AI + Classroom Management

Author

Merissa Sadler-Holder
July 24, 2024

Have you been in a classroom lately? Because even the most veteran of teachers will tell you that Classroom Management can be a challenge these days.

Classroom management has been an ongoing issue for teachers for a long time but something feels different.

✔There is a shift.

✔We have to constantly adapt.

✔Tips and tricks of old no longer seem to work.

This isn't the regular "adapt to new things/new students" kind of shift.

It's a biggie and most of the time it is leaving teachers feeling frustrated and bewildered.

I decided to ask my Linkedin network about the role AI can play in supporting classroom management challenges?

How could a teacher leverage AI as a supporting role in their classroom management?

I shared an “extra credit” assignment to my network and asked for their input. Their responses were varied and interesting to see their approach with AI and classroom management.

The assignment was to read a real-life scenario (names changed) and share their AI conversation outputs. I still have grey hairs from this incident, btw.

❝

Students are playing a game in the classroom. It is a move around, physical game. Everyone is engaged and participating. Students start egging on Billy to do a backflip in the classroom during his turn. (Billy is a whip smart, funny kid but sometimes pushes the boundaries on acceptable behavior for the classroom like talking back or getting others off task). The teacher, Madame M., overhears the commotion and clearly states and looks him in the eye, "Billy, do not do a backflip." Billy looks at the teacher, smiles and does a flip. 🙃

Now, to be clear, I do not mean that AI should be used directly with the student in the moment but rather as a tool to support the teacher in a classroom management situation like this.

My personal experience and frankly my weakness with classroom management was always the follow-up conversations with the student and documentation. I had no issues dealing with “in the moment” situations but it was the follow through of emailing, documenting and providing an intervention plan that I had personal areas of improvement.

This is where I found AI to be useful.

I shared my ChatGPT output where it came up with a follow up student-teacher discussion questions list, generated a parent email, created a personalized intervention plan with goals and strategies and a documentation summary.

I even used the ChatGPT voice command on the app to document the incident and had it write a preliminary parent email. Something I think teachers will find helpful for when they have the bandwidth to tackle the next steps.

It was fascinating to see how other educators would use AI in the same scenario.

Check out how Rachel Kent would use it. Rachel used it to negotiate the correct behavioral response with teenagers. She did note that the AI doesn’t seem to quit “get” teenagers. But this is something you can train the AI. Redirect the AI and tell it where it is out of touch and provide a better example.

Bonnie Nieves asked it to use its knowledge of pre-referral interventions and MTSS to devise a plan for the student in the scenario. Something I found very helpful especially if your district is embracing MTSS in their learning community.

I will continue to explore AI + Classroom Management in the following weeks. I have been asked to present at a conference on the topic and will be sure to share the details with you as they come out.

This is also a topic that the Orange County Department of Education is exploring. I look forward to working with them on it.

Want to share your ChatGPT output for the scenario? I would love to see how you would use AI! Hit reply to this email and share the link. Happy to highlight your responses in future newsletter editions on the topic!

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I love reading your feedback, it helps me design effective solutions for others. I respond to all my emails. Just hit reply to this email. Rooting for you and your students! Love, M.

Beep. Boop.