March 23

The Beat Generation: An AI Assist

 I did something last week to see how well AI would work for me. Over the years, I’ve struggled to find suitable material to teach a lesson on the Beat Generation. I always put things together piecemeal; passages in textbooks or online sites were sparse or non-existent, videos were either lengthy and cumbersome, or inappropriate for 10 graders. This year, I decided to change that. I turned to AI, fact-checked everything, and found a workable solution for my resource dilemma. I took my notes, uploaded them into an AI tool to create a three-page reading passage for my students.

To ensure accuracy, I uploaded this passage into a different AI tool for fact-checking. I avoided using the same tool to prevent bias. The second tool found some minor exaggerations but confirmed the details were accurate and the writing was solid. I then had the first AI tool then create a number of questions and varying Depth of knowledge levels. The goal is to use them for discussion, but they can be used as a formative assessment if needed.
With the verified summary completed, I then used Notebook LM to create an eight-minute video previewing the Beat Generation reading passage. This will be used as an introduction to the unit. 

This is just a quick summary of what I created with AI for this specific unit, and yes…I shared the process with my students. I am upfront with them whenever I use AI, I try and model best, appropriate practices with them. 

Category: Artificial Intelligence, Class Updates, Cool Stuff, Lessons and Teacher Things | Comments Off on The Beat Generation: An AI Assist
January 17

Creative Writing

This post was originally posted in my Substack.

I need to get back into writing creatively. I write a lot for work and for my professional development, however I have pretty much stopped writing creatively…for fun…to keep my mind sharp…keep my creativity flowing…and as a form of therapy. 

Wattpad allows me to write on the fly on my phone, so it is more typing on the fly. I sometimes carry and small notepad to jot ideas, and story parts, and poems, and miscellaneous thoughts down. Easier to do when wearing old man cargo pants.

I need to get back to this. To do so, I need to MAKE THE TIME. Let’s see what happens.

Category: Musings | Comments Off on Creative Writing
January 4

Saturday Mornings

This post was first published on my Substack.

“Saturday Mornings” a time for productivity. I used to wake up on Saturday mornings rather late, since I was usually up late on Friday nights. As that changed, I would get up early on Saturday and participate in an educational “#satchat” on Twitter, mostly lurking and answering only on occasion.

Then, I restarted my Saturday morning podcasts back up for my classroom. I switched to being a creator over being just a consumer. That counts, even if few people consume what I produce.

Now that I have added the title of Vice President of PAECT to my responsibilities, my Saturdays have become even more productive. The President of PAECT, Eric Verno has a weekly meeting where we collaborate on PAECT business. Saturday mornings work best for our schedules, so on top of my weekly podcast, I have added a weekly meeting, and from there I wrap up some tasks we discuss. My thought is that everything is fresh in my mind and I already have my computer open, so just keep going. That then frees up the rest of the day for relaxation and fun.

Category: Cool Stuff, Podcast, Random Musings | Comments Off on Saturday Mornings
November 2

Gen Alpha: What a Different Perspective

In my US History class we were discussing rationing and the black markets of World War Two. I asked the class what they envisioned black markets looked like or where they too place and what black marketeers looked like. Man, was I surprised.

I know Gen Z and Gen Alpha perceive the world differently than me and my fellow Gen Xers and Millennials, but a student’s comments totally blindsided me.

The student responded to my queries by saying when they thought of the balck market they thought of the Internet and a hacker as a black marketeer.

This is a far cry from my first thoughts of the black market being an alleyway, vacant building, or the trunk on a late 1970’s Pontiac. A black marketeer to me is a shady character in a trench coat or maybe a Robert DeNiro type from Goodfellas.

The difference between the two views was canyon-like, I realize the Internet and “Dark Web” have a plethora of ways to buy contraband, however the generational divide with my students was such that they did not envision my concept of a black market or black marketeer.

It makes me wonder how many others concepts we differ on.

Category: class work, Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff | Comments Off on Gen Alpha: What a Different Perspective
August 5

The end of Flip…or Flipgrid

Flip, or as it started out Flipgrid is no more. Microsoft is ending that tool after purchasing it and incorporating it into their Teams. We are not a Microsoft School, so I do not know how cumbersome it could be to use Teams with my students; only time will tell.

In the meantime, I am pulling down my existing videos from the site to store them elsewhere. I am using iMovie to stitch them together by theme, then pushing them out to either TikTok or YouTube. Most of the videos were set up as Optional Enrichment Projects, so student participation varied. I unfortunately must admit there is not a lot of video content to transfer.

Moving forward, in my attempt to gamify my classes I am hoping for more student created content in the near future. I am using the PAECT Book Study on Explore Like a Pirate: Engage, Enrich, and Elevate Your Learners to bolster my attempt at this endeavor. That is a story for another blog post…

Category: Book Study, class work, Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings, Student Projects, Student Stuff | Comments Off on The end of Flip…or Flipgrid
March 5

PETE & C Reflection 2019

This year’s PETE & C was very rejuvenating and a great learning experience.  I picked up a solid mix of new tools and new pedagogy. Many of the tools I was exposed to I have heard of or seen before, but I picked up new ideas on their usefulness.  This is always enlightening, it also precludes the need to learn and/or pay for new tools and apps. I believe these experiences out and about, immersed in these conferences improves my overall concept of education.  

My previous thoughts on some “Old School” practices, such as handwriting, which I am biased against due to my messy handwriting, and a few other ideas were challenged.  I was forced to look at those notions and adjust accordingly. I see where some concepts, such as reading cursive is necessary for looking over primary documents and still a basic skill set that is necessary, albeit not often used.  

I continue to push for student creation of content and challenge the students to think outside of the box, but I need to break projects and lessons down into smaller, more manageable or basic parts.  This allows for students who may not be comfortable with these concepts to hopefully have a higher rate of success. (Author’s Note: since returning from the conference, I have experienced my theory in a real world learning situation.  That will be a separate blog post.)

I am very interested in Mindfulness and creating a more effective learning environment in my traditional classroom and online class setting.  The changes have been instituted on my part immediately, although in small pieces. I find that my students adapt better to incremental changes rather than one major paradigm shift.  This is especially true with my Honors US II class.

As stated earlier, I am working incorporating these strategies and tools into my classes by modelling tasks repeatedly, and creating more and more video tutorials.  My students have also stepped up and have been mentoring each other more, especially on the current project utilizing my class Padcaster.

As more specific ideas and tools are rolled out, I will add to the story at MrSal.edublogs org.

I am also breaking assignments into smaller assignments to try and monitor and reward students more often.  I will follow up on the results via my blog.

 

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