Combat the Teacher Burnout

After watching the Alec Couros presentation on generative AI I decided to explore Chat GPT a bit and see what it could do in terms of lesson planning. I have actually never explored Chat GPT but have spent quite a bit of time using Magic School and Pop AI over the last year. I fell in love with the lesson plan generation that Magic School offers so I was curious to see if Chat GPT would also blow me away with quality lesson plans. I decided to screen record my first experience with Chat GPT.

After my brief use of Chat GPT tonight I now realize the importance of developing good prompts (as Alec mentioned in his presentation). I put in a fairly simple prompt to develop a lesson plan for a particular grade based upon a specific topic; however, it did not automatically connect the lesson plan with outcomes and indicators (even though I did indicate in my question it was for a Saskatchewan classroom. I decided to visit the Online Curriculum for grade six and download the pdf. I uploaded this PDF into Chat GPT and it was off and running pulling specific outcomes and indicators to accompany the lesson plan.

I thought it would be neat to compare the lesson plan created by Chat GPT to a lesson plan generated by Magic School. The first image below is the lesson plan generated by Chat GPT and the second image is the one Magic School generated. While both lessons have similarities, I do appreciate the expected time for each section of the lesson that Chat GPT includes as well as the option for multiple different activities.

There are so many time saving benefits for teachers who choose to use generative AI to reduce the countless hours generating rubrics and quizzes and lesson plans. Perhaps if teachers are educated on AI and encouraged to use it in their classrooms, we would have fewer teacher leaving the profession because of burnout. If we could reduce the intensive workload of a teacher even by 25%, think about how impactful that could be for a teacher. While AI can not replace a teacher but it can sure be a powerful tool in their toolbox. Think about the possibilities in an early learning classroom where you have students learning to read at a variety of levels. With a few simple prompts, a teacher now has the ability to take a passage and differentiate it for the different learners within her classroom.

Educators using generative AI in the classroom is not without its ethical challenges. As shown in the presentation Alec gave, AI has a number of biases that show up when generating images. Teachers who use AI to assess students work could face similar issues with bias meaning certain students could be disadvantaged. If we become completely reliant on AI to generate content for our classrooms, we risk losing the unique creativity that teachers bring to the classroom content.

In my pre-internship I had the opportunity to teach a health lesson on positive body image to the class of grade six students. I spent some time generating a number of AI images of middle school students using Pixlr.com and asked the students to tell me what they noticed in the photos.

I found it really interesting that none of them thought they were fake images. They all commented on how beautiful and athletic the children looked but not a single one of the students questioned the authenticity of these images. This point led nicely into my lesson connections about real healthy body image and some of the images we see online not necessarily being authentic. This class was pretty blown away by the basic images I had whipped up in a matter of minutes. This just further highlights the necessity to be teaching digital literacy in our classrooms, generative AI had incredible powers and we need to be educating our students on what it is capable of so they can begin to think critically about everything they see or hear online.