Teach with expert insights on AI, curated by your trusty Teacher’s AIde

Hello! Welcome back to Teacher's AIed, where we deliver teaching tips faster than a kindergartner can turn a tidy classroom into a glittery “art gallery.”

📣 New Tool Alert!

Last week, Google unveiled over 30 new features for educators! We will spend the next few weeks diving into these new features, reporting on them, and reviewing how well they work for us. It’s been an exciting few weeks in the world of K12 AI! (As we discussed last week, Microsoft recently unveiled their Reading Coach platform for free!).

We highlighted a few of the new tools that might save you time so that you can spend more time focusing on your students.

Duet AI: Elevating Creativity

Imagine harnessing the power of generative AI across Google Workspace apps: on a Sunday afternoon, in less than an hour, you can analyze data in Sheets while using the data to begin to build small group lesson plans in Docs. All while you simultaneously create a slide deck in Slides that generates images and stories you can use during your small group lessons.

With the newly launched Duet AI, all of your Google Workspace apps are combined with generative AI, so you can simultaneously create content across apps.

Classroom Analytics: Illuminating the Path to Educational Excellence

Enter the era of actionable insights with Classroom Analytics. Educators now have a powerful tool at their fingertips, providing visibility into assignment completion and grade trends. You can drill down to the student level to offer targeted support, ensuring no learner is left behind.

eSignature: A Seamless Symphony of Efficiency for Educators

Streamline paperwork woes with eSignature, seamlessly integrated into Google Workspace. Educators can now effortlessly request signatures in Docs and PDFs in Drive (think permission forms!) and manage templates—all within a unified platform. Say goodbye to paperwork hassles and hello to a more organized and efficient workflow.

As Google for Education continues to pave the way for the future of learning, these groundbreaking features are set to redefine how educators engage with technology.

Let us know which new Google features for educators are most exciting to you!

😄 Clear is Kind: Managing Appropriate AI Use

One of my non-education role models is Brené Brown. Brown is a researcher, professor, author, and public speaker known for her work on human connection. In her book Dare to Lead, she discusses a concept, “clear is kind,” which demonstrates the importance of clear and transparent communication as an act of kindness. Today, we want to take her saying and apply it to our work with students.

Seasoned educators are very clear when giving directions related to time, task, materials, and sound. Essentially, these directions efficiently lay out how long a given task should take, what materials you need to complete said task, and how loud you can be when accomplishing it.

I admit that I got so good at giving clear directions I’d sometimes tell my partner, “In 15 minutes, I need you to take clothes on the bed and quietly place them neatly in the top dresser drawer.” The clothes are always put away neatly, quickly, and quietly.

As educators, we spend all day giving students clear directions about academic and social tasks, and we often take for granted how powerful clear directions are for students.

Clarity is crucial in addressing AI-plagiarism, especially given the increase of AI-powered tools that we and our students alike can use.

However, plagiarism isn’t a byproduct of student access to AI-powered tools; it has been around for a while, and teachers have been combatting it since students could copy from an encyclopedia. To help students learn alongside the new tools, we, as educators, have a duty to support our students in using them well. Our duty is to clearly articulate for students the purpose of the tools, but also lay the groundwork for their appropriate use.

In our piece, AI Misuse: Mentionable, Therefore Manageable, we discuss how managing classroom use of AI and addressing the threats posed by AI misuse, educators play a crucial role in fostering a strong classroom culture and setting clear expectations through honest conversations. Clear expectations are kind expectations that create classroom spaces where the complexities of AI are made manageable. By integrating discussions about AI tools into classroom culture, educators can reinforce the importance of the learning process and help students understand the appropriate use of AI-powered tools.

Clear communication becomes a powerful tool in guiding students on AI’s ethical and responsible utilization, ensuring a more transparent and supportive learning environment.

⚖️ Equipping You to Support All Students

Did you know that only 17% of teachers feel well-equipped to teach students with learning differences? Further, only 8% of special educators feel confident in their general educator colleagues’ ability to teach students with learning differences.

When we wrote our last Premium piece, we were surprised at the depth of the disparity between what general educators feel confident doing and what they are required to do to support their students with learning differences. With our last piece, we saw a beautiful opportunity for AI tools to assist us with the hard work it takes to support students with learning differences while acknowledging the skill and time gaps general educators have.

We are excited about AI’s affordances to support general educators in their work to support their students with diverse learning needs. By using AI, we believe teachers will become more effective in supporting students with learning differences while saving time!

On Monday, we’ll explore recommendations for supporting students with learning differences and provide guidance on the latest tools that exist today to support teachers in supporting their students with learning differences.

If you’re not already subscribed to Premium, make sure to subscribe to get access to our Monday piece!

Class dismissed!

Lewis Poche & Kourtney Bradshaw-Clay