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Can AI truly elevate classrooms without losing what makes them human?

Join me for a free webinar with Toddle on August 21 to explore how a human-centered approach to AI can transform education. We’ll dive into practical strategies for using AI to spark curiosity, unleash creativity, and streamline planning—all while amplifying your teaching voice.

You’ll walk away with fresh, actionable ideas. Plus, Melissa Silver will share how Toddle AI is helping her school personalize learning.

💻 TECH TIP 💻

😁 10 ways Curipod engages your students with AI

One of the biggest questions teachers often have about AI: Can it make slides for me?

With Curipod, the answer is YES … and it’ll make slides your students can interact with.

Multiple choice slides. Drawing slides. Student writing feedback slides.

It’ll make a first draft of your slides. You can edit them as you wish.

Then, you share your interactive slides with your students using a link. Monitor student progress as they participate.

In this post, I’ll share 10 features I love that’ll make your class more interactive.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🤖 New AI activity: Be the Bot

Let me tell you about this activity I’ve been using that I love …

• It’s low-prep (or no-prep).

• It encourages students to think critically.

• It helps them to recall and work with new content they’ve learned.

• And … it teaches them small, important lessons about how AI works.

The good news: You don’t need a computer science degree to make the AI part work.

The activity is called “Be the Bot” … and it works with pretty much any grade level or content area.

Wait … why do I need to do this activity??

For one, it’s a great way to get students thinking about the material that they’re learning in your class.

But it also helps to slowly learn AI literacy.

Here’s why we’re doing this. If we see how artificial intelligence is rolling out into the workforce and the world, we want students to be prepared for it. If they know how it works, how it should (and shouldn’t) apply, and the cautions to take, they’ll be better positioned to thrive.

You can do this in a high school English class, a middle school science class, a fourth grade class, a health class, a music class … and on and on.

How does this “Be the Bot” activity work?

I’ll show you how I facilitate this in my AI workshops with teachers. Then I’ll give you lots of examples of how you can customize it to what you teach.

1. I’ll tell them: “I’m going to ask ChatGPT the top places that a tourist should visit in your city. But before I do that, I want you to brainstorm what you think ChatGPT is going to say.”

2. I’ll write the specific prompt I’m going to use on the screen. Then, in small groups, they’ll discuss the tourist spots they think ChatGPT will suggest. (FYI: Students can use this simple Be the Bot Google Slides / PowerPoint template to write the prompt to be used at the top — and their brainstorming at the bottom.)

3. After discussing, I will ask ChatGPT the prompt I had on the screen. The teachers will watch — usually buzzing with reactions to what the AI is saying.

4. Afterward, I’ll ask them: What did you think of the list? Did it leave anything off? Did it make any mistakes? Did you see it tending toward certain types of answers? How could you change the prompt, and how would the responses be different based on that prompt?

Why does “Be the Bot” work?

Here’s what I love about it …

1. It’s a no-prep, easy activity about the content of the day. At its heart, this activity is still about the curriculum and standards that you need to teach.

2. Students are critically thinking. They’re ranking, justifying, making judgment calls, etc. Plus, they’re looking at the response through the perspective of the AI chatbot: how will it respond based on the data that it has available to it (on the internet, through a variety of sources).

3. Students practice critiquing content created by AI. They know that it was created by AI (because you told them). They analyze it, looking for inaccuracies, inconsistencies, missing items, etc. They’re strengthening their skills at this core AI concept (that I call “ABC”): Always be critiquing.

4. Students get to practice prompt engineering. It’s natural to talk about how the prompt could be improved — or changed — to get different (or better) responses. It helps them learn how to prompt — and it also is a unique lens to look at the content you’re studying.

How can I use Be the Bot in what I teach?

Here are a few example questions to use with students:

• ELEMENTARY: Who is the most courageous character in the book Wonder?

• MATH: What are the most useful types of math in everyday life?

• SCIENCE: Which of these five environmental problems is most urgent to solve?

• HEALTH: What’s the most important habit for a healthy lifestyle?

These are some of the question types that really seem to work with Be the Bot:

• The best / most important / most influential

• Most likely to ...

• Choose one / Make a recommendation

• Rank these items / events / people

• Identify a turning point

• Who/what belongs in a group (categorization)

• The most / least ...

• Predict the outcome

Having trouble coming up with a way to use this activity with what you teach? Just copy/paste the prompt below (customize the parts in bold) into an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Anthropic Claude, etc.

I’m a <subject/grade> teacher and I’d like to do an activity called “Be the Bot” with my students. In this activity, I give students a subjective/judgment question about what they’re learning. The students brainstorm how they think an AI assistant like ChatGPT would respond. Then I run the prompt and the students analyze, critique, compare and contrast. It also helps them learn little lessons about AI literacy. I’m teaching <insert lesson subject and details>. Suggest 5 prompts I could give an AI assistant that could drive this activity in my class.

Give “Be the Bot” a shot

How could you use Be the Bot to teach? If you give it a shot, hit reply and let me know how it went!

👋 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!