The *free* AI Framework Teachers Actually Want 🥳

Author

Merissa Sadler-Holder
August 28, 2024

I'm going to spill the tea and tell you a secret. 🤫 🍵 
Teachers like boring, non-flashy AI. Their fav activity? Creating lesson plans!

I have been working with the amazing teachers that Orange County Department of Education serves along with my Teaching with Machines clients on tons of back to school professional development.

Yesterday I made a LinkedIn post about my observations thus far in presenting AI to teachers and encouraged leaders, teachers and presenters to push their thinking towards asking these questions:

⭐ How would you use this tool in a lesson about xyz? (Let's build that)

⭐What activities can you have the students do with the AI generated content? (Let's collaborate with other teachers and bring AI into our conversation)

⭐How can these activities, if they can, build AI fluency for our students? (Let's be intentional!)

What I have noticed is that the flashier tools capture their attention but they always want to spend the most amount of time playing and creating lesson plans with chatbots like Chatgpt, Claude, etc.

There are three reasons for this:

1️⃣ It's not intimidating.
2️⃣ It's a practical everyday use case.
3️⃣ It puts them into the driver's seat, not the AI.

Here is the secret sauce 👇

I teach them how to make AI Generated Lesson Plans GREAT. (yes it's an acronym, we love those in education, plus AI Generated Lessons are basic or non-inspiring.)

The process goes against a lot of what is being taught when prompting, the "be extra detailed, provide tons of context".

I flipped the script and applied the build backwards model or "backwards design".

It's a tried and true method we use to build lessons and units, why wouldn't we apply it to our approach to creating AI enhanced lesson plans?

Plus, it's super easy, let's the teacher take control, decide what they want in the lesson while pushing creativity and innovation.

Using this framework enables AI to be an extension of their expertise.

I send out a survey post-PD and every time they said they wanted more time to build lesson plans.

So today I decided to share my GREAT framework for lesson planning with y'all.

Give the teachers what they want.
Give the teachers what they need.

When we do this, teacher AI literacy goes beyond the one day of learning and turns into a journey.

Teach them to fish. 🎣

Download the "Make AI Generated Lessons GREAT" framework for FREE!

We got this!

Let me know if you use the framework. Would love to hear your thoughts! Hit reply to this email and let’s chat!

🩷 Merissa Sadler-Holder

Need meaningful AI professional development through the Teaching with Machines Learning Journeys for your staff and teachers?

We got this!

Want to continue the discussion on Facebook? Join the Teaching with Machines Facebook Community!

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.