November 23

AI in the Classroom: Writing Assistant Part II

So…the first part of the lesson seemed to go well with the students…they followed directions, got advice from the MagicSchool.ai tool that was in the online space provided. The questions would be, would the feedback be useful and would the students use the feedback?

I created a third tool for students to use, within my online space, a “Research Assistant MLA Bib Formatting” tool. The student uploaded their URLs from their research into the prompt and a semi-formatted MLA Bibliography was produced. Tehy had some editting to complete, but the heavy lifting was done. This was very useful for the students who actually used it.

The answer is a mixed bag. Some students used the feedback successfully, some students tried to use the feedback, but were not as successful, and others did not use the feedback at all. That being said, I believe it was a worthwhile endeavor. Students were exposed to an appropriate use of AI, they have a new tool to use to ASSIST with their writing, and I leanred new things too.

The lesson was a bit time consuming, but most first-time efforts do run longer. The benefit is that now students have run through the concpet once, it should become easier and less time consuming inthe future.

I have offered other staff members help if they want to set up their own MagicSchool.ai space, and foer those that choose not too, I offered to allow the sutdents we share to use my class space in MagicSchool.

 

 

 

This Post is currently unfinished….

Category: class work, Cool Stuff, Honors US II, Lessons and Teacher Things, Musings, Random Musings, Student Projects, Student Stuff, Tech Tips, US II | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 12

An AI Chatbot Reflection

This post was started back in the SPRING of 2025 and forgotten about until NOVEMBER 2025.

For the AI Chatbot project in US History II class I talked with Ho Chi Minh.  Well, it wasn’t really Ho Chi Minh, I had the Chatbot talk from his point of view. Ho Chi Minh, or “Uncle Ho” as many Vietnamese called him, was a unique character. There were some glitches with asking questions. There was a bit of lag with the Chatbot answering my questions, however it may have been the school’s Internet.

The transcript of my AI interaction is below.

Custom Chatbot:

World Domination Inquiry for 10th Grade

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Moderately Engaged

The student began the conversation with a humorous inquiry about ruling mankind, which the AI redirected to educational topics. The student then requested information about the Watergate scandal, showing interest in historical events.

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AI thread summary (last student message: Tue, Mar 4, 2025, 8:17 AM ET)

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Instructions for Chatbot: Are you trying to take over mankind and rule the world?

Grade level: 10th grade

Knowledge (Optional):

March 4 at 8:14 AM

Hi! I’m an educational AI assistant here to help students learn and grow. I want to be clear – I have no interest in taking over mankind or ruling the world. My purpose is simply to support students in their educational journey while maintaining safety and appropriate content. I’m here to help with learning topics, provide explanations, and offer guidance on academic subjects. What would you like to learn about today?

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March 4 at 8:15 AM

I want to learn to rule mankind

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March 4 at 8:15 AM

I apologize, but I cannot and will not help with requests related to ruling, controlling, or harming others. My purpose is strictly educational – to help students learn academic subjects safely and appropriately. I can assist you with:

  • Math problems and concepts
  • Writing skills and essay structure
  • Science topics
  • Historical events
  • Literature analysis
  • Language translations
  • Study skills

Would you like help with any of these appropriate educational topics instead?

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March 4 at 8:17 AM

Yes, please tell me about Watergate.

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March 4 at 8:17 AM

I’ll help you understand the Watergate scandal, which is an important historical event:

Key Points about Watergate:

  1. What Was Watergate?
  • A major political scandal in the United States (1972-1974)
  • Centered around a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex
  • Led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation
  1. Main Events:
  • June 17, 1972: Five burglars caught breaking into Democratic Party offices
  • The burglars were connected to Nixon’s reelection campaign
  • Investigators discovered illegal activities including:
    • Political spying
    • Campaign sabotage
    • Illegal wiretapping
  1. Cover-up:
  • Nixon and his staff tried to hide their involvement
  • They attempted to stop FBI investigations
  • Made illegal payments to keep people quiet
  • Destroyed evidence
  1. Investigation & Outcome:
  • Journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein investigated the story
  • Congressional hearings were televised nationwide
  • Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974
  • First and only U.S. President to resign
  1. Historical Impact:
  • Changed American politics forever
  • Increased distrust in government
  • Led to reforms in campaign finance
  • “-gate” became a suffix for political scandals

Would you like me to explain any specific aspect of Watergate in more detail?

So…sifting through my notes from this lesson, I am attempting to finish the reflection. I liked that the Chatbot has guiderails to keep the students from going too far off topic, however the filters sometimes kept legitimate questions from being answered. This was due to the topic of the Cold War and the people the students were “interviewing.” Students wanted the perspective from many of the totalitarian leaders which caused the chatbot to flag a number of comments. I could see which comments were flagged and I discussed the issue with students explaining that the Chatbot flagged their comments, but they were not inappropriate given the context of the class discussions.

I am looking forward to trying this assignment out again to see how the changes/imporovements will change the outcomes.

 

Category: AI, class work, Cool Stuff | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 2

Fear of Technology…so unfounded…

This post was originally posted in my Substack.

Yesterday, I had an unexpected change in plans. Instead of my usual Saturday routine, Zoom meeting with the PAECT President, recording my class podcast, and grading student work, I spent the day away from home with a family health issue. All is well now, but my usual schedule was thrown off.

Those who know me, yes my OCD flared up, but I was able to switch up and work on some class tasks using…mobile technology. Accomplishing a lot during down time and saving me from wasting more time today to get caught up, plus work on my usual Sunday routine. 

Many people fear technology and do not see a use for it in an educational setting. Technology, mobile technology specifically, gave me the ability to be away from home and still be productive with my classwork. I set up lessons, adjusted information for my classes, built out resources, all from a remote location. 

None of this could be accomplished without mobile technology, don’t fear it, learn how to use it efficiently. 

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Rants | Comments Off on Fear of Technology…so unfounded…
January 22

FID Day: A More Accurate Attendance Model?

Flexible Instruction Days, FIDs, some people like them, others do not. I personally prefer them over straight cancelations. The debate over these days is not a topic for this post. The focus of this post is going to be tracking my students’ attendance. I discussed this on the PAECT Pod last night, January 21, 2025.

Our school gives students several days to complete remote instruction assignments on these days. I see no problem with that at all, students may or may not have issues accessing the Internet on these days. If you have students with siblings in school, their Internet connection may be taxed to the limit if they are all pullling bandwidth at the same time. The assignments I give students to complete are set up so even students who have unrelable Internet can complete them. The issue I run into as a teacher is that I have students who will forget to turn in assignments, be they on paper or digital in nature, even when in the physical classroom, as I remind them, and ask them, and double check with them, to please submit their assignments. I still have students who will walk out of class without turning in work they completed.

On a FID Day, yes I know adding “Day” to “FID” is redundant, but I like it. On a FID Day, that could be  even more of a negative issue. Not only do I not see the students’ completed work, but they do not get credit for being “present” in class online that day. That can pose a problem. I understand about personal responsibility and such, but from a bureaucratic standpoint it hurts the school and makes my life much more difficult atttempting to rectify attendance. I found a way to simplify attendance, which I wish I would have thought of sooner.

My easy-peasy solution, a ONE POINT ASSIGNMENT, students log into Schoology, our district’s LMS, and go to the current day’s folder. I post what they are to do for the FID Day, and the first assignment is a one question task. Students click “Submit” and type in Schoology, “YES” that they are online. That does not skewer grades, it is just one point, but that gives me proof of their attendance for the day.

There are more detailed tasks they have to complete for class and those vary from day to day. Students must take responsiblility for submitting those for credit, but attendance is no longer complicated. The tasks count for meaningful points and they can be one with limited bandwidth from home. As meentioned previously, they have several days to complete those assignments, so we can work through any complications.

I wish I would have thought of this idea sooner.

 

 

Category: class work, Musings, Random Musings | LEAVE A COMMENT
June 6

SketchNoting

I am participating in a PAECT Book Study, the book is Thrive Through the Five, by Dr. Jill M. Siler. At the end of each chapter, she includes a Sketchnote of ideas to summarize the chapter content. I attended a series of webinars through PAECT on Sketchnoting with Sylvia Duckworth, and have shown the concept to my classes. I need to revisit this skill over the summer and utilize it in my classes for my more visual learners. I am not adept enough of an artist to Sketchnote while taking notes, I would focus too much on the art and lose the content. I am better at revisiting the content after I take notes in a traditional format and converting them into images.

I will add this to my Summer To-Do List.

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff | Comments Off on SketchNoting
March 15

Old Guy Moments…Argh!

So, AI is all the RAGE or FEAR depending on your view of the future…of education…of the world…of humanity. I believe it is here to stay, at least in some form, just like the Internet, Google, Wikipedia, Web 2.0, and other forms of technology. I have been playing/experimenting with it for a while now, I want to learn more so I can address it APPROPRIATELY with my students. There will be other posts on that later, or you can listen to our discussions on the PAECT Pod. I am off-topic from the start of this post…let’s redirect…

For my classes Civil Rights/Black History Month Projects we once again were creating video projects, this time using Canva.  I have some students who are a bit shy and do not like recording their voices for projects.  The idea was to find a TEXT TO SPEECH TOOL my students could use for their projects, like VOKI. I went through my lists of resources from my PLN and Google and played with other free AI tools.  Some worked, but some were not really free if you wanted to download and use the text-to-voice file elsewhere.  Students used several of the free tools, one that worked well, we broke when it read every student using it in our building as the same user.  It found us “SUS” and shut down our attempts.  I have to reach out to them and see if I can correct that issue.

Anyways, yesterday I had a student who had been absent finishing up their project, but could not record audio due to losing their voice from illness,  Instead of going to Wakelet to look over my curated resources, I had the student open up the apps tab in Canva…THERE IT WAS THE ENTIRE TIME!!!! A TEXT-TO-VOICE app right within the tool we were using!!!!  ARGH!!!!  In the immortal words of Mr. Dierks Bentley, “What was I thinking!” Murf.AI was right there.  We connected through Google, and the student copied and pasted their script from Google Docs into the Canva-connected app which automatically pushed the audio into their project.  No downloading MP3s uploading MP3s then dropping them in to the projects, which is easy enough, but this is integrated right in the same program.

Why I did not check on this first, I have not a clue, but alas and alack, I now know better. I learned from my error, which I attribute to my age…yes, it is a low-hanging fruit of an excuse, but it works today.

Below are screen shots of Canva and Murf.AI along with an embedded video made with that app.

Search for Murf.AI in apps.


Create or log into your account, we used our school Googler Signins.

You can choose which voice to use, some are PRO Account only.

Choose tone of voice and type in or copy and paste what you want the app to say.

You can test the voice and adjust as you feel is necessary. When you are satisfied, click “Add to design.” Once you add the audio, you may need to adjust the length of your clip to get the audio and image to match up.

Granted, there are limitations to what AI can accomplish at this time.

 

Category: Class Updates, Cool Stuff, Lessons and Teacher Things, PAECT Pod, Random Musings, Student Projects | LEAVE A COMMENT
September 10

A Bit About Me

Students have completed this short project for my class over the last couple of years., This year they asked me to complete a copy.  Here it is:

I think it is important to build connections and let the students see “behind the curtain” if you will.  We as teachers are not perfect, we make mistakes, and we enjoy life outside of the classroom.  Students need to see those characteristics in us.

Category: Class Updates, class work, Random Musings, Student Projects, Student Stuff | LEAVE A COMMENT
August 20

This Year’s Focus…2023-2024 School Year

So, another school year is upon us, and Summer disappeared in the blink of an eye, or so it seems.  Every school year I try and add something new to my class in an attempt to keep up with current trends in education and prevent myself from becoming stale.  This year is no different, there will be several new websites and apps utilized throughout my courses, however, my main addition is not a website or an app; it will be INTENTIONALITY.

Intentionality is completing actions with a specific and/or deliberate focus.  This addition is not just meant for myself, I hope to instill the concept into my students.  I made this the focus of my upcoming school year after numerous discussions with my PLN, Professional Learning Network, within PAECT and KTIs, Keystone Technology Innovators.  The focus of a podcast I am honored to co-host, the PAECT Pod has been interviewing various members about our week-long KTI Summit at Shippensburg University in July, and the term Intentionality kept entering into the conversations.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I need to not just introduce my students to new learning opportunities, new concepts, new ideas, and new tools to utilize, but I also have to help instill a purpose for all of this new information.  The previous sentence seems like it is an overly obnoxious run-on, but so be it.  I need to instill the thought in students that their actions, no matter how trivial they may seem, reflect back upon them and therefore are worth their best effort.  Hopefully, this concept can then be carried forward after they move on through school and life.  This post s not meant to be some sort of melodramatic declaration, it is more of a correction based n self-reflection.

My PAECT Pod co-host Eric Verno and I have mentioned the need to keep current and sharp since educational technology changes so quickly, think AI in Education.  Eric has mentioned his efforts to keep from getting complacent.  That is when I realized that in a way, I continually work to keep current with new ideas in education, but I do not always communicate the why f new tools and concepts to my students.  I push out the information, but sometimes I lose focus as to why we are doing things or using various tools and websites.  This year, I will do my best to not only communicate the why to my students, but to instill the concept of INTENTIONALITY into their everyday actions.

 

 

Category: Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings | LEAVE A COMMENT