The Ultimate Skeptic

I’d like to start this post with a quote from class last week:

“The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.” – Miguel de Unamuno

This definition of skeptic really resonates with me, and I think it’s an important one to keep in mind especially as an educator.

In my current role as a Learning Facilitator, I’ve been finding myself in situations with many different types of teachers — there are those who are eager to learn and try new things, those who will ask for assistance from time to time, and then there are those who don’t outwardly appear to want to change at all. (please note that this doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in improving their teaching practice.. it’s just an assumption on my part!)

It’s not easy to embrace change. It’s not easy to admit to yourself that there is always room for improvement, and it definitely isn’t easy to be vulnerable when it comes to learning something new.

I asked Pi.ai WHY it’s so important for educators to continuously learn and adapt their teaching, and these are the main points that I got back:

• To keep up with new knowledge and research
• To adapt to new technologies
• To meet changing student needs
• To develop professionally
• To model lifelong learning for students

In my own opinion, it’s our responsibility to constantly reflect on our current teaching practices and question what we can do to improve to meet the ever-changing needs of our students.

… and that includes using Generative AI. When ChatGPT first came on the scene, it was a very polarizing topic (especially in education). As stated by Kristal Kuykendall, “Depending on who’s speaking, ChatGPT will either further erode learning outcomes particularly in English language arts, or it will boost ELA instruction and overall learning outcomes by embedding critical-thinking and modern-workforce skills into everyday writing assignments…”  I think most of us are okay to admit that we were doubtful, which is perfectly normal when it comes to new things. It takes some time to wrap your brain around something so radical that seemingly comes out of nowhere.

In this same article is another quote that resonates with me, this time from Deborah Rayow:

“I think academia and ed tech are both going through something similar to the five stages of grief when it comes to this issue. We’ve passed denial and now we’re mostly on anger. I’m not sure all the stages actually apply, but I do think it’s going to be a process before we’ve accepted that this technology is here to stay and will only grow in capabilities.”

So, we are past the point of no return… AI is here to stay. In an ever-evolving digital world, we need to shift our teaching practices to meet students where they are, and that includes using the tools that are available to them online.

How are You Using Generative AI in Your Practice?

I’ve played around with GenAI to find what works best with my own teaching practice… here are a few things that have stuck:

1. ChatBots – In our literature circles, we gathered questions for characters while we read, and then used the Character ChatBot from MagicSchoolto get some answers.
2. More ChatBots – Also helpful to speak to historical figures to ask them about inventions or personal experience! (Again, from MagicSchool)
3. Rap Battles – Students created rap battles on MagicSchool and practiced them during our “Fluency Friday” periods, culminating in some great performances!
4. Report Card Comments – Great baseline for writing awesome comments… I actually got some really positive feedback from parents with this… shockingly done with MagicSchool.
5. Proofreading – this saved me SO MUCH TIME! I would have my students print their typed essays… then take the digital version and run it through the text proofreader on MagicSchool. They would then make the corrections suggested on their hard copies before re-printing their good copy. If time allowed, we would also do peer editing after this. I found that I was able to spend more time giving constructive feedback instead of circling spelling and grammatical errors.

(There are a few others that I have played around with, but honestly I’ve made the most of my subscription to MagicSchool.)

How Can I Support Teachers in Their Journeys?

Unless you have a real interst in Generative AI and are willing to put the time into it, it may seem safer to pretend it doesn’t exist. But it does, and it’s time we start to adapt to use it.

As a Learning Facilitator, my job is to find ways to support teachers and hopefully lighten the load of large class sizes with a lot of diversity. I would really appreciate it if you would share some things that you do with GenAI in your classroom/school so that we can all continue to best support our students!!