🍊 20 juicy questions for students

🤖 Want to understand all this “AI stuff”?

It’s here. It’s changing the way we work. And it’s going to change things in the classroom.

Artificial intelligence.

• What are its implications on the classroom?

• What about cheating and plagiarism?

• Where is all of this headed?

Get answers in my book, AI for Educators. It’s a quick, engaging page turner that’ll help you start moving forward.

“I read this book in 2 sittings, but I kept revisiting chapters to take notes. Matt Miller does a great job with a candid, straightforward book about AI for educators. His conversational, down-to-earth style makes it feel as if you're having a professional chat in the teacher workroom with him.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Amazon: Kim)

“Recommended for any educator who is only contemplating AI as a way for students to cheat. Matt does a super job of helping the reader to think beyond that!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Amazon: soyalba)

📙 Get AI for Educators on Amazon

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

Get students talking (and listening!) to each other in class

A great question is a springboard into a fascinating discussion.

Phrase it the right way and students will start thinking.

Then they'll start talking.

Then you won't be able to get them to stop!

Great questions can make the difference between a good learning activity and a great one.

Want to get students talking? Below you'll find some 5 of our favorite juicy questions from our post 20 juicy questions to ask students (#5 will REALLY get them talking!).

1. How could you sum up this lesson in a TikTok video?

2. If you could go on a road trip with anyone in history, who would it be?

3. How does something get to be "trending"?

4. The Zombie apocalypse has started __ and __ (from whatever book or lesson you’re teaching) are being chased. Who do you save? Why?

5. Should students be able to pick their teacher?

Here are some ideas for creating juicy questions of your own:

🏀 Student interests: Is there an app they're excited about? A song? A YouTuber? Can you phrase the question through that?

🎧 Audio, images, and video: Is there an audio clip you can play for students? A provocative image? A short video that will spark discussion?

🤷🏾 Would you rather: Can students choose between two options -- especially if it's a difficult decision?

📝 Summarize: Can they boil down an idea into one sentence? One word?

📋 Lists: Can students formulate a list (top 3, top 5, top 10) based on certain criteria? Can they justify what made the list -- and what didn't?

💭 Fantasize: What could the world look like? What could class look like? What could the material you're studying look like?

🤔 Life's mysteries: What's a question that doesn't have a clear answer that could be argued either way?

🗣️ Discussion Strategies

🔗 Try these on of the 10 discussion strategies to use in class tomorrow with a question above! There are many to choose from and they include resources for each.

👂🏼 Teach Active Listening

If we want to host rich discussions in our classrooms, listening is a crucial part of it. Only one person can talk at once, so there are LOTS of students listening. When students listen, the subsequent responses in the discussion will be richer. Check out 10 ways to teach active listening in the classroom for an infographic that will help guide your class to be better listeners.

💻 Tech Tip

🤯 Create your own custom chatbot in minutes!

SchoolAI offers custom chatbots that you can use in class through its Spaces tool. These chatbots can be tailored to specific classroom needs and serve many purposes for students. Spaces allow you to launch safe GPT-powered experiences tailored to each student’s needs.

If you’ve ever used an AI assistant like ChatGPT, it’s a lot like that. Just describe how you want your chatbot to interact with students. Then preview it to make sure it’s doing what you want it to do. Then launch it and share it with your students.

SchoolAI puts the teacher in the driver's seat to create and customize a learning experience for their students. They set the parameters to make it FERPA and COPPA compliant. Then, the teacher sets the goals, learning experience, and outcomes within the prompt.

🤖 How to create your own custom chatbot with SchoolAI

1. Sign in to SchoolAI and click on "Create a Space" to start building a new space.

2. Provide a title for your space. Example: "The Life Cycle of a Butterfly"

3. Add an AI prompt. Describe the activity, agenda, or instructions for this chatbot experience.

4. Add standards, cover image, subtitle and description OR have AI generate it for you!

5. Click Launch to share your space with your students.

6. Instruct students to visit this URL and enter the Space code. Or scan the QR code.

💡 Learn more

🔗 Read our post 10 powerful ways to use custom chatbots in the classroom for several ways you can get started with custom student-facing chatbots – including pre-written plug-and-play chatbots you can use right away.

🔗 Watch this quick tutorial that guides you through the basics of Space prompting, enabling you to craft dynamic, engaging lessons tailored to your student's needs. Dive in and discover how easy it is to bring creativity and innovation into your teaching with SchoolAI.

👋 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!