⏰ 15+ AI lesson planning time-savers

🎧 (Re)Introducing: The Ditch That Textbook Podcast

The Ditch That Textbook Podcast is back!

All the way back in February 2017, I started it as a daily 5-minute show. I recorded about 100 episodes faithfully. On again off again, I made it to episode 189 before I just couldn’t keep it up.

It’s been stuck on episode 189 since July 2020 … until today!

I’ve revived the show with my blog/social media editor Karly Moura. It’ll be a WEEKLY show now released on Mondays. We will recap what we’ve shared in the previous week’s email newsletter with extra commentary and extra features.

Our segments in the show currently are:

• News and updates

• The big idea (a deep dive on one topic)

• Tech tips

• Quick teaching ideas

• Template of the week

Check out our podcast home page, where you can:

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms

• Listen to our new episode

• Check out the VERY DETAILED show notes (click “see more”) with links to everything we talked about

You can also send us a voice message! This will be a fun way for us to get the voices of our subscribers in the show. Share additional ideas, tech tips, questions — or anything that’s on your mind! Be sure to tell us who you are. Go to the home page and click “Send voice message” to record one now.

⏰ 15+ AI lesson planning time-savers

Lesson planning is hard.

It’s time consuming. It’s hard to come up with great ideas. It involves a lot of mental gymnastics.

Could you use some help? In today’s post, we share about …

• using AI to enhance existing lessons

• planning new lessons with an AI assistant

• having AI create lessons and activities FOR you

Here are some highlights you can try out right now:

• Ask an AI assistant (like ChatGPT) for analogies that help our brains better understand new ideas

• Ask an AI assistant for common misconceptions or struggles that students wrestle with — so we’ll be better positioned to help them work through those challenges

• Ask Diffit for differentiated resources for lessons you’ll teach, like leveled readings and questions

• Ask an AI assistant to turn your content into an engaging story or a dialogue to help students interact with it in a different manner (hopefully opening up new pathways to learning)

In this post, you’ll find three example lesson plans created with AI collaboration — an elementary reading lesson, a middle school science lesson, and a middle/high school history lesson.

We also share five AI-driven tech tools that can help you plan lessons.

Check it all out here: Lesson planning with AI: Save time and get ideas

🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 Meet new tech tools in the Ditch Summit

We’re getting excited for the Ditch Summit, our free online conference for educators! This year, it runs from December 11 to January 5.

Good news: You don’t need to do anything to take part in the summit. You’ll get everything delivered to you in these email newsletters!

Better news: You’ll get to meet new apps and tech tools through the summit!

All of our 2023 Ditch Summit sponsors get to share a 30-minute “spotlight sponsor session.” In that session, you’ll get to learn more about their products, see how they’re used in the classroom, and get ideas you can use right away.

Even better news: Some of our sponsors have special giveaways, discounts, and even coupons to get their product for free!

We’ll share more details about the summit as it draws nearer.

For now, mark your calendar for December 11. It’ll be here soon!

🤔 One Airpod in the ear in class? Hmm …

I’m still gearing up for my return to the classroom.

(Did you hear? After eight years of full-time professional development, I’m going to teach high school Spanish for a semester starting in January.)

I know there’s a lot that has changed since I last taught full-time.

Some are big things. But others are little … and responding to them appropriately is important.

Here’s one of them: the “one Airpod in the ear” issue.

How do you handle it? When is it OK … and when isn’t it?

Dozens of educators responded in this Twitter/X post.

The results were very, very mixed. (Which was what I had hoped for, honestly.)

Check out the responses — and drop your own reply in the post, too!

PS: Do you follow me on Twitter/X? I’m @jmattmiller if you want to!