I am so late to the trend, but in all honesty, I’ve enjoyed spending time seeing how the use of AI has been playing out to discover what its best uses could be. I’ve always been a cautious techie, loving the discovery of new innovation, but always waiting for a bit to see how the reviews come in before I consider jumping in on a new piece of tech. AI has definitely been one newer tool that I can see so many negatives for, but also..soooo many positives.

Let’s talk about the downsides first. First, who saw the research study by MIT about how overuse of ChatGPT can greatly affect the brain? From the article, it says, overuse of AI can lead to severe cognitive debt, lack of originality, and severe problem solving and critical thinking deficits. That’s a lot of negatives isn’t it? With AI it makes it easier for people to ask AI to do anything for them. It’s like a bully asking the class nerd to do all of their homework, or having that overly smart friend that answers all the questions for you before you even have time to think. It tempting to not put much brain effort into a project and using AI to create whatever, whenever and pass that off as original work. The catch is, AI is still a computer that needs to learn. It doesn’t have the option for emotion, it doesn’t have the capability to know everything about a subject or to create something from just a few short lines of suggestion. There is a large margin for error still and requires the human touch to check for facts, add a touch of emotion, and to check for errors. AI could get you started, but it can’t do it all for you.

We also need to remember the privacy aspect as well. With such strong student privacy requirements in school districts, AI tends to keep a lot of information it’s given in order to learn and give better answers. Just asking what it knows about me is a weird feeling. You have to be careful about what information you feed the machine or it could quickly violate your privacy rights and one that happens, it’s hard to fix that.

But, then there are positives. Imagine having a creative collaborator always at your fingertips. Ready to bounce ideas off of, answer your questions, or you can even have it be like me and have it check your grammar and spelling. It could help become a hugely detailed search engine customized to your needs, check your detailed data analysis documents, even help you finesse your marketing copy, and so much more.

Just in the last month I’ve used AI for:

• Helping me create an outline for an article.
• Analyzing Google Form Survey data.
• Helping me answer random questions that Google could never.
• Finessing some copy I was writing AND checking grammar and spelling.
• Even helping me come up with ideas for an upcoming workshop.

That’s just what I’ve done, through conversations I’ve had with teachers across the country, there are some wicked cool things they are using AI for to create core memory learning experiences for their students. A lot of suggestions tend to be in the “lesson planning” stage of learning instead of during actual instruction, but when it comes to safely and effectively integrating new tools into education, that tends to be the trend anyway with teachers trying it first before students get involved.

It took decades for education to adopt technology and create policies for best use. New breakthroughs take time to be adopted into instruction.

So how is it being used now in schools? What kinds of ideas can you take and start trying yourself?

• Did you know it’s really easy to have AI help you create lesson plans or activities quick and easy? ChatGPT and MagicSchool.AI are really easy to use that can help you achieve this. You can ask the tools specifically what you’d like the students to achieve, what you’d like the lesson to be about, and what resources you have available, and they can produce ideas for you. (WARNING: If you try this, check what the tools actually give you, they will still need editing and a lot of finessing before they are fully lessons. Don’t just print off what the tools give you and call it a day.)
• Have an AI generator to use as a search engine for your students. (For those that have districts strict on student privacy, talk to your IT department about getting a site license for your own ChatGPT hub, there are more ways to lock the private “bubbles” down.) AI engines are on the safer side when it comes to more confined and reduces rogue results for students to search, so instead of an open resource like Google where anything can pop up in this weird internet universe.
• Creating resources for lessons can be so cool. I recently got to sit down with a teacher who created amazing visuals for their students that helped take them on an adventure without ever leaving their classroom. You can create videos, pictures, and songs from scratch with just a few prompts. Want to show your students what a grand ball may have looked like during the Victorian era? Got you covered. How about help you making a ton of visuals to allow students to talk to Mozart and experience a model of how their life might look based on facts found online. Using generators like Suno also allow students to experience a song writing collaborator, it gives them a venue to experiment with lyrics and genre as they work through the process.Song generators like Suno can be an interactive experience to explore some of the ins and outs of songwriting.

The AI innovation is not something that should be debated whether or not it should be accepted into the education universe, it should be debated how. As with many new tools that have come and gone, we know they can’t be completely erased from education, but how they are incorporated makes the difference.

How do you incorporate AI into your instruction?

If I hadn’t gone into teaching music, I definitely would have become some sort of STEM or science teacher. I looked at Ms. Frizzle as an icon who took experiential and discovery learning to a whole new galaxy. Students crave independence and are more engaged when they have the freedom to get their hands a little messy.

If I hadn’t been a music teacher, I would have been the classroom teacher that constantly had her kids out exploring the community, we would have gone everywhere I could have taken them. Giving students all the opportunities to discover new things, find things they get excited about, and be encouraged to dive in further lights that fire in them that could lead to years of innovation.

Discovery learning is about choice, it’s about flexibility, it’s about motivation, it’s about opportunity, and it’s about collaboration. Learning can be more than instruction, it can be time to work together or work separately to explore what interests them.

So,

1. Give them opportunities to steer their own ship. Doesn’t have to be all the time. Just give them the opportunity to choose when it’s right.

2. Ask for the minimum, motivate them to give the maximum. Motivate them to give 100% even though you might only ask for 70%. Everyone will get there a different way too, and that’s ok.

3. Give them grace and yourself flexibility. It won’t always go the way you want or hopped it would, but that’s ok. They are going to make mistakes and get messy, but sometimes, the best lessons come from the mistakes we make.

Be ready to guide, counsel, and push, all your students won’t take the same road to get down to the same place. But, you can help them navigate those roads whether they be straight or windy to get to the end.

I actually have time to write! Hooray! Life has been weird at the moment, feeling like I’m in a space of change but it’s not time to make those decisions yet. Trying to get back to enjoying life before making those big life-altering choices that will take me back to where I really want to be. For now though, we breathe and go back to what brings us joy.

Now I’ve delt with my topic today for quite some time, but now that I am more in the trenches with it. I find it annoying me more and more. Which is the case of “Too much PD-itis.” It’s the Boy who Called Wolf situation here. Educators have it drilled into their heads that professional devellopment is important. There is nothing better than PD…but when it comes to experiencing it. How many educators walk away actually having a positive experience? Did they learn anything? Or are they in there because their admin said they had to be? It’s become a joke, but such a bad one when we hear the phrases “that PD could have been an email”, or “that PD had NOTHING to do with what I do.” They’re right though! After being a music teacher I lost count of how many professional development days I spent in meetings learning information I would forget by the time I walked out of the room because it had absolutely nothing to do with my subject or anything remotely close to it. The only reason I was there? there was nothing else offered for me to go to. Now mind you, I tried really hard to make as many cross curricular connections as I could to try to make it worthwhile, but 3/4 of the time it never worked out.

I know I am not the only one with that problem. We then also run into the issue of educators not getting the PD they actually need to learn and grow in their profession so they get left behind. Then we get into the topics of educators burning out because they are not getting the proper help and motivation and when a new teacher steps in they need more and, well it’s a whole downward circle of life. None of this helps when so many administrators are calling up PD providers to do something with no rhyme or reason to it.

How do we combat this? Well, we listen, we differentiate, we simplify, we engage. We first listen, what do they need or want? We then provide unique opportunities for teacher to interact with experts who can help motivate and inform. People who can consult on curriculum, give advice on teaching it, motivate and inspire, and oh so much more. We lessen the amount of PD educators are mandated to attend so they can put their focus on really implementing what they are learning. Then, we get their hands dirty. Let’s get them actually getting hands on with the different types of concepts and topics they are focusing on.

So let’s start that, let’s listen. Provide surveys or polls out to educators in the school to learn more about what they feel they need, observe classes to see where deficiencies are, sit in a staff meeting and just ask, or even provide a place outside your office for them to write anonymus suggestions.

I’ve got many more thoughts on this to come..

If you could create any PD for yourself, what would it include?

I have so many thoughts on the topic of educator learning. It’s been such a highly debated topic for so long and although there is no right or wrong answer because everyone learns differently (everyone hear that, “EVERYONE LEARNS DIFFERENTLY”.) We can make strides to make it better. Especially with the teacher shortage the US is experiencing. Let’s add better professional learning opportunities to the long list of improvements for educators, behind better wages and working conditions of course!

The most powerful thing you can do when it comes to learning something new is to experience it. When you look at a conference, the most popular sessions are the workshops that allow educators to get into the thick of it when it comes to learning. Whether it be completing guided tasks in new resources, discussing new topics with colleagues, doing the activities students are going to do, to even..yes I’ll say it..a field trip to a community partner.

Now the term experiential professional learning is not a new one. When we take out the term professional “experiential learning” is when students get hands-on with the topics they are learning about. Add professional in there and now the audience changes from students to teacher. These types of PD opportunities tend to be the most popular at conferences and district PD days, who wouldn’t want to learn about the power of play playing with Legos?

As I write this, I’m coming off directing a large virtual conference for thousands of educators from across the globe. Create an interactive experience for these attendees that is solely virtual is extremely difficult but also rewarding when you get it right. Have I got this down to a science? Not in the slightest, am I working to make virtual experiences better and more interactive for attendees? You bet!

So what are some tips I’ve learned in trying things out to make learning experiences for educators more interactive and allow them to experience what they are learning?

• Give them tangible items or ideas to walk away with. Have them build their toolkit to bring back to their learning spaces and try out. Whether it is a new teaching tool or toy or a written lesson plan or instructions to an activity. Don’t make sessions “heady” or overly academic. Make them easy to understand and give the information in an easily digestible language so they can translate it into their instruction.
• Make it motivating! Give them a reason to be excited to go back and try these things out. Get them involved, guide them as they create and collaborate. We live in an age where being an educator is not something a lot of people aspire to be anymore because of the current state of education. Let’s bring back that spark.
• Be Interactive! Bring out the toys, bring in the experts (virtually or in person), get them involved in the activities that match their comfort level. Don’t be that “sage on the stage”, guide the collaboration and discovery.
• Let them know they have support, you never should be a one and done situation no matter how you put your learning together. Give them multiple ways to reach out to you or create a space that is a community where support from you and others can continue well after the learning.

Learning should be fun not only for students but also for educators. Let’s ditch the boring talks and bring back the collaboration and fun, let’s space it out throughout the year so every person feels they can learn at their pace, let’s build support systems to continue the things that are taught. Let’s bring community together to build a better learning space for our students.

This is solely an opinion piece. After several weeks of focusing on learning opportunities for teachers in the audience I work with, and attending one of the largest innovative teaching and learning conferences in the US. I am still reeling from just thoughts and experiences and as always, love to think it out by just writing it down. So here we go.

The digital design divide. A term that is new to me, which I recently got to hear more about made an impact in my brain as it is something that we are seeing growing more and more wide as we are walking out of an era of constant new tech and into an era of redefining best instructional practices in order to use it all. As this divide is going to be a part of the OET’s new plan coming in 2024, hearing how this divide was already being combated in several large districts across the country was interesting to hear. The overall mission is to work on better learning opportunities for teachers that are more tailored to them and their needs. As so many of us know, professional development (PD) has been a one size fits all for too long. As we move into the era of professional learning (PL) more customized and varied learning opportunities are the new and better goal. Through more varied and engaging opportunities, support that is more than one-and-done, and easy-to-access resources we can make a bigger and more motivating impact on the amazing educators who are holding our educational system together.

This last week I had the amazing pleasure of attending the ISTE conference in Philadelphia. With thousands of educators attending, even my last flight into Philly was a buzz with excitement. Which leads me to ask the question, how does this conference create such excitement? How does any learning event create such an electrified atmosphere where everyone is so excited to be there and even though it is summer for most, what makes them take time out of their summer break to learn? This is more of a rhetorical question than anything else because it is hard to pinpoint one answer. For me though, it was the ability to personalize my experience. There were hundreds of sessions to choose from, playgrounds to experiment, lounges to relax and collaborate, an exhibit hall four football fields long filled with new innovations, and lots of short product-based training sessions. The sheer amount of options was definitely overwhelming, BUT it was the options that made it worthwhile. It takes some time to orientate yourself into knowing you don’t have to see everything, you don’t have to do everything, you just have to create the path that follows what is best for you.

That to me is really the key when it comes to learning. It’s your admin or professional learning coordinator’s job to create opportunities for you, but then it’s up to you to choose the best path of opportunities and what is going to motivate and excite you and make you better at what you love. You know what’s best for you.

The more flexible opportunities we can create, the more to choose from that allows the learner to find things that are going to get them excited to be there and find out more.

We all wish we had one, not only for work but also for play. One thing teachers struggle with a lot is knowing where funding for classroom resources is and how to best maximize those funding pots. I hear all the time, “Man, this is cool, but I just don’t have the money.” Your budget for your personal classroom might not have those funds, not might your school budget, but the money doesn’t stop there. You can find so many other ways to acquire additional funds to do what you want to do with the resources you have. When looking for any additional funding outside of your regular budget, just make sure to follow this advice;

Have a purpose and defined outcomes

What I mean is, most outside regular budget resources will want to know what you want to do with the funds and how you will measure success with them. Make sure you have those parameters defined before going to search for funding. Finding a cool project or new initiatives like a permanent center or new piece of technology to create a new learning experience for your students would make it more fun for you as the teacher, but also stand out in a pile of applicants.

So once you’ve got your plan, where do you go? There are a lot of options out there, but here is a place to start based on research from 2023;

1. AdoptAClassroom.org is a great site to get quick funding from donors to immediately spend in their marketplace with approved vendors. This site does not ask for project proposals but is limited on where you can spend funds. So pay close attention to their approved vendors before jumping in.
2. DonorsChoose.org does ask for a specific purpose for the funds you are requesting and donors can find you on the site by your specific projects to donate. This site is more geared towards smaller funding asks but you have a bigger list of vendors to request your materials from.
3. Arts.Gov/Grants National Endowment for the Arts grants has several opportunities for arts educators to gain funds to get resources and unique opportunities for their students. The deadline for 2023 is July 6th.
4. NeaFoundation.Org offers student success grants at different periods throughout the year that require a project in order to be considered for selection. The next period for application starts March 1st.
5. Look for grants on your state’s DOE website. Sometimes this is one of the easiest ways to get some funding because they only choose projects from your state. They are a little more in-depth because it is a local thing, but the outcomes and create some amazing results.

Where else do you look for grants and additional funding?

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This one gets a little personal, as I travel and get to hang out with more and more teachers at events during this convention season. I realize what they’re going through now is what I went through many years ago. With such hard working conditions, it’s hard to keep your head afloat in a new place, with a new job, juggling 50 things at the same time. Burnout is tough. As I talk to others who are currently in the field and from what I remember from when I had my first classroom. There are things I wish I had known that could have made my first year of teaching so much smoother.

1. As soon as you can get into your room in the summer, get in there and start setting up. I didn’t do this my first year and very much regretted it. Get as much time as you can in your new space to look over what the previous teacher left for you and figure out how you want to use it. Take inventory and figure out what you need to make it a great year.
2. Ask questions about resources and budget when you get offered a position. Figure out what technology you have, if you have a curriculum, and what it takes to get the resources you know will make you successful. It doesn’t hurt to ask about getting a little bit of a bigger budget for the first year to make sure your room is stocked with what you need.
3. All your resources don’t necessarily need to come from your specific budget. Especially when it comes to instructional materials. Curriculum should be coming out of a separate budget whether it be a school fund or a district fund. If those funds have run dry, ask colleagues and administrators about possible grants and what that process looks like in your district to write and hopefully receive one.
4. Spend the first couple of weeks teaching your students what expectations and procedures look like in the room, and get to know your students in the process. During the first few weeks of school students are settling in, it can be overwhelming for them so don’t try to jump right into your lessons too hard. If you set them up for success in the first few weeks, the rest of the year is just making sure you follow through with enforcing those expectations and having fun teaching your students.
5. Don’t expect every lesson to go the way you planned, there were many times I threw a lesson completely out the window because I knew it just wasn’t happening and we would turn to a few review games or something alike. Things happen, and staying on a strict schedule is never going to happen.
6. Grade-level shows do not need to be over the top. Pull some amazing songs together, get those students on stage, and get them moving and singing. Elaborate costumes, props, sets, and scripts can come later. Keep it simple for your first time! My students did have fun with the shows my first year or two, but when we just focused on performing music together, it made such a bigger impact on the audience.
7. A good admin will be flexible coming to do formal observations. It is ok, to be honest with them and ask for a different time, especially when your 5th graders just did an amazing show the night before and you hadn’t planned anything too strict for the next day. Pop-in observations were a whole different animal (which I ended up loving, I would ask them to come in during my toughest classes and learned a lot about class management during those times.)
8. Don’t spend all your weekend lesson planning and creating resources. It will create a cycle that will go on for years and lead to burnout quicker. Be ok with not getting everything done, and look for resources from colleagues. We are in a time where you don’t need to recreate the wheel.
9. When one student asks to use the bathroom, they will all ask to bathroom. This herd mentality happens with sharing stories, asking questions, going somewhere outside of class, etc. Set limits and learn when it is actually an emergency, and when it is not. Sometimes with sharing and questions, I would set a limit of just a few hands before we moved to the next thing but would let students who didn’t get a chance know when the next opportunity would be.
10. Ask for help, it’s your first year and there is no expectation that you are gonna be perfect. I wished I had asked more of my colleagues in the school for help. There was so much experience and knowledge in those buildings I wish I could have unlocked more, I could have learned so much more.

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Every year I play a game predicting new educational and Edtech trends for the new year. I take a look at what happened the year before and check what I got right and what I missed (if I get a certain amount right that year, I usually set a prize (I’m a sucker for a pack of M&Ms!)) I sometimes spend hours researching these trends through trusted source articles and social media posting trends. For me, it is a fun game and helps me better understand where education is and is going this year.

So here are just four of the predictions for the new year!

1. Professional Development – A few years ago, technology was thrown at teachers right and left. Now they are playing catchup, helping educators better understand what they have at their fingertips. We also learned so much about how we can connect with one another during this time and found virtual and digital self-led PD to be, in some cases, a great alternative as opposed to in-person. Companies are starting to turn towards full-scope professional learning products to provide educators with the learning they need and want. To add to the current teacher crisis, we need more learning resources for teachers than ever before.
2. Global and Civic Engagement – A lot is happening right now. A trend here to stay is cultural awareness. Bring the events and people of the world into your classroom so students can be more aware of the planet they live on and what’s happening on it. Making students more mindful can help bring out their passion for making this world better.
3. Flexible Learning – After the events of the pandemic, students and adults found they work and learn better in different situations. The push for flexibility everywhere has become quite large. From flexible seating to learning choices and even modes of learning. Gone are the days of the rigid one-classroom school. Now we learn from anywhere.
4. Data-Driven Assessment – Individualized student progress is essential in today’s personalized learning and technology era. It has made it much easier to track each student’s progress and create instant reports.

Bibliography

• https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2022/12/4-k-12-tech-trends-follow-2023
• https://nafme.org/what-specific-teaching-technique-or-strategy-do-you-swear-by-because-it-works-every-time-with-your-students/
• https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-01-11-edtech-has-grown-more-common-more-global-and-more-sophisticated-what-s-next
• https://news.asu.edu/20230119-solutions-top-edtech-trends-2023-and-asu-example
• https://www.thinkific.com/blog/educational-technology-trends/