AI for Teachers

I can see using AI as a tool to help blend my reading and writing curriculum into meaningful review activities that are built around differentiation. In my classroom, many of our literacy skills naturally connect. For example, identifying the main idea and supporting details in reading directly supports students when they are organizing their writing. AI can help me intentionally design activities that strengthen both areas at the same time. For instance, I could use AI to generate a nonfiction passage with a clearly stated main idea and strong supporting details. After students identify those elements in the reading, they could transition into writing by creating their own paragraph modeled after the structure of the text. AI could also create leveled versions of the same passage so that all students are working on the same skill, but at an appropriate level of complexity. This supports differentiation without requiring me to create multiple texts from scratch.

The possibilities are endless with what teachers can use AI for. The first thing that comes to my mind is using it to help create worksheets, quizzes, or even seating charts. Teachers can also use AI to help teach students about AI. It will be a part of everyones life from now on so it's important that teachers incorporate it but also teach students about the ethical side of it as well. 

You can really level up your teaching by using AI as a kind of digital assistant to make things more personal for your students. It's great for brainstorming real-world examples that actually match what they're into, which helps with engagement. You could also use it to tackle some of the planning like turning your lecture notes into quick quizzes, videos, or slide shows, building rubrics from scratch, or adjusting an article so the reading level is just right for everyone. Because of these reasons it helps so you can spend more time actually working with your students. 

I could ask for some ideas for cooperative learning in my middle school classes. In my high school classes it's a lot easier to create cooperative learning activities because they have more developed maturity and focus. With middle school, I have always had more success with teacher-directed learning, unless I have been able to create a highly structured cooperative activity. This takes a lot of creativity, so I have been limited by my own ideas. Hopefully AI can come up with some usable lessons because I know the research says there's a lot of benefits of cooperative work, especially for younger students.

This year, I’m planning to start using AI to help personalize my lessons a bit more. I’ve seen how it can be used to quickly generate differentiated materials, like leveled reading passages, math problems, or writing prompts, which I think could help me meet my students where they are. I’m also hoping to use it to create low-stakes assessments, like exit tickets or quick checks, so I can get a better read on student understanding in the moment and adjust my teaching as needed. I’m still figuring it all out, but I’m excited to see how it might streamline planning and support more targeted instruction.

This year, I’m planning to start using AI to help personalize my lessons a bit more. I’ve seen how it can be used to quickly generate differentiated materials, like leveled reading passages, math problems, or writing prompts, which I think could help me meet my students where they are. I’m also hoping to use it to create low-stakes assessments, like exit tickets or quick checks, so I can get a better read on student understanding in the moment and adjust my teaching as needed. I’m still figuring it all out, but I’m excited to see how it might streamline planning and support more targeted instruction.

I can use AI to enhance my teaching by generating personalized examples and analogies for relevant science concepts, using prompts such as “Explain [concept] to a 7th-grade student with a real-world analogy.” This can help make abstract ideas more relatable and easier to understand. I can also use AI to create low-stakes assessments like quick quizzes or exit tickets with prompts like “Make a 5-question multiple-choice quiz on the principles of natural selection for middle school students,” which can help me check for understanding and guide instruction. These tools could save time and let me focus more on engaging with students and adjusting lessons to meet their needs.

AI can be used to create more student-centered readings and activities for my students.  As an ELA teacher, the texts I used for activities can be bland.  Due to the wide variety of cultural backgrounds that are in my classroom, I can use AI to create more diverse texts that align with the cultural backgrounds of my students.  This will not only provide entertainment for my students, but give them an opportunity to self identify with a character similar to them. 

I can use AI to help enhance my teaching practices by using it to help me create different things for my students. Two examples given in the video were low stakes tests and syllabuses. AI can be used to help create both of these. 

I can use AI to help scaffold supports for students into lessons and to differentiate/extend lessons for other students. I can use it to change the text-readability of different reading passages, while still giving students the same information to learn about. I can also use AI to help summarize notes for meetings, to create strength/needs statements for students when creating IEPs, and also to give ideas for other ways to help students who may be struggling.

AI can enhance my teaching practices because it can help me differentiate the assignments I give students. I can ask AI to change the reading level of different assignments. I can also ask AI for help on explaining to a student a topic in a way they can understand. Also, AI is able to give me multiple examples of things for me to use to help students. AI can also provide me with more creative ideas for lessons and ideas I may not have thought of in the past.