🤖 AI: My new teaching assistant

🎙️ Engaging professional development

What’s professional development with Matt like?

Practical. Relevant. Engaging. Fun!

His keynote speeches will make you laugh — and make you think.

His workshops and breakout sessions leave teachers with TONS of ideas to try in the classroom right away.

His virtual workshops make connections with educators no matter where they are — and are incredibly practical.

Email us to get some details, to check availability, or get a quote.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

How I’m prompting AI for the classroom

News flash: I’ve started teaching in the classroom again.

Context: I last taught in 2015. I was a high school Spanish teacher in a little school in west central Indiana. (Graduating class: 32. THAT small.)

That was 8 years ago.

Last Thursday, I welcomed students into my classroom for the first time in 8 years. In fact, the photo above was moments before I walked in to teach my first class of the semester!

After three days, I have to say: I’m having an absolute BLAST. I didn’t realize how much I missed being with students every day until I started teaching again.

And these aren’t just students I’m teaching as a substitute teacher. These are MY students in MY room. Big difference!

I’m learning and relearning a lot.

These days have been about survival. Teach my students as well as I can.

I’m trying to remember how I used to teach — but also upgrade with what I’ve learned over the last eight years.

I’m also trying to take advantage of my new teaching assistant …

Artificial intelligence.

Many of these AI tools have the potential to save us TONS of time in the classroom.

Here are some things I’ve tried and prompts I’ve used:

1. USE ALL THREE: “Which AI assistant is the best? ChatGPT, Google Bard, or Microsoft Copilot?”

I think that’s the wrong question to ask.

The better question: Why aren’t you using all three at once?

I like sizing three windows into thirds. I’ll keep all three AI assistants open on my second monitor.

Then I write a prompt in one — and copy/paste it into the other two.

I’ll find that, for certain tasks, I really like one better than the other.

2. I’M LIKING BARD A LOT: I haven’t paid for premium ChatGPT (using GPT-4) yet. And from what I hear, it’s a complete game changer.

But if you’re looking for a favorite of the big AI assistant players, I’m starting to develop one …

It’s Google Bard (bard.google.com).

Recently, Google released its Gemini AI model. Before Gemini, Bard was a little dopey. Now, it seems to understand me as an educator better than the others.

Bonus: You can paste a YouTube link into Bard and ask it to do things with the video transcript (like summarize it or even create guided notes with blanks to fill in). More on that in a coming newsletter …

3. FOLLOW-UPS ARE KEY: If you use a search engine, you get used to being done after one query.

If you prompt an AI assistant, you’re not done with one prompt. The best stuff comes the more you interact with it.

Example: Ask it for a two-week unit on a topic you’re studying. It’ll summarize one for you. Then, after you see that summary …

• Ask it for detailed plans for any particular day in that two-week unit.

• In that detailed plan for a particular day, ask it for detailed instructions for any particular activity or segment.

• Ask it for comprehension questions or checks for understanding (and then ask it for the answer key).

• Ask it for suggestions for projects — quick day-long projects or longer multi-day (or week) projects.

• Ask it for ways to make it engaging and fun (and include things that students are in love with right now).

That’s just scratching the surface! A whole series of follow-up prompts can yield absolute GOLD.

4. DON’T LEAVE OUT OTHER TOOLS: All the buzz is about the AI assistants like ChatGPT. But some teacher-specific tools are some of my favorites!

• MagicSchool.ai has 50+ AI tools specifically for teachers for a variety of teaching tasks.

• Eduaide.ai creates great unit plans — and lets you add more and more teacher resources to the workspace.

• Diffit.me helps you create differentiated teaching resources.

Many of these tools have free AND paid versions … but the free versions let you do a LOT.

💡 MORE IDEAS: In this post, I shared 5 ways I plan to use AI in my return to the classroom — with details!

🗄 Template: Canva 2024 Vision Board

The Canva Learning Consultants at Canva Education have a brand new design challenge for teachers and students!

Welcome 2024 by designing a vision board or a single word/phrase that represents a goal or focus for the year.

Submit your student's creations on the challenge site for a chance to win a prize! Tag #CanvaEdu and #CLCchallenge2024 when sharing your student's creations on social media.

Check out the challenge site for more details: bit.ly/CLCchallenge24 

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!