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
John Dewey once stated… “We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience.”
What if students received powerful, pointed questions about whatever they’ve just learned – to further engage them to lock that learning in?
And, even better … what if you, the teacher, didn’t have to create those questions? AND you got a summary and analysis of what your students said?
Enter MirrorTalkAI, an innovative solution that makes daily reflection quick, easy, and impactful for both teachers and students.
It’s a tool your students can use on their Chromebooks or laptops – or even in a mobile app.
🎁 BONUS: The free version is really, really good.
🎁 EXTRA BONUS: You can get the premium version for FREE for a whole year!
What is MirrorTalkAI?
MirrorTalkAI is an AI-powered tool designed to facilitate meaningful reflection in just 5 minutes a day.
It uses AI – advanced language models – to ask users thoughtful questions. MirrorTalkAI talks learners through their learning experiences, goals, and challenges.
The platform adapts to individual needs, providing personalized prompts and feedback to encourage deeper reflection.
But that’s not even the best part.
MirrorTalk assesses the emotional tone, cognitive processes, and reflective abilities from student reflections.
Plus, it also analyzes students’ responses for you, telling you what you need to know and giving you and the student suggestions. It further assigns a reflection quality score, derived from a thorough analysis of the reflections, offering a window into the students’ thought processes and evidence of critical thinking.
Explore the MirrorTalk dashboard in this interactive infographic below by either hovering or clicking on the interactive elements.
Is reflection really that big of a deal?
In a word: Definitely.
It’s a simple practice – getting students to think about what they’ve learned after they’ve learned it. To think about what worked and what didn’t. To see how it all applies to their lives.
So many teachers just don’t do it – even though it doesn’t take much time and there are enormous benefits. Or perhaps teachers do attempt to incorporate reflection, but really are doing it for their own feedback purposes (i.e. an exit ticket), not to help learners better construct knowledge from experience.
“Research suggests that reflection aids metacognition, and is linked to increased motivation, engagement, long-term memory storage, and performance.” (Source: Neuro Teach: Brain Science and the Future of Education)
Getting students to regularly reflect – even on a single prompt – can solidify learning and help with transfer (connecting new learning to other concepts and subject areas).
And once students know how to do it – and can see that it works – it’s a skill they can take with them throughout their entire lives. (Talk about creating the “lifelong learners” they describe in every school mission statement ever created.)
MirrorTalkAI asks students about what they’ve learned. Then it automatically creates custom follow-up prompts to get students talking, thinking, and reflecting. No prep from you.
How do I get started with MirrorTalkAI?
Getting started with MirrorTalkAI is simple:
1. Visit mirrortalk.ai and create an account
2. Follow the prompts to create your FREE account
3. Start your first reflection in your personal space by responding to the AI-generated prompts
How can I use MirrorTalk in the classroom?
Creating your first group:
- Click the arrow next to your personal space name
- Click “+ New”
- Create a group name and type (grade level)
- Choose the language (English or Spanish)
- Click “Create”
- Add members to your group by clicking the three dots and copying the invite link and sharing with those you want in your group.
- To create your first reflection click “Setup” and follow the prompts.
- Click “Assign” to assign your reflection to your group
8 easy ways to incorporate reflection into your lessons:
Note: MirrorTalk can be customized in many ways, however, adding the objective, choosing a focus and letting the AI create the prompts for you is where MirrorTalk really shines!
1. Back to school reflection
Encourage reflection right from the beginning of the school year with a look back at the past year and ahead to the next.
- Objective Prompt:Reflect on the past school year and your hopes and dreams for the future school year.
- Customize Reflection Focus: Motivation
2. End-of-day reflection
Dedicate the last 5 minutes of class for students to reflect on what they've learned using MirrorTalkAI.
- Objective Prompt: Think back over the day. What is something that stuck with you?
- Customize Reflection Focus: Summative
3. Daily SEL check in
Begin the day with a reflection to see where students are at emotionally.
- Objective Prompt: How are you feeling today? What events or thoughts are contributing to these feelings?
- Customize Reflection Focus: Default
4. Project milestones
Use MirrorTalkAI to guide students through reflections at key points during long-term projects.
Beginning of Project
- Objective Prompt: What are the key steps you need to take to start your project? How will you organize your tasks?
- Customize Reflection Focus: Creative Booster
During Project
- Objective Prompt: How will you monitor your progress and stay on track with your project timeline?
- Customize Reflection Focus: Problem Solver
End of Project Reflection
- Objective Prompt: What did you learn from completing this project? How can you apply these lessons to future projects?
- Customize Reflection Focus: Summative
5. Creativity booster
Use the creative booster to customize your prompt for your class as they reflect on a specific project or assignment they are working on. This would be perfect for students working on a creative writing assignment, art project or a genius-hour project of their choice.
- Objective Prompt: Think of a common problem people face. How can you solve it in a creative way?
- Customize Reflection Focus: Creative Booster
6. Homework assignment
Assign MirrorTalkAI reflections as homework to reinforce learning outside the classroom.
- Objective Prompt: How does completing homework help you understand the material better? Reflect on a recent assignment.
- Customize Reflection Focus: Default
7. Retrieval practice
Students can recall facts about a new concept they’ve learned in class. This promotes long-term retention.
- Objective Prompt: We just began learning about _____, share what you know about it.
- Customize Reflection Focus: Retrieval
8. Daily Gratitude
Use Mirror to help students practice gratitude and recognize positive aspects of their life.
- Objective Prompt: List three things you are grateful for today. How do they impact your life?
- Customize Reflection Focus:Gratitude
Can this help me as a teacher?
Absolutely. Students can use MirrorTalkAI to talk about lessons, projects, labs, books, etc.
But teachers can use it to reflect on teaching, lesson planning, classroom management, relationship building … anything.
- Start a reflection with MirrorTalkAI.
- Tell it about any struggles you’re having, problems you’re trying to solve, or situations you’d like to talk through.
- MirrorTalkAI gives you prompts to talk about.
You might solve your problems just by talking about them.
Or, when you’re finished, the suggestions that MirrorTalkAI gives you might give you new insights.
Or you can always look at the analysis of your responses in the dashboard for added insights.
For example, I recently told MirrorTalkAI about the teacher materials I’m trying to create about AI in education. I chose to have it do creative brainstorming with me.
- It asked me if anything in the past could parallel with today’s AI landscape.
- It asked me to brainstorm different creative ways AI could be utilized.
- It asked me how AI could strengthen existing practices.
All of these questions provoked me to talk about AI in ways that I might not have before – or to further refine answers I’ve given over and over again.
Where can I learn more?
Want to dive deeper into MirrorTalkAI?
You can explore the magic of MirrorTalk with this interactive Hyperdoc. This lesson will walk you through MirrorTalk and help you take the first steps in making reflection part of your daily practice.
Use this HyperDoc to dive into MirrorTalk yourself or use it to share MirrorTalk with your colleagues!
By incorporating MirrorTalkAI into your daily routine, you can foster a culture of reflection in your classroom, leading to deeper learning and personal growth for both you and your students.
Have you used MirrorTalk with your students? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
