Teachers Innovating with AI- TWM Maverick Spotlight

I'm thrilled to announce the launch of a new series called ‘Teaching with Machines Mavericks’, showcasing the TWM community educators who are innovatively using AI in their classrooms.

Meet Dylan, our first TWM Maverick!

Dylan Peruti, a middle school history educator at Aveson Global Leadership Academy, emphasizes the importance of intentionality when integrating AI into education. 

Dylan Peruti participated in my AI Learning Journeys for Teachers where he learned to harness AI for enhancing personalized learning.

He innovated by using a Google Form for exit tickets to promote consistency and student voice. Overwhelmed by the data, he turned to ChatGPT for analysis, finding it a valuable tool in summarizing responses and planning future lessons. 

Read below, in his words, Dylan’s process in taking Exit Tickets to the next level using AI. 

So proud of you Dylan and thanks for sharing! Let’s goooooo! 

When using AI in the classroom I have found that we have to be mindful of our intentions with it. AI is a robot after all, and the clearer our intentions are when interacting with it the more likely we will produce the outcome we are looking for. Having attended Merissa’s sessions at Aveson Global Leadership Academy I can say that she understands the importance of intentionality in education.

With that said, I decided that for second semester I needed to up my assessment game with the goal of personalizing learning more. So my intention began with crafting an exit ticket that could create consistency and promote student voice. The last thing I wanted, though, was to print a bunch of papers, have to cut them, you know how it goes in education: more on your plate. I settled on a Google Form that I could keep in one place in Google Classroom for each class. Then all I would have to do was clear the responses. Simple enough!

I was running a lesson by Adam Sanchez from Rethinking Schools called, “Poetry of Defiance”. Students navigate propaganda justifying the institution of slavery at the time. Then they participate in a mixer where they share with each other different ways that slaves resisted. Lastly, we create a collective poem about slave resistance pre-Civil War.

Side bar: see that View in Sheets button? Click that and it makes a spreadsheet with all of the responses.

Make sure to unlink the form! Right-click Form Responses 1. I made a new tab for my ChatGPT Summary, which I’ll show you later.

Speaking of “more on your plate”, though, I was now inundated with formative assessment data… What a blessing and curse. I turned to our good pal, ChatGPT. Hello darkness, my old friend. I started small, copying data from the Google Spreadsheet one question at a time and seeing what it could do. 

Satisfied with the responses I decided to just copy and paste the whole spreadsheet with the prompt, “Summarize this data for me.” Here is what it came up with:

I asked it to format the summary into a spreadsheet.

Brilliant! I can tell that this was a largely successful lesson, based on the 8 out of 10 understanding. Students generally are interested in poetry, though are needing some extra scaffolding with writing poems. And check it out, it even told me what to review for the next class. I can tell you that I’ve seen students who are reluctant in the classroom fully engaged in reflection when presented with the opportunity.

You can check out the full Chat by clicking here. I also linked the Google Sheet.

Next Steps

My next intention in using AI to analyze formative assessments is to present this to my students. Not only will I be modeling appropriate use of AI, but also promote critical thinking in assessing the accuracy of ChatGPT’s analysis. My hope is that by increasing student voice in the classroom I can continue to have intention in using AI to meet the needs of my students.

Dylan Peruti

Congratulations Dylan! Your students are lucky to have such a Maverick teacher like yourself!

Dylan encourages you to reach out should you have any questions. You can email him directly at [email protected] or connect with him on Linkedin.

If you would like to be a TWM Maverick and share the wonderful things you are doing with AI, simply reply to this email and reach out!

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

Join our GPTs Builders for Education Discord Server!

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

Beep. Boop.

Need more guidance? I can help you, friend! Here’s how:

The AI Quick Start for Educators Package

This includes a discovery call of your exact problem and work together to customize a solution based on your needs. Included in the package is a blueprint for implementation.