As an administrator, I spend a lot of time providing feedback on short and long-term planning; I was very interested in learning more about Magic School and how it might help teachers in lesson/unit planning. I first tried out the unit planning feature and was pretty disappointed. I first tried a 15-day unit plan focusing on Science 7, Outcome IE7.3: Evaluate biogeochemical cycles (water, carbon, and nitrogen) as representations of energy flow and the cycling of matter through ecosystems. The planning was very short and insignificant and did not account for individual needs in the classroom or the adaptive dimension. There was also no mention of the specific outcome or indicators within the lesson.

Look at the first three days of the unit plan; what do you think?

I decided to shorten the timeframe of the unit to 5 days to see if that made a difference in the level of planning.

There is a difference in the level of planning this time. Outcomes and indicators are identified this time, and key points of the lesson have been included. However, a significant amount of information is still missing from what I would expect of a unit plan.

This tool would perhaps help create general ideas or a direction in which you might begin planning, but I would never use this tool alone to create a unit plan. What worries me about this tool and its use by new teachers is that they may not realize how much planning is missing. Educators are professionals and should know far better the planning level required in our increasingly complex classrooms. If a new teacher turned this planning in to me, it would warrant discussing their understanding of planning and assessment.

I then tried the lesson plan feature using the same outcome and found it much better.

You can see a section for guided practice and suggested differentiation, which is a significant improvement. I do wish there were individually attached lesson plans when you create a unit plan, as these lesson plans, while still lacking in some areas, are a much more robust plan to build off.

I haven’t personally used AI in the classroom yet. I think I can see its value in editing; truthfully, I loved using it to draft emails to parents, give feedback to teachers, etc. I am nervous about introducing it to my students as I don’t think I’m currently prepared to adjust my assignments. As shown in class, there are ways to form prompts that would generate original content and allow for AI editing; however, it would just take time to go through your syllabus and adjust assignments as needed–and it seems that time is something all teachers are lacking right now.

Like it or not, AI is definitely here to stay. Each teacher must work towards learning and identifying their comfort level with its use personally, professionally, and in the classroom.