How to Get Comfy with AI

If the thought of AI entering your classroom is still a bit daunting to you, I get it -- that's normal! There is no need to formally address AI in your classrooms right now anyway! This is something that a school district needs to approach thoughtfully, and our district hasn't come out with any official statements or thoughts related to using AI in the classroom with students directly. Some school districts are embracing it, some are banning it, some are dealing with it on an as needed basis, and some are in between all these positions! If it comes up in your classroom, either by students asking about it or you discover students are using to to help them do their work, then by all means address it, letting students know it's out there and while it's tempting to use it, just like any other tool, some training and understanding of how to use the tool properly is needed, so they really need to proceed with caution. More in a later post about kids and AI tools.

This post is about how to get comfortable with it yourself, and the best way to do that is to try it out! AI tools can be a HUGE timesaver for teachers! They can really help you with the whole "work smarter, not harder" mantra. I'm right there with you, dipping my toe in myself! I have tried using ChatGPT to help me write some social media posts for a group on Facebook I run, and I've used it to help me some up with some lesson ideas and questions to use with some books I got this summer related to digital citizenship. What I have discovered is that I can get some really good suggestions, but like anything, they're not perfect so I have to tweak them!

So here's mu challenge for you this week! Try one of these things using an AI tool (right now, I have only tried ChatGPT, but if you're familiar with any others, feel free to use those!) and then shoot me an email sharing what tool you used, what you tried, and your thoughts on the results!

Things to Try with AI (from the book The AI Classroom by Fitzpatrick, Fox, & Weinstein):

• Create group names for small groups in your class that are thematic/tied to curriculum (examples: names of different elements in a science class, different literary genres in an ELA class, different historical periods or geographical features in a social studies class).
• Create an email message to send to a parent about their child's performance in your class (bonus points if you make it a positive/celebratory email -- parents always love those!)
• Ask for warm up questions to start a lesson (ask for the answers to the questions as well!)
• Ask for discussion questions for a story or poem you're reading (ask for the answers to the questions as well!)
• Ask it to anticipate misconceptions students may have about a lesson you're planning to teach.
• Ask it to create a set of questions on a topic (with answers) that are at different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

As an example, here is one I came up with, asking for discussion questions for 5th graders for a book I want to use with them to teach digital citizenship.

Embracing Change: Discovering AI in Education

In today's fast-changing world, education is also evolving, and one of the exciting changes is the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our classrooms. If you're wondering what AI is and how it can help our students, let's explore it together from a teacher's perspective.

AI is like a smart helper created by computers. It can learn, think, and make choices, somewhat like how we humans do. Just as we adjust our teaching for different students, AI can customize learning too. Think about having a virtual assistant that knows exactly how each student learns best and can provide activities and materials just right for them.

A big way AI helps is with personalized learning. This means that AI tools can understand where students are doing well and where they need help. This allows teachers to give the right kind of support at the right time. No more teaching the same way to everyone—AI makes sure each student gets what they need to do their best.

But AI does more than that. It can also save teachers a lot of time. Tasks like grading papers, which can take up a lot of our evenings, can now be done quicker with AI. This gives us more time to plan fun lessons and really connect with our students. And AI can help with that, too! It can help you generate all kinds of questions to ask -- at different levels -- and even create entire lesson plans for you!

Another cool thing about AI is that it can help students work together. Virtual study groups powered by AI can bring students from different parts of the world together to share ideas and solve problems. This helps them learn about different cultures and ideas, which is important for the world they'll grow up in. It can even be used to help students develop critical thinking skills, which I know may seem counter-intuitive, but trust me! It CAN be done!

However, it's good to remember that while AI is amazing, it can't replace the special things that make us teachers. Our ability to inspire and care for our students is something AI can't do. AI is like an extra tool to help us teach better, not to take over our jobs.

Starting with AI might feel a bit confusing, but that's okay. It's important to keep learning and figuring out how to use AI in the best way. We can learn from each other and stay updated on how to use AI well in our classrooms.

To sum it up, AI is changing education right now. By using AI, we can make teaching even more exciting and help our students learn in ways that suit them best. Let's embrace this new technology while keeping our love for teaching alive.

If you've read this far, then you should know that I used ChatGPT to write this blog post! I changed a few things and added some extra things, but 95% of this was not written by me! Now send me an email or Google Chat message saying you saw this and I'll send you a little gift!