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Deep Work in the Age of AI: The Case for Protecting Teacher Thinking (Part I) - Dr. Catlin Tucker

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Guest Post by Robert Mayfield At conferences this year, I’ve had dozens of conversations with teachers about AI. Not surface-level curiosity, real curiosity, thoughtful questions, and genuine interest. Educators are leaning in and asking things like: There’s a common narrative that teachers are broadly resistant to AI. The reality is more complicated. Some educators are […]

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Understanding by Design

The understanding by design model (UbD) of curriculum development was put forth in 1998 by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in their book Understanding by Design (UbD). Also called the backwards design model, UbD approaches curriculum development by beginning with desired learning outcomes and objectives, then working backwards to define assessment modalities and finally daily lessons and instructional activities. By developing curriculum in this manner, teachers are better able to clarify enduring understandings, essential questions, and unit questions towards the ends planning instruction and designing accurate and meaningful modes of assessment.

Keywords Breadth of Curriculum; Constructivist Approaches; Depth of Curriculum; Enduring Understandings; Essential Questions; Rubrics; Six Facets of Understanding; Uncovering Curriculum; Understanding by Design (UbD); Unit Questions

Curriculum Organization > Understanding by Design

Overview

Basics of the Understanding by Design Model

"Understanding by Design (UbD)," also known as the "backwards design model," was first introduced by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in 1998. The model encourages teachers to plan lessons and units backwards, starting with final learning outcomes and then working backwards toward individual daily lessons that aim to achieve teachers' desired results. Briggs (2007) indicates that UbD asks questions such as:

* What aspects of learning will be relevant to students in the future?

* How will students be able to see the bigger picture?

* How will teachers know that students have achieved desired learning goals?

Wiggins and McTighe (1998) simplify the UbD model into three stages including identifying desired results, determining acceptable evidence that students have achieved desired results, and planning each learning experience and instructional activity to help students achieve desired results (pg. 9). To further clarify, Wiggins and McTighe (1998) indicate that UbD requires the designer to begin with an end in mind and map back from the desired result to daily lessons in order to determine the best way to reach the intended outcome(s) (pg. 146).

Kolenda (2007) asserts that UbD provides the framework necessary to develop strong units of study filled with essential understandings and authentic assessments. Kolenda (2007) further claims that UbD fosters inquiry, constructivism, and student engagement. The model also helps tailor lessons to meet students' myriad learning styles and needs.

Applications

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

The first stage of the UbD model requires teachers to identify desired learning outcomes by beginning with what they want students to understand at the end of a learning experience or unit of study. Some guiding questions for the identification of desired results are:

* What should students know, understand, and be able to do?

* What is worthy of understanding?

* What enduring understandings are desired? (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 9).

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) indicate that at this stage of planning, teachers must consider their goals as well as examine national, state, and local published content standards of learning (pg. 9).

Golland (1998) discusses the critical importance of having an aim, purpose, or objective when planning a unit of study. He further asserts how important it is for teachers to be clear with regard to final learning outcomes in order to be able to develop meaningful learning experiences that contribute to overall understanding. With a strong purpose or final learning objective, teachers are prepared to work backwards to design the types of learning experiences which will be most beneficial to students.

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) suggest that teachers think of this stage in terms of identifying what students should be familiar with, what is important from them to know and do, and what is essential to their lifelong, enduring understanding (pg. 9). When considering what students should be familiar with, teachers should list everything from a unit of study that could be worthwhile for class discussions, activities, etc. However, as Wiggins & McTighe (1998) indicate, it is often impossible to cover all of the ideas and topics a teacher might consider worthwhile. Teachers can further narrow the list by determining what students need to know and be able to do. This level of analysis includes facts, concepts, principles, and skills (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 9). However, facts and concepts are not easy to retain if students are unable to relate them to a larger picture of understanding and real life application.

For these reasons, it is essential for teachers to narrow down learning outcomes to the most important, enduring understandings that should remain with students throughout their lives. Wiggins & McTighe (1998) refer to enduring understandings as "big ideas"; they are the concepts that teachers want students to get "inside of" through a unit of study. Wiggins & McTighe further clarify that enduring understandings are what students should retain even if they don't remember the details (pg. 10).

Determining What is Worth Understanding

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) suggest a framework for determining what qualifies as an enduring understanding, and what teachers should identify as final learning outcomes and desired results. First, they suggest that teachers analyze whether or not an idea, topic, or process represents a "big idea" that will have value beyond the classroom. Second, the authors recommend considering whether the idea, topic, or process is central to the discipline. Third, teachers should think critically about whether the idea, topic, or process requires "uncoverage." Finally, they should consider whether or not the idea, topic, or process offers potential for engaging students (pg. 11).

By using these filters to determine what is essential to student understanding, teachers can identify unit goals that can guide instruction for a unit of study. Wiggins & Grant (1998) emphasize the critical importance of specificity with regard to development of such goals. The authors articulate three levels of specificity including topical statements, general understandings, and specific understandings. For example, Wiggins & Grant (1998) assert that "Students will understand the Civil War" is a topical statement that barely gets to the heart of the unit goal. "Students will understand the causes and effects of the Civil War," is more specific, but still general in terms of the actual modalities of learning that will take place. "Students will demonstrate through historical and social analysis and role-plays their understanding of the Civil War as a struggle of state versus federal power over economic and cultural affairs that continues to present day," however, represents a specific understanding that serves as a guiding focus for the unit of study (Wiggins & Grant, 1998, pg. 24).

Once learning outcomes, unit goals, and enduring understandings are identified, teachers need to think critically about the essential and unit questions they will use to guide their instruction throughout the unit of study. Wiggins & Grant (1998) highlight the difference between essential and unit questions. They assert that essential questions grant insight into deep and enduring concerns (pg. 28). Furthermore, they assert that essential questions reveal the richness and complexities of the subject material, can be returned to repeatedly, and can occur across the curriculum over many years (pg. 28). Unit questions are slightly different in that they provide subject and topic specific paths to essential questions. For example, an essential question may read as "Who is a friend?" or "Must a story have a moral, heroes, and villains?" whereas a unit question may be "What is the moral of this story?" or "Are Frog and Toad true friends?" (Wiggins & Grant, 1998, pg. 31).

What Constitutes Understanding?

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) also provide a strong theoretical framework to help teachers determine if students understand what teachers identify as worthy of enduring understanding. The authors assert that students truly understand a matter when they can explain, interpret, apply, demonstrate a perspective, empathize, and display self-knowledge (pp. 47-57).

According to Wiggins & McTighe (1998), students demonstrate understanding when they can explain their own theories and ideas, link facts with larger ideas, justify their conclusions, or effectively show their work (pg. 47). Students demonstrate understanding by creating their own interpretations rather than uncritically accepting what a teacher says is true (pg. 51). Moreover, they demonstrate understanding by applying their knowledge to real-world problems and by adapting it to different contexts (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 52). Wiggins & McTighe (1998) further highlight that students demonstrate understanding by seeing and hearing others' points of view, finding value in what others think, and reflecting on and assessing understanding (pp. 55-60).

With a strong framework from which to determine levels of understanding, teachers are better prepared to make decisions on how best to assess student understanding and how best to determine if students are able to "dig deep" to uncover the enduring understandings and learning goals intended for a particular unit of study.

Stage 2: Determine Evidence of Student Understanding

Briggs (2007) indicates that assessment must go hand-in-hand with curriculum development. If teachers understand assessment as separate from curriculum development, problems can occur. Furthermore, Briggs (2007) indicates that assessment must be ongoing; teachers must consistently measure and change curriculum as needs are identified.

Assessment plays a key role in the development of any curriculum. However, teachers usually think about assessment only after they have taught a unit of study. UbD forces teachers to make a paradigm shift as they are required to think of assessment prior to designing lessons. Wiggins & McTighe (1998) assert that in Stage 2 of the curriculum design process, teachers need to analyze how they will determine if students have achieved the desired learning outcomes identified in Stage 1. Teachers need to determine what they will accept as evidence of students' comprehension of the enduring and essential understandings and questions from the lesson(s). Once teachers have identified the form of assessment they will use at the end of a unit of study, they are better prepared to work backwards to develop the lessons that will lead toward mastery of the concepts and understandings students will need to be successful on the final assessment. Wiggins & McTighe (1998) encourage all teachers to think like assessors (pg. 12). They further argue that, by thinking like assessors, teachers will learn to identify hallmarks of understanding and distinguish between degrees of understanding (pg. 67).

Assessment

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) describe to an assessment continuum in which a variety of assessment techniques and tools are recognized as effective ways to monitor student understanding. The assessment continuum includes frequent checks for understanding, ongoing observation and dialogue, quizzes and tests, academic prompts, and performance tasks or projects (pg. 12). A key component of the UbD model, the performance task or project, requires students to apply their knowledge in context to demonstrate their level of understanding.

The authors distinguish between two different roles in the development of assessment techniques and tools: that of the assessor and that of the activity designer. According to Wiggins & McTighe (1998), the assessor thinks in terms of the evidence necessary to demonstrate understanding. An assessor identifies the types of performance tasks that will focus instruction and anchor the unit of study (pg. 68). Additionally, assessors engages in a dialogue to determine how they will distinguish between degrees of understanding. Alternatively, an activity designer plans an assessment around the available materials or resources, students' interests, any assignments that will be given, how grades will be given, etc. (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 68).

When thinking about the six facets of understanding (explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge), Wiggins & McTighe (1998) provide numerous examples to help teachers determine how best to assess understanding. Teachers can ask students to dialogue about subject material, defend conclusions, justify decisions, develop their own theories or explanations, and relate understandings to bigger the picture. Through explanation, teachers can identify understandings and clarify any areas that students may misunderstand (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pp. 85-88). Teachers can ask students to interpret stories, weave together their own stories, and extract main ideas from what they read, hear, or experience. Furthermore, teachers can use real-life situations and simulations to determine whether or not students are able to apply understandings in different contexts (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 91).

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) further suggest that teachers assess students' abilities to adopt critical perspectives, understand others' perspectives, teach other students, and self-assess their own understandings of material (pp. 93-97). By doing so, teachers require students to demonstrate empathy, develop their own perspectives, and assess their own thinking and degrees of understanding. Wiggins & McTighe (1998) highly encourage using rubrics to assess student understanding because rubrics allow for a continuum of understanding. Rubrics, inherently, illustrate that learning occurs over a range, and that individual students can demonstrate different degrees of understanding of enduring and essential concepts.

Stage 3: Planning Learning Experiences & Instruction

Stage 3 of the UbD model requires teachers to plan actual lessons and instructional activities that will contribute to student understanding and provide the scaffolding necessary for students to demonstrate that they have achieved desired learning outcomes. While it seems counterintuitive to some teachers to plan a lesson after determining modes of assessment, the model is based entirely on the theory that lessons and activities cannot be meaningfully and purposefully connected to enduring understandings unless such understandings and modes of assessment are predetermined.

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) suggest that teachers, when planning lessons and activities, think about the knowledge and skills students will need to achieve the desired results and what activities will best equip them to attain these results (pg. 13). Additionally, teachers need to identify what content should be taught or coached and how to best do so. During this phase of the UbD model, teachers address all of the specifics of instructional planning including how they will teach, what methods they will use, how they will sequence their lessons, and what types of materials are necessary to ensure success (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 13). As Golland (1998) indicates, teachers need to know the sequence of each lesson and the relationship of one lesson to another in order to create the best possible learning conditions for students.

A central component of the planning phase of the UbD model requires teachers to focus on "uncovering" curriculum as opposed to "covering" it. It is very common to hear teachers refer to anxiety about "covering" all of the curriculum. Wiggins & McTighe (1998) again ask teachers to shift their thinking and refer to this part of Stage 3 as finding as many different avenues for students to "uncover" curriculum by arguing, applying, developing, and inquiring about different points of view of the lesson content (pg. 99). The authors further distinguish between depth and breadth of curriculum. Depth refers to how intensively surface teachers want students to delve into an idea or topic. Breadth refers to how many extensions and connections teachers want students to make by relating different ideas within a unit of study (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pp. 100-101). Wiggins & McTighe (1998) highly encourage teachers to find a balance between depth and breadth when developing lessons and activities related to enduring understandings.

Lastly, Wiggins & Mctighe (1998) suggest an acronym that teachers can use to develop lessons and instructional activities during this stage of the UbD model. Using the acronym "WHERE" teachers can effectively plan the activities necessary to ensure students achieve desired learning outcomes. "W" requires teachers to think about "where" they are heading with the activity. "H" refers to how teachers will "hook" students into a lesson through engaging activities. "E" asks teachers' to think about how they will encourage exploration and engage students in learning. "R" requires teachers to "reflect" and think about how to encourage students to dig deeper into ideas and topics. Finally, "E" refers to how teachers will exhibit and evaluate what has been understood through performance tasks and final products (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 116).

Further Insights

What Does Teaching Look Like When Using the UbD Model?

Wiggins & McTighe (1998) summarize a classroom that uses the UbD model as a place in which more learning occurs through less teaching (pg. 161). They highlight the idea that these classrooms use more constructivist approaches as teachers encourage students to explore and develop their own understandings and perspectives of material. The authors assert that students must make their own meanings. They cannot simply receive information from teachers and be told what to think. If complex ideas are to be understood, students must engage activities that promote understanding (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 161). With these goals in mind, teachers in such classrooms employ a variety of teaching methodologies ranging from direct instruction and coaching to more constructivist approaches such as guided inquiry, group discussions, explorations, etc. (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, pg. 168).

In the past year, collaborative work between Wiggins & Mctighe and the leading researcher in the field of differentiated instruction, Carol Ann Tomlinson, has produced powerful research on integrating the UbD model for curriculum development with differentiated instructional methodologies. As Connor (2007) indicates, the book Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design focuses on the entire teaching process including planning, teaching, assessing, and understanding students. In upcoming years, it remains to be seen how both models of curriculum development will impact teaching and learning.

Relation to The Common Core State Standards

Many states have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, the Common Core State Standards (the Common Core) in English and mathematics for KÐ12 schools. The Common Core are a set of educational standards developed under the leadership of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, with input from researchers, teachers, parents and school administrators. Nelson Graff (2011) argues that because the Common Core states goals that should be accomplished in classes at a particular grade level, these standards are well-suited to the backwards design process for curriculum design. He notes that an increased emphasis on evaluation and testing can encourage teachers to focus on training students to meet the specific requirements of the Common Core (or any other set of standards), but that the backwards design process can help them focus on the big ideas that the specific requirements are meant to support, and the connections among the different tasks specified in the standards.

Graff cites as an example a California standard for 9th grade English that states that students should be able to infer the character traits of a literary character such as George in John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men from evidence in the text. While this is a common expectation in an English curriculum, Graff argues that teachers should think beyond the narrow focus of a single character or novel, and to develop ways to help students apply learning from one class (such as the techniques of literary character analysis) to other classes, and to other aspects of their life. ..FT-McTighe (2012) also argues that the Common Core has many commonalities with the backwards design process. These commonalities include beginning with goals that students are meant to accomplish, and planning a curriculum based on those goals; a focus on big questions and broad, long-term goals, and an emphasis on rich and complex assessments as an integral part of applying the standards in real teaching situations. He notes that the Common Core does not specify a curriculum, or how teachers should teach, but instead states the outcomes that should be achieved through the curriculum.

Terms & Concepts

Breadth of Curriculum: Breadth of curriculum refers to how many extensions and connections teachers want students to make by relating different ideas within a unit of study.

Constructivist Approaches: Constructivist approaches to classroom instruction encourage students to explore and develop their own understandings and perspectives of the material studied.

Depth of Curriculum: Depth of curriculum refers to how intensively teachers want students to delve into an ideas or topics.

Enduring Understandings: Enduring understandings are the "big ideas" that teachers want students to get "inside of" through a unit of study. They are what students should retain even if they forget the details (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998).

Essential Questions: Essential questions help students develop deep and enduring understandings (pg. 28). Furthermore, they reveal the richness and complexities of the subject material, returned to repeatedly, and can occur across the curriculum over many years (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998).

Rubrics: Rubrics help teachers assess student understanding by describing a continuum of understanding. Rubrics illustrate how learning occurs across a range and how individual students can demonstrate different degrees of understanding of enduring and essential concepts.

Six Facets of Understanding: The six facets of understanding are explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self knowledge (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998).

Uncovering Curriculum: Students "uncover" curriculum by arguing, applying, developing, and inquiring about different points of view of lesson content.

Understanding by Design (UbD): The UbD model encourages teachers to plan lessons and units backwards, starting with final learning outcomes and then working backwards toward individual daily lessons that work toward achieving desired results.

Unit Questions: Unit questions differ slightly from essential questions in that they provide subject and topic specific paths to essential questions.

Bibliography

Briggs, L. (2007). Magnum B.I. T H E Journal, 34 , 40-45. Retrieved September 10, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24823294&site=ehost-live

Connor, D. (2007). Integrating differentiated instruction and understanding by design. Roper Review, 29, 284. Retrieved September 10, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25810931&site=ehost-live

Davidovitch, N. (2013). Learning-centered teaching and backward course design - From transferring knowledge to teaching skills. Journal of International Education Research, 9, 329-338. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=92510748&site=ehost-live

Golland, J. (1998). A lesson plan model for the supervision of student teaching. Education, 118 , 376. Retrieved September 10, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=497388&site=ehost-live

Graff, N. (2011). "An effective and agonizing way to learn": Backwards design and new teachers' preparation for planning curriculum. Teacher Education Quarterly, 38, 151-168. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=65631510&site=ehost-live

Kolenda, R. (2007). Japanese lesson study, staff development, and science education reform - The neshaminy story. Educator, 16 , 29-33. Retrieved

September 10, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=25430039&site=ehost-live

McKinney, G. (2013). Building common knowledge. Journal of Staff Development, 34, 42-54. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=89669063&site=ehost-live

McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2004). Understanding by design professional development workbook. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria,Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Misconceptions about Common Core. (2012). Phi Delta Kappan, 94, 6. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=84303707&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Marzano, R., Pickering, D., & McTighe, J. (1993). Assessing student outcomes: Performance assessment using the dimensions of learning model. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Mlyniec, W. J. (2012). Where to begin: Training new teachers in the art of clinical pedagogy. Clinical Law Review 18 , p. 505Ð591. Retrieved December 23, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=74482861&site=ehost-live

Shumway, S. & Berett, J. (2004). Standards-based curriculum development for pre- service and in-service: A "partnering" approach using modified backwards design. Technology Teacher, 64 , 26-29. Retrieved September 10, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=15247564&site=ehost-live

Slow down, step back before digging into grade-level CCSS. (2013, Jan.). Educational Daily 46 , p. 3. Retrieved December 23, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=84974709&site=ehost-live

Tomlinson, C. A. & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction and understanding by design. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wiggins, G. (1989). The futility of trying to teach everything of importance. Educational Leadership, 47 , 44-59. Retrieved September 10, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=8524414&site=ehost-live

Wiggins, G. (1998). Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wiske, M.S. (1997). Teaching for understanding: linking research with practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Essay by John Loeser, M.Ed.

John Loeser is an Assistant Head of an elementary school in San Mateo, California. He received his master's of education in school leadership from Harvard University. His research interests include differentiated instruction, improving instructional practice, and strategic change and leadership in schools. He is a member of the National and California Association of Independent Schools, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He currently resides in San Mateo, California with his wife.

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Understanding by Design | Research Starters | EBSCO Research

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Understanding by Design (UbD) is a curriculum development model introduced by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in 1998. Often referred to as the backwards design model, UbD emphasizes starting with desired learning outcomes before planning assessments and instructional activities.

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Welcome to the Cube Calendars Hub, your one-stop space for free elementary classroom calendars created by educators, for educators. Each calendar is a curated collection of free web resources discovered on Cube For Teachers, where teachers worldwide are sharing free resouces that have made a difference in their classrooms.

Each month, we publish three free calendars created to support teachers with daily, ready-to-use classroom ideas. These include the Monthly Cube Calendar, featuring engaging activities suitable for students in Grades 1-8 (something for every age and subject), the Daily Physical Activity (DPA) Calendar to promote movement and well-being, and the Coding Calendar, which offers fun and accessible ways to build computational thinking skills. Most activities are ready to go with little to no prep, while a few may call for a quick printout or simple materials you already have on hand. Each idea is designed to make teaching smoother, spark curiosity, and keep students meaningfully engaged.

All calendars are simple, practical, and adaptable to any schedule. They are perfect for morning meetings, subject transitions, or quick, meaningful daily activities that build classroom community.

The Cube Calendars were created to make it easier for teachers to access and share meaningful classroom ideas. What began as a small group of educators exchanging resources back and forth quickly grew as more teachers discovered these free calendars and wanted to join in. Because educators connect across so many different social media platforms, we wanted to simplify the process by creating a free subscription list that brings everything together in one place - independent of social media.

As a small but important reminder, all of these resources can also be found on Cube for Teachers, where educators around the world share freely to support one another.

We're so grateful for all the kind messages from teachers who enjoy using the Cube Calendars and look forward to each new month's edition. As the number of requests has grown, it's become a little tricky to keep up individually, so we've made things easier for everyone. By joining our free subscription, you'll automatically receive the latest calendars delivered straight to your inbox each month - quick and simple!

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AI in Education Playlist for Learning on the Go - Monica Burns

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AI in Education Playlist for Learning on the Go - Monica Burns

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Keeping up with the latest in education is super important, and that's where podcasts come in! If you've followed along with my work for a while you know that I love to share strategies, ideas, and resources and this medium is one that I love. I started my Easy EdTech Podcast in 2019, and today I have an AI in Education Playlist for you. It's full of recent episodes, some favorites I listen to, and plenty of great interviews.

Podcasts are a fun and easy way to learn new things, especially for busy educators and professionals. You can listen to them anytime, like when you're commuting, going for a long walk or even doing everyday tasks. Podcasts bring together experts who share insights on a topic, talk about new ideas, and give handy tips. This makes them a fantastic way to learn and grow professionally.

Today I have over a dozen episodes for your consideration, what I would like to call, an "AI in Education Playlist for Learning on the Go." You can listen to these in any order, choosing the ones that you want to hear first. Just click on the links below and jump right in!

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Conversations About Artificial Intelligence in Education

How Instructional Coaches Can Use AI to Scale Their Impact with Clarissa M. Guerra - Easy EdTech Podcast 243

In this episode, I'm joined by Instructional Coach and ASCD Emerging Leader Clarissa M. Guerra to explore how instructional coaches can leverage Artificial Intelligence tools to scale their impact by quickly generating lesson plans, providing feedback to teachers, and lots more! You'll hear Clarissa share prompt engineering tips to effectively use these AI tools in coaching as well as the benefits she has seen from incorporating them into her practice.

Tips for Making an AI Framework for Your School with Dr. Marquita S. Blades - Easy EdTech Podcast 239

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Marquita S. Blades, for a timely discussion about creating a framework for integrating artificial intelligence into schools. You'll also hear strategies for connecting your school's values to your AI framework, putting pedagogy before EdTech tools, and reframing the conversation around how AI can help save teachers time.

ChatGPT Plugins Teachers Should Know About with Mary Howard - Easy EdTech Podcast 237

In this episode, educator and author Mary Howard joins for an electrifying chat about how ChatGPT plugins can supercharge teaching and learning. Tune in to hear teacher-friendly tips for getting the most out of these add-ons, plus creative ideas for bringing AI into your classroom in a meaningful way.

AI in the Classroom Tips from a Teacher Using ChatGPT with Richard Perry - Easy EdTech Podcast 210

In this episode, join in for an exhilarating chat with high school ELA teacher Richard Perry as we delve into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence in the classroom. You'll hear some of Richard's ChatGPT strategies as well as his insightful observations and predictions for the future of AI in education.

AI in Education Playlist with More Favorites

On with Kara Swisher: Why Fei-Fei Li is Still Hopeful About AI (... and Elon)

On with Kara Swisher is one of my favorite podcasts and I loved this conversation from an episode posted earlier this year. Guest Dr. Fei-Fei Li has lots of great insights and quotealbe moments I wanted to jot down as I listened.

How I Built This Podcast with Guy Raz: When AI is your personal tutor with Sal Khan of Khan Academy * Episode 537

How I Built This is another podcast that I love and subscribe to, so I was super excited to see the title pop up on my Spotify feed. This episode is a great listen if you're curious about the origin story of Khanmigo.

Extras to Add to Your AI in Education Playlist

The Minimalist Educator Podcast: Episode 005 Classroom Digital Minimalism with Dr. Monica Burns

In this episode, I chatted with Easy EdTech Podcast guests Tammy Musiowsky and Christine Arnold about how to choose tools for teaching and for your role. We talk about AI and digital life and how using AI tools can help save you time and keep things simple.

UnDisrupted with Adam & Carl: Can A.I. help with Teacher Productivity? (with Dr. Monica Burns)

I have known Dr. Adam Phyall and Carl Hooker for a while now so it was so much fun to chat with them about all things EdTech. We chatted about the role of Artificial Intelligence in education and how it will change the way we think about teaching and learning.

Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers Podcast: Use ChatGPT to Reduce Your Workload as a Teacher

This episode was recorded live at the FETC conference in New Orleans in January where I spoke with Angela Watson all about Artificial Intelligence. Although some things have changed since then, we spoke about how to reduce your workload - a topic that is still front of mind for me - and something I spoke about at NYSCATE's annual conference just a few days ago.

Let's Learn with Wisconsin ASCD: Episode 5 Monica Burns EdTech Essentials

I met with Rob Meyer and Ryan Ruggles, WASCD Board members, at the ASCD Annual Conference this March and recorded this podcast in-person at the Denver event. In our conversation we unpacked what is happening with AI in education as well as themes from EdTech Essentials

Education podcasts are so much more than just a way to get information. They're often lively and fun, and keep you in the loop with the newest ideas and practices in education. When you check out the episodes on this "AI in Education Playlist," think of each episode as an opportunity to grab a quick tip or hear a new perspective.

What did I miss? If there is an episode you'd like me to add, send me a note - just sign up for my free newsletter and reply with your favorites.

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AI in Education Playlist for Learning on the Go - Class Tech Tips

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Dive into my AI in Education Playlist! Explore a curated selection of content showcasing the impact of AI on teaching and learning.

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Research Partnership for Professional Learning RPPL

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Research Partnership for Professional Learning RPPL

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Research Partnership for Professional Learning

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View the latest research, learnings, and publications from the Research Partnership for Professional Learning.

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Both the House and Senate are continuing their fitful efforts to complete action on their versions of the 12 fiscal year 2024 Appropriations bills. The Labor,

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Modern Classrooms Project - Free blended, self-paced, mastery-based PD, built by teachers.

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An innovative, research-backed instructional model that responds to every student's needs. Our free online course has empowered thousands of educators!

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NY Times Learning Network

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What Students Are Saying About Using A.I. for Schoolwork

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Is it a useful tool? Is it cheating? Is it hindering students’ ability to think? Here is what teenagers told us.

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In a World of AI, Content Curation Is More Important Than Ever

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Content curation is a vital part of the creative process. In this blog post and podcast, we explore why curation matters and how we can help students learn how to engage in the curation process. Listen

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F.A.C.T.S. Cycle for AI Prompt Engineering

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F.A.C.T.S. Cycle for AI Prompt Engineering

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Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with educators who are incorporating generative A.I. into their classroom practice. Whether it’s working with the pre-service teachers at my university or in working with

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As Large Language Models (LLMs) become increasingly reliable and accessible, middle and high school students will have nearly unlimited access to an unprecedented amount of AI tools in their daily lives. While the ultimate capacity of these tools is still unknown, it's easy to predict how students will incorporate AI into their education. As with every other tool in human history, students will use AI to accomplish work of value with less effort.

Given this premise, how students use AI tools will depend more on their perceptions of their role in school than the tools themselves. As students reach for AI tools, do they see themselves as active agents in their own learning or as passive recipients of assigned tasks that need to be completed in exchange for points and grades?

Passive Compliance with AI . . .

For some students, school is an exercise in passive compliance. They believe their role is to receive new content, repackage or replicate it, and send it back to their teacher to assess their work and assign a grade. For these students, AI is the ultimate tool for efficiently "doing" school. They can achieve their goals by simply prompting AI tools to complete assigned tasks:

You want them to read a 12-page article?

Their prompt: Summarize this article into a paragraph.

Do math problems 1-21?

Their prompt: Complete the math problems in the photo attached.

Write a five-paragraph essay on To Kill a Mockingbird?

Their prompt: Write a five-paragraph essay from the perspective of a high school student who admires Atticus Finch because of his integrity, honesty, and wisdom.

However, the efficiency of this surface-level use of AI comes at a steep cost. Consider these conclusions drawn from recent research:

Unguided, superficial prompts harm learning. In one study, students completing assignments using a standard version of ChatGPT typed or pasted the assigned question directly into the AI tool more than 60 percent of the time. In the moment, these students got the correct answers, but after the tool was removed, they performed worse than students who hadn't used AI on the assigned tasks (Bastani et al., 2024).

Cognitive ease comes at a cost. Students reported that using AI tools for synthesis tasks made their work easier than navigating information across multiple resources, but their final products were assessed as less thorough and of lower quality than those of students who didn't use AI tools for the same task (Stadler, Bannert, & Sailer, 2024).

Overreliance on AI negatively affects students' independence. By relying on AI tools to find answers or complete tasks, students avoided the productive struggle required to develop a deeper understanding of content and diminished their capacity to navigate complex tasks independently (Zhai, Wibowo, & Li, 2024).

Given these findings, the cost of superficial use of AI as a tool for compliance may be that it short-circuits students' conceptualization of how learning occurs. If students see summarizing text, solving math problems, and writing effectively as something that magically emerges from AI tools, they may come to attribute success or failure on academic tasks to external mechanisms that need not be either observed or explained. Detaching strategy and effort from one's results eventually leads to learned helplessness.

. . . vs. Active Engagement with AI

On the other hand, students who value learning focus on a different set of goals and adopt a different role. For these students, their goal isn't merely to complete their work, but to engage in the inquiry, productive struggle, and reflection that results in deeper understanding.

These students have a strong sense of agency; they take intentional action to exert control over their learning environment (Bandura, 2006). They believe their role is to actively plan, monitor, and adapt their strategies to pursue goals for learning. Not surprisingly, student agency is associated with higher levels of perseverance, engagement, learning, and achievement.

What do highly agentic students do when they interact with AI tools? Consider the following anecdote. Secondary teacher Jack Dougall (2023) gave his students a performance task and told them they could complete it using AI any way they wanted. Most students compliantly asked the AI tool for the answers, and regardless of whether they understood the output, they dutifully replicated those answers and turned them in.

But there was a small group of students who took a more active, agentic approach. According to Dougall, these students were

the rogue learners, the questioners, the bickerers, the challengers. . . . They "chatted" with the AI, questioned it, and they argued with it. They fine-tuned their prompts and engaged in a back-and-forth with the AI. (2023)

This group of students became so engaged in the task that they clamored for more time to write down all they'd learned. On an assessment given after the task was complete, the agentic, "rogue" learners outperformed their compliant classmates.

When Students Lose Agency

Unfortunately, by the time students reach middle school, the agentic, rogue learners are in the minority. Levels of agency and engagement decline as students progress through school (Anderson et al., 2019).

Some of this decline is related to developmental factors. However, some of it is related to how students cope with the realization that they don't believe they have much control over their learning environment. Consider the following quote from Reeve and Tseng about how learners might express their needs for agency during instruction:

Students might offer input, express a preference, offer a suggestion or contribution, ask a question . . . seek ways to add personal relevance, ask for a say in how problems are to be solved, seek clarification . . . or request assistance such as modeling, feedback, background knowledge, or a concrete example of an abstract concept. (2011, p. 258)

As any kindergarten teacher who reads this quote can tell you, students arrive to school bursting with agency. But as any kindergarten teacher who reads this quote can also tell you, an entire classroom of students with this level of agency at all times would be impossible to teach. Out of logistical necessity, an emphasis on compliance and grades, and curriculum and teaching that often doesn't encourage exploration or inquiry, students are taught that some passive compliance is necessary to make schooling possible.

As much as we lament students whose only questions seem to be, "How many points is this worth?" and "Can you just tell me the answer?", we have to acknowledge that they didn't arrive at school that way. If students conclude that schooling isn't really about their learning, they'll make the logical but debilitating choice to trade agency for learning with efficiency.

How AI Can Recharge Student Agency

Fortunately, teachers can use strategies that empower students to act with greater agency (Reeve & Tseng, 2011). Among a variety of factors associated with student agency, two of the most important are autonomy and competence (Ryan & Deci, 2017).

Autonomy is the need to exercise control over one's own actions. It is fostered when students can make intentional decisions about how, what, where, and when they learn, but undermined when they feel controlled, dependent, or helpless.

Competence is the belief that one can apply strategies to accomplish important, challenging tasks. It is supported when students engage in standards-aligned tasks that balance their needs for productive struggle, incremental progress, and success, but undermined when tasks are too easy or too complex or when students cannot access developmental feedback to adjust and refine their strategy and effort to learn.

Effective teachers strive to balance these competing needs. Autonomy without attention to students' needs for competence leaves students overwhelmed. Didactic strategies, where telling is accepted as a proxy for teaching, prevent students from exercising their autonomy to apply strategies that build competence.

What I find remarkable about the earlier quote from Reeve & Tseng about the attributes of agency is that responding to these types of observations and inquiries is exactly what generative AI tools excel at. When prompted intentionally, AI tools can be a nonjudgmental, endlessly patient resource to balance each student's needs for autonomy and competence. Recent research supports this claim. For example:

AI tools can support students' needs for competence when prompted in specific ways. In studies that show increased student learning as a result of using AI, the AI tool had been prompted to respond in ways that align with students' needs for competence: to check for understanding before providing information, to not tell students the answers to any assigned questions until students attempted them first, to ask clarifying questions before moving on, and to limit the length of responses to ensure they meet students' information needs (Bastani et al., 2024; Kestin et al., 2024; Kumar et al., 2023).

AI tools can support students' needs for autonomy when prompted in specific ways. Researchers found that undergraduate physics students learned twice as much-in less time-using an AI tutor than in a whole-group, interactive lesson (Kestin et al., 2024). In this case, the AI tool was fine-tuned to adhere to the competency-supportive constraints such as checking for understanding before providing information and not just telling the students answers. Not only did the AI-tutored students learn more, but they also reported higher levels of engagement and motivation. Why? The authors noted that students could spend as much-or as little-time as necessary in the module, ask and receive immediate answers to clarifying questions, and receive and respond to personalized feedback in real-time.

The conclusion here is not that AI tools can, or should, replace teachers, but that AI tools can support engagement and learning when they are used in agentic rather than superficial ways.

How to Support Students' Agentic Use of AI Tools

Here are just a few ways teachers can help students use AI tools that balance their need for autonomy and competence and allow them to actively engage in the learning process.

1. Help students build competence by focusing on learning goals rather than task completion.

If students think the purpose of an assignment is to answer the teacher's questions correctly, they'll use superficial prompts to gain compliance. To avoid this, teachers can articulate how the task connects to a goal for learning as follows.

Do: Problem set 3.1 . . . so you can: Use precise mathematics vocabulary to explain the benefits and limitations of applying linear models to real-world scenarios.

Do: The reading on pp. 134-139 and complete the discussion-prep graphic organizer . . . so you can: Identify and describe factors that impact patterns in immigration across geographic regions.

Clarifying what students need to do and why gives students language to prompt AI tools to help them understand the goal, rather than simply complete the task.

2. Teach students how to prompt AI tools to support their current level of competence.

To engage with AI tools in a manner that supports their current level of competence, students should:

Share context with the AI tool about the course and one's current level of understanding: For example, is it a middle or high school course? An introductory course or advanced? Is the material new to the student, or is this review?

Share the learning goal: By sharing the learning goal, rather than just the assigned task, the AI tool can be used to help support the student's progress toward the goal rather than simply providing answers to assigned tasks.

Provide constraints: Give the AI tool specific guidance about what it should not do. For example:

Don't just give me answers. Ask for my response or my solution first. Check my understanding before moving on. Answer my questions with limited information and then check my understanding. Go slowly, one step at a time.

3. Empower students to monitor their competence by engaging in self-assessment and asking for feedback.

Self-assessment helps students set realistic goals and focus their use of strategies and effort to improve. Drawing on action steps 1 and 2, consider the following sample prompt:

I am a high school student taking a U.S. History course. I am supposed to be able to "compare and contrast the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution as related to the separation of powers and state's rights." I've read the introductory article my teacher provided (attached) and I think it makes sense to me. Can you ask me four open-ended questions about important points discussed in the article? Then, after I've replied, review my responses for accuracy and clarity, point out any misconceptions, and ask any clarifying questions that would be beneficial.

4. Teach students how AI tools can support their autonomy to navigate productive struggle and ask for help.

Unfortunately, many students think that productive struggle and the need to ask for help are evidence of their inability to grasp a concept. In reality, these are opportunities to be embraced to accelerate learning. Drawing on the previous action steps, consider the following prompt and sentence frames for a student seeking help with a learning goal that requires the student to compare and contrast scientific phenomena. Remember to add the constraints from action step 2.

I am a 9th-grade student learning about similarities and differences between mitosis and meiosis. I know that [write in as much detail as you can], but I don't understand how _____ and _____ are different. Specifically, I don't understand why _____. Can you provide feedback on the accuracy and logic of my current thinking? Then, help clarify where I'm getting stuck.

A similar approach can be used with slightly different sentence frames that align goals to relevant questions for explaining a process, describing part-whole relationships, discerning important similarities and differences, and so on.

5. Encourage students to balance their needs for autonomy and competence by advocating for their learning needs.

Students with a strong sense of agency know that learning isn't passive. Students can exercise agency with AI tools through persistent, directive questions and prompts that support their learning. Example prompts include:

* I've answered some questions from my teacher, but I'd prefer to arrange the information using a graphic organizer. Can you help me set that up?

* I'm overwhelmed with a reading assignment. I've read it through three times and this section doesn't make any sense. [Insert section.] Can you ask me a couple of questions to check my understanding?

* Without a context for the variables in these problems, I am having a hard time visualizing what this math assignment means. Can you give me a real-world context where this equation could be used?

* You are going too fast. I told you to go one step at a time and not to overwhelm me with information. Slow down and provide shorter responses.

* The way you explained that concept is a bit different than how it is described in my textbook. I've attached a photo of the explanation from my text. Summarize the text I've provided and use that explanation as we continue our discussion.

AI for Agency

With the right approach, students can use AI tools in ways that allow them to take control of their learning. If we want students to move beyond superficial uses of AI tools to gain compliance, we can begin by teaching them how to interact with AI tools in ways that value and support their needs as learners.

Reflect & Discuss

➛ What assumptions about grading, learning, or technology prevent your students from seeing AI as more than a tool for compliance? How can you help your students move beyond those assumptions?

➛ Of the five strategies described in the article, which one do you think has the greatest potential to support your students' learning needs? In what ways?

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Given the right framing, AI tools can empower student agency and curiosity.

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What can leaders do to help ensure ChatGPT and other new AI tools will expand and support, rather than undermine, teaching and learning?

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The Overworked Teacher’s Guide to Staying Organized with Google Tasks

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Google Tasks is an underutilized organization tool. It’s built right into your Google Docs, Gmail, and more! Here is your ultimate guide.

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20 creative video project ideas for students of any class

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Integrating video projects into the classroom can be as simple or complex as you want. Cell phone cameras can shoot high quality video and the webcam and

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There's no doubt that Artificial Intelligence has already been transforming classrooms around the world. We've seen the stories from students, teachers, parents, and school officials. You've probably dealt with these tools, apps, and other AI-powered technology in your class and school this year already.

So, how do we manage it?
On the one side, we can say: Shut it down.
The problem is that AI is now built into almost all the tools we are already using for teaching and learning. While last year you may have worried about students going to ChatGPT to help write an essay or answer a discussion question, now that technology is built directly into Google Doc's "Help Me Write" feature.
On the other side, we can say: Embrace it completely.
The problem is that we still want kids to think for themselves, learn how to write and use language effectively, solve problems, come up with their own questions, and be challenged by work that matters. When AI is used to do this work FOR students, it limits learning and hinders growth.

If you are like me (and most of the teachers and schools I've been working with all summer long around Artificial Intelligence), you probably fall somewhere in between.

You realize:

a) This is the world we live in and AI is not going away.

b) There are going to be times when your students should use this technology for learning purposes.

c) There are going to be times when your students should NOT use this technology for learning purposes.

How do we navigate this reality?

Traffic Light Protocol

Earlier this spring/summer I was working with Sam Mormando (Director of Technology, Innovation, and Online Learning), and his team at Garnet Valley School District in PA, leading an Artificial Intelligence seminar for many schools trying to get a handle on this technology and its role in learning.

One of the strategies they were using this past spring in the classroom (and heading into the new school year) made so much sense.

The premise was simple. Sometimes we want to allow and use AI in the classroom, sometimes we don't. How can we make a simple visual for students (and parents) on when to use AI?

Enter the Traffic Light Protocol.

Red Light: NO Artificial Intelligence use allowed on this assignment/activity/project.

Yellow Light: Get Permission to Use Artificial Intelligence on this assignment/activity/project.

Green Light: Encouraged to Use Artificial Intelligence tools on this assignment/activity/project, but let's discuss how you plan on using it.

Mormando put it this way when talking about how his staff and colleagues embraced change: "It's a mindset change for us from years ago. Our teachers are all in. For the first time, they see a tool that can take work off their plates. While at the same time, it's a tool that they can work with students on to better personalize their learning."

I love this strategy because it sets up expectations for learning, actively shares your reasoning and purpose of the assignment, and still includes the teacher as a learning partner to discuss use before students use AI tools for learning purposes.

Real Scenarios In The Classroom

Scenario #1: You are a math teacher working with students on a new concept.

For the first part of class, you are in RED mode. Students are working with you and each other on solving equations, as you are demonstrating. Next, you move to GREEN. They can use AI tools like Photomath, Wolfram Alpha, or Khanmigo to help navigate new problems and be their guide showing steps when they are struggling. It's being used as a learning partner in much the same way you would use a tutor. Finally, you end the class in RED again, students are demonstrating their own understanding of the concept as an exit ticket so you can prepare for tomorrow's class based on where they are right now. For those that need extra practice, they'll be in YELLOW mode creating a short screencast video where they answer 2-3 problems, share their process, and work (only using AI if they get stuck) and highlighting where/when they are using AI if that is the case.

Scenario #2: You are a fifth-grade teacher working through a unit on the rainforest.

Students have been assigned a PBL experience where they are designing a wildlife sanctuary that has the characteristics of a rainforest. You are at the research phase and are in full GREEN. Students are using pre-approved AI tools to research, gather information about the rainforest, and begin to develop a list of characteristics they will use in their design. The following day, as a class you check your research found on AI, and see what was missing, what was wrong information, and what was common across all groups. You then begin creating the sanctuaries in RED mode. Towards the end of the PBL experience, you shift back to YELLOW mode as students are completing their sanctuaries and using AI to design, analyze, and improve their work from an editing perspective.

Scenario #3: You are an English Language Arts teacher working with students on a narrative piece.
Students have been assigned an original narrative, however, the story must take place in the United States during the Great Depression. As part of their information-gathering students are in YELLOW mode using a pre-approved AI tool like Character.ai to have an interaction with an AI "Choose Your Own Adventure" game set in the Great Depression. The class moves into RED mode to brainstorm and create an outline for their story based on three different narrative arcs they can use. They continue in RED as they craft the story in class. Before sharing a rough draft in a Peer review protocol, students go into GREEN mode to use AI to help edit their grammar, spelling, and sentence patterns.

Scenario #4: You are a Social Studies teacher working with students on a research paper.

Students have been assigned a research paper on the impact of the Gutenberg Press. They must include information about Chinese woodblock printing in the 9th century, and Korean bookmaker's use of moveable metal type a century before the Gutenberg model. You begin this process in RED mode, as students research on their own using a variety of sources. After this initial stage, you move to YELLOW, where students use AI tools to help develop an outline for the research paper and identify key quotes from their sources to support their research. They then go into RED to begin writing the paper. Finally, they go GREEN using a tool like Jenni.ai for editing, citing sources, and creating a works cited (or bibliography) page.

Final Thoughts

This is going to look different in every class, grade level, and subject area. Teachers will have to adjust, re-adjust, and rethink a lot of our practices, assignments, and assessments in a world of artificial intelligence.

The Traffic Light strategy is simple, but it starts us down a path of embracing AI when it can be used to help the learning process and as a learning partner. It also provides an avenue for limiting the use of AI if it is impacting learning in a negative way.

Would love to hear more strategies of what's working right now! Keep sharing!

There's no doubt that Artificial Intelligence has already been transforming classrooms around the world. We've seen the stories from students, teachers, parents, and school officials. You've probably dealt with these tools, apps, and other AI-powered technology in your class and school this year already.

So, how do we manage it?
On the one side, we can say: Shut it down.
The problem is that AI is now built into almost all the tools we are already using for teaching and learning. While last year you may have worried about students going to ChatGPT to help write an essay or answer a discussion question, now that technology is built directly into Google Doc's "Help Me Write" feature.
On the other side, we can say: Embrace it completely.
The problem is that we still want kids to think for themselves, learn how to write and use language effectively, solve problems, come up with their own questions, and be challenged by work that matters. When AI is used to do this work FOR students, it limits learning and hinders growth.

If you are like me (and most of the teachers and schools I've been working with all summer long around Artificial Intelligence), you probably fall somewhere in between.

You realize:

a) This is the world we live in and AI is not going away.

b) There are going to be times when your students should use this technology for learning purposes.

c) There are going to be times when your students should NOT use this technology for learning purposes.

How do we navigate this reality?

Traffic Light Protocol

Earlier this spring/summer I was working with Sam Mormando (Director of Technology, Innovation, and Online Learning), and his team at Garnet Valley School District in PA, leading an Artificial Intelligence seminar for many schools trying to get a handle on this technology and its role in learning.

One of the strategies they were using this past spring in the classroom (and heading into the new school year) made so much sense.

The premise was simple. Sometimes we want to allow and use AI in the classroom, sometimes we don't. How can we make a simple visual for students (and parents) on when to use AI?

Enter the Traffic Light Protocol.

Red Light: NO Artificial Intelligence use allowed on this assignment/activity/project.

Yellow Light: Get Permission to Use Artificial Intelligence on this assignment/activity/project.

Green Light: Encouraged to Use Artificial Intelligence tools on this assignment/activity/project, but let's discuss how you plan on using it.

Mormando put it this way when talking about how his staff and colleagues embraced change: "It's a mindset change for us from years ago. Our teachers are all in. For the first time, they see a tool that can take work off their plates. While at the same time, it's a tool that they can work with students on to better personalize their learning."

I love this strategy because it sets up expectations for learning, actively shares your reasoning and purpose of the assignment, and still includes the teacher as a learning partner to discuss use before students use AI tools for learning purposes.

Real Scenarios In The Classroom

Scenario #1: You are a math teacher working with students on a new concept.

For the first part of class, you are in RED mode. Students are working with you and each other on solving equations, as you are demonstrating. Next, you move to GREEN. They can use AI tools like Photomath, Wolfram Alpha, or Khanmigo to help navigate new problems and be their guide showing steps when they are struggling. It's being used as a learning partner in much the same way you would use a tutor. Finally, you end the class in RED again, students are demonstrating their own understanding of the concept as an exit ticket so you can prepare for tomorrow's class based on where they are right now. For those that need extra practice, they'll be in YELLOW mode creating a short screencast video where they answer 2-3 problems, share their process, and work (only using AI if they get stuck) and highlighting where/when they are using AI if that is the case.

Scenario #2: You are a fifth-grade teacher working through a unit on the rainforest.

Students have been assigned a PBL experience where they are designing a wildlife sanctuary that has the characteristics of a rainforest. You are at the research phase and are in full GREEN. Students are using pre-approved AI tools to research, gather information about the rainforest, and begin to develop a list of characteristics they will use in their design. The following day, as a class you check your research found on AI, and see what was missing, what was wrong information, and what was common across all groups. You then begin creating the sanctuaries in RED mode. Towards the end of the PBL experience, you shift back to YELLOW mode as students are completing their sanctuaries and using AI to design, analyze, and improve their work from an editing perspective.

Scenario #3: You are an English Language Arts teacher working with students on a narrative piece.
Students have been assigned an original narrative, however, the story must take place in the United States during the Great Depression. As part of their information-gathering students are in YELLOW mode using a pre-approved AI tool like Character.ai to have an interaction with an AI "Choose Your Own Adventure" game set in the Great Depression. The class moves into RED mode to brainstorm and create an outline for their story based on three different narrative arcs they can use. They continue in RED as they craft the story in class. Before sharing a rough draft in a Peer review protocol, students go into GREEN mode to use AI to help edit their grammar, spelling, and sentence patterns.

Scenario #4: You are a Social Studies teacher working with students on a research paper.

Students have been assigned a research paper on the impact of the Gutenberg Press. They must include information about Chinese woodblock printing in the 9th century, and Korean bookmaker's use of moveable metal type a century before the Gutenberg model. You begin this process in RED mode, as students research on their own using a variety of sources. After this initial stage, you move to YELLOW, where students use AI tools to help develop an outline for the research paper and identify key quotes from their sources to support their research. They then go into RED to begin writing the paper. Finally, they go GREEN using a tool like Jenni.ai for editing, citing sources, and creating a works cited (or bibliography) page.

Final Thoughts

This is going to look different in every class, grade level, and subject area. Teachers will have to adjust, re-adjust, and rethink a lot of our practices, assignments, and assessments in a world of artificial intelligence.

The Traffic Light strategy is simple, but it starts us down a path of embracing AI when it can be used to help the learning process and as a learning partner. It also provides an avenue for limiting the use of AI if it is impacting learning in a negative way.

Would love to hear more strategies of what's working right now! Keep sharing!

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A.J. Juliani | The Traffic Light Protocol: A Simple Way to Manage the AI Classroom

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If you are like me (and most of the teachers and schools I've been working with all summer long around Artificial Intelligence), you probably fall somewhere in between. You realize: a) This is the world we live in and AI is not going away.

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Students submit their own writing for feedback and suggestions.

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AI to help teachers give instant, personalized feedback on written assignments. Engaged practice for students, time savings and insights for teachers. Use built-in assignments or add your own. Supported subjects include Social Studies, English, Science, and World Languages.

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Teaching AI like it is just a set of tools is a mistake. It's not just outdated - it's risky and potentially dangerous.
Institutions are rushing to teach learners how to use generative AI tools as if those tools themselves are the point of education. Spoiler alert: they are not. These tools will be obsolete in a year or change so quickly they will be unrecognizable, replaced by something faster, more powerful, and probably named after a Greek letter or forgotten mythological hero. Yet here we are, tying our teaching to tools destined for obsolescence instead of focusing on the skills that matter - curiosity, adaptability, and ethical awareness. Ah, education, we will never learn.

If we keep fixating on tools, we're not just failing learners; we're setting them up for irrelevance. AI education isn't about training button-pushers, passive operators, or cog-turners even if it's under the guise of operational efficiency. It's about preparing thinkers and creators to thrive in a world defined by constant change. They need to learn how to adapt, how to question, and how to innovate in the face of ambiguity.

Some questions I have been pondering this week include: What happens when institutions churn out AI "button-pushers" without critical thinking skills? Who takes responsibility when tools built by well-intentioned yet uncritical learners amplify bias and harm? Are we preparing learners to shape the future of AI - or to be shaped by it? What are we risking by prioritizing convenience and conformity over curiosity and critical thinking?

This post is a challenge to educators, departmental leaders, and decision-makers on how we approach teaching and learning around AI. It's time we stop clinging to traditional frameworks. It's time to dig deeper, teaching the processes and mindsets that will help learners lead, not just survive, in the ever-changing age of AI.

The truth is, we're drowning in AI literacy frameworks. I built my first one two years ago, a newbie to this space. Every organization and academic institution seems to have its own version - a neatly packaged list of competencies, often built on Bloom's Taxonomy, marching predictably from "understand" to "create." Yet, in practice, these frameworks feel like they're designed for an era where innovation moved at the speed of committee meetings, not generative models cranking out paradigm shifts weekly.

The problem isn't the lack or even the abundance of frameworks; it's that many of them start from a traditional place for a new, non-traditional setting. When faced with the reality of education changing, the frameworks tend toward a focus on static knowledge or mechanical skill-building, assuming that what students, staff, or faculty learn today will still be relevant tomorrow. This is not just short-sighted - it's risky in a world where tools update faster than your favorite app can push a patch.

So where do you start? I would suggest we need to invert the traditional approaches, starting not with passive understanding but with active creation. Let learners experiment, fail, refine, and innovate. Anchor learning not in mastery of the ephemeral but in cultivating skills that endure: critical inquiry, ethical reflection, and adaptability. This mindset-first approach doesn't just prepare students, staff, faculty, any learner to use AI; it equips them to question it, reshape it, and lead in a world transformed by it.

If your AI curriculum centers only on today's tools, you are teaching learners to survive the present, not lead the future. A mindset-driven approach prepares them to question, adapt, and innovate as AI reshapes every field it touches. Learners must think critically, act ethically, and stay curious. No amount of understanding a specific tool interface will drive sustainable change. While mindset and process are essential, some educators might argue that learners also need practical, tool-specific training to function effectively in the immediate workforce. Employers may expect graduates to have hands-on proficiency with current tools. I agree, I just do not think it is the starting or the ending point.

Technical skills are important, but they are not enough on their own. Teaching the underlying principles of tools, of collaboration, of reflective practice, ensures that learners can adapt quickly to new technologies as they emerge. Mindset and process complement technical skills, equipping learners to apply their knowledge flexibly, evaluate outputs critically, and refine solutions effectively. Together, these approaches prepare learners to meet both immediate workforce demands and long-term challenges in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

So, here are some considerations for a mindset versus toolset approach:

Ethics and Responsibility Are Non-Negotiables

AI is never neutral. It shapes outputs and lives, drives decisions, and magnifies power. That makes ethical foresight a requirement, not a footnote. Learners need to see past the slick interfaces and ask the hard questions: Who benefits? Who's excluded? What biases lurk in the data? And most critically, what will they do when they uncover an uncomfortable truth or discovery?

Take facial recognition, for example - tools trained on skewed datasets disproportionately fail to recognize darker-skinned faces, leading to harmful, real-world consequences. Learners must not only grapple with these failures but take responsibility for designing systems that challenge, rather than reinforce, inequity. Teaching ethical foresight prepares technologists, humanists, and creatives to address challenges directly, shaping AI with accountability and purpose.

Adaptability Over Dependency

Clinging to specific tools is like trying to navigate rough seas with only one oar. You are limited, stuck reacting to the waves instead of steering through them. A mindset-first approach teaches learners to evaluate the whole vessel: the sails, the rudder, and even the currents themselves. It gives them the ability to adapt, pivot, and find new ways forward when tools change, as they always will. Rather than seeing change as a setback, they use it to explore fresh strategies, rethink their approach, and keep moving ahead.

Consider how learners engage with Large Language Models. Those who rely on memorized prompt tricks risk falling behind as newer versions emerge or entirely different systems take their place. These systems are increasingly complex and will continue to evolve in their reasoning structures. In contrast, learners trained in process - those who know how to evaluate outputs, question data sources, and iterate - are not shaken by change. They embrace it, using each evolution as an opportunity to test, refine, and rethink how they approach challenges.

Curiosity as a Driver

AI education thrives on curiosity. Learners need the freedom to tinker, test, fail, and try again. In many cases, it has even leveled the roles of instructor and student, transforming learning into a process of co-investigation. Instead of teaching learners to color inside the lines, we should hand them the tools and ask, "What will you create? What can we create together? This is what I learned in this process, how about you?" The focus shifts from achieving perfect results to exploring possibilities, uncovering patterns, and learning through iteration.

Curiosity is more than play. It is the engine for asking hard questions: Why did the model behave this way? What shaped this output? How can it be pushed further? When learners adopt a mindset of questioning everything, they move from passive engagement to active innovation. Recently in my life, someone scoffed at the idea of teaching curiosity and creative thinking. They dismissed play as a frivolous distraction, irrelevant to "serious" learning. Their reaction wasn't surprising - it reflected an educational system that too often crushes curiosity instead of cultivating it.

But AI demands curiosity. Without it, we risk producing learners who can follow instructions but fail to question the systems they use. Curiosity isn't a luxury. It's a necessity.

A Case for Process Over Product

Process builds expertise that endures, focusing on critical skills that integrate knowledge and drive iterative creation. Reflection, iteration, and adaptation form the foundation of a process-driven approach. Learners refine their understanding with each cycle, integrating what they discover into new solutions and creative possibilities.

Generative AI thrives on this iterative cycle, where creating, testing, questioning, and refining for understanding are essential. Learning AI should mirror this approach, emphasizing the adaptability to troubleshoot unexpected outcomes, evaluate results critically, and apply knowledge in innovative ways. By engaging deeply in the process, learners build habits that last: they ask better questions, uncover patterns, and connect ideas across contexts. These habits not only prepare them for changing tools but also give them the confidence to innovate, adapt, and lead in any environment.
And now, I am fully prepared for the educational theorists to come for me with pitchforks.
Traditional Bloom's Taxonomy is a climb - learners start at the bottom, remembering and understanding concepts, before advancing to applying, analyzing, evaluating, and eventually creating. This made sense in a world where knowledge was considered more static or even a smidge more linear, but AI disrupts this model.

The gateway of learning in the age of AI is creation.

Starting with creation encourages learners to experiment, build, and test real-world ideas, sparking curiosity and uncovering the questions that drive deeper understanding. By engaging in creation, learners explore how tools work through hands-on experimentation and real-world application.

Learners begin by evaluating their outcomes, asking: What needs to change to improve this result? They then move to analyzing the problem: Why did this approach lead to this outcome? Next, they apply their insights to adjust and refine their work: What can I do differently next time? Through this process, learners build understanding by connecting their discoveries to broader concepts and systems. Finally, they remember key lessons and integrate them into future iterations.

Create is the entry point, not the pinnacle. It drives learners to evaluate the outcomes of their work, analyze what worked (and what did not), and apply what they've learned in new ways. This isn't about skipping foundational knowledge - it's about embedding that knowledge in meaningful action.

A flexible model to be adapted to different contexts, it might go something like this:

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Process Over Product, Mindset Over Toolset: Inverting Bloom's Taxonomy for Teaching AI

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Teaching AI like it is just a set of tools is a mistake. It's not just outdated - it's risky and potentially dangerous. Institutions are rushing to teach learners how to use generative AI tools as if...

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How AI can make any template work for your class

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Use tools like ChatGPT to make creative teaching ideas (and templates) work for your class -- no matter what you teach.Imagine it ... you’re scrolling

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AI is rapidly emerging as a powerful tool to support educators in new and exciting ways. Imagine having an intelligent partner in the classroom, one

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Meet Google NotebookLM: 10 things to know for educators

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PDFs. Long documents. Websites and articles. A lot of teaching and learning is focused on reading them ... synthesizing them ... remembering them…

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Not your computer? Use Guest mode to sign in privately. Learn more about using Guest mode

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The Overworked Teacher's Guide to Staying Organized with Google Tasks

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Google Tasks is an underutilized organization tool. It's built right into your Google Docs, Gmail, and more! Here is your ultimate guide.

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1. Go to bookcreator.com and click Teacher Sign In.

2. Create a free teacher account using Google, Microsoft, or email.

3. Once logged in, click Create a Library. This is like your virtual classroom.

4. Click the Invite Students button to get a class code.

5. Have students go to app.bookcreator.com and enter the class code to join your library.

6. Now students can click New Book and start creating!

No downloading, no accounts for students to manage. Just creativity and publishing in minutes!

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Book Creator - Love Learning - Book Creator app

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Teachers love it. Students love it. Book Creator is the simplest, most inclusive way to create content in the classroom.

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Thinking About Your Thinking Examples - AI

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Thinking About Your Thinking Examples - AI

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Creative Ways to Use the ‘Thinking About Your Thinking’ Template in K–12 Classrooms

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Creative Ways to Use the Plot Diagram Across K-12 Classrooms

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I was recently told by one of my students that my class "isn't necessarily easy, but it's simple." And, I've got to be honest with you...it made my day. I take that as a huge compliment. The simple classroom is something I strive for and is constantly on my mind when I consider both the physical environment and instruction provided during class. The fact that a student noticed this is immense. And that she could differentiate between simple and easy? I'm not sure that many students have the wherewithal to do that. I was impressed. : )
So, what does a simple classroom look and feel like?
There are a few words that come to mind when I consider the simple classroom:

The first is predictable. Rules and expectations are known. Everyone generally knows how the classroom works. They know what to expect and they understand the procedures for how to behave in the classroom as well as how to correctly complete certain activities that will be frequently administered during lessons.

A secondary term that works hand in hand with the predictability of the simple classroom is consistency. It's not enough to have appropriate rules, procedures, and expectations...they have to be applied equally and routinely. If that isn't the case, the classroom loses its predictability. My students know the first activity we will complete just about every day in my classroom is a short review of content from the previous day's lesson. This only takes about 5 minutes, but it helps to demonstrate the importance of retrieval practice via spaced practice and helps to focus students' attention from the beginning bell. They know to expect this review because it is consistently administered.

In addition, the simple classroom presents itself to be organized and . Visuals on the wall or on the board need to serve an instructional purpose and add to the lessons. Otherwise, they may serve as distractions to learning.

"The visual perception system in the brain can process a limited number of outside stimuli,
which can compete for visual attention. The more stimuli present, the harder it is for the brain to focus on one object. The clutter in disorganized workspaces can impact focus on the task at hand. Distractions such as objects and perceptions can slow down a person's ability to process information, causing mistakes." (1)

While it may seem obvious to the teacher what learners should attend to visually in the classroom, we shouldn't assume it is as clear to the students what is important and what is not. For the simple classroom, less (visual distraction) is more (attention to content). This need for tidiness also applies to the auditory elements of the simple classroom. A classroom cluttered with needless noise...idle chatter, earbuds in ears playing music, et cetera...also only serves to distract students.

All of this leads to a last word that describes the simple classroom - . The classroom's predictability, consistency, organization and , allows both the teacher and students to simply on what is important for learning; the presentation, the content, the questioning, the discussion, et cetera. Anything that takes away from this ability to focus also takes away from the simplicity of the classroom. And, when learning becomes more complicated...yikes...usually not good.

Keep it simple.

Once the simple environment is established, the next focus should be on the simplicity of the instruction. A large majority of the students I teach are novice learners when it comes to the curriculum of psychology. And novice learners learn best when the instruction is simpler. It comes back to students being able to focus on what's important without having to decide what to attend to while ignoring all other stimuli. If I am teaching new and complex information, the novice learner needs to focus more on the material to-be learned and less on potentially intricate instructions for how to successfully complete an activity.***

Keep it simple.
Why is a simple classroom not necessarily an easy classroom?
While sometimes viewed together, simple and easy are two totally different attributes. Lifting 500 pounds is simple. Just pick it up. But is it easy? For the vast majority of human beings, the answer is a resounding no. So, just because I create a simple, focused environment in the classroom and present material in a simple, straightforward manner (especially when initially introducing content), doesn't mean what is being taught or how students are meant to think about and use the content is easy. Of course, students need to be challenged in a way that assesses their level of understanding and makes known what they know and where the holes are in their learning. That isn't accomplished in an easy classroom, but is most validly and reliably achieved in the simple classroom filled with frequent assessment of learning. Students should be doing a lot of thinking; a lot of assessing and using their newly gained knowledge to answer questions, discuss problems, and think creatively.

Keep it simple. Keep them thinking.

In my upcoming book, I talk extensively about memory processing and learning strategies. These strategies have over a century of research demonstrating increased retention of material for all age levels and ability levels. This vastly expands on the simple classroom. If you are interested in finding out more, my book is currently available for preorder:

US - tinyurl.com/4jjsp7w5

UK - tinyurl.com/cw6m37df

Annes, C. K., Taylor, J. A., & Hallock, R. M. The effect of workspace tidiness on schoolwork performance of high school students. https://ipalab.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf2841/files/documents/Charlotte2023.pdf

***Please check out this article for more on novice vs. expert learners.

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The Simple Classroom - The Effortful Educator

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"Coach Harvard, your classroom isn't necessarily easy, but it's simple." Why did I see that as a wonderful compliment? What is the simple classroom?

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Easy fun social writing challenge

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Engage students with the collaborative writing game that boosts creativity and critical thinking. We help middle school ELA teachers enhance literacy.

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50 FREE graphic organizers — and how to make your own

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Graphic organizers can help students gather their thoughts and customize to their needs. They are easy to make (or find) online and can be adapted for

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The Jigsaw Classroom is a cooperative learning technique that reduces racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience.

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The jigsaw technique is a cooperative learning approach that reduces racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience.

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Insert a YouTube video and get a MIND MAP of the video

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‎Let AI take notes for you! Record lectures and automatically generate study guides, quizzes, and flashcards from lecture notes. Get the grade you want and deserve by using AI legally and ethically. Coconote is the more trusted and reliable alternative to Study Fetch, Quizard, Answers AI, Otter, Wave…

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Google Smarter Not Harder - Sheets LMS Interface (Induction)

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Google Smarter Not Harder - Sheets LMS Interface (Induction)

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Otter.ai - AI Meeting Note Taker & Real-time AI Transcription

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Otter.ai uses an AI Meeting Assistant to transcribe meetings in real time, record audio, capture slides, extract action items, and generate an AI meeting summary.

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November 4, 2023 Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask!
Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don't use it if you hate humor!

A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the 𝕏 platform. It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.

Grok is still a very early beta product - the best we could do with 2 months of training - so expect it to improve rapidly with each passing week with your help.

Thank you,
the xAI Team

Why we are building Grok

At xAI, we want to create AI tools that assist humanity in its quest for understanding and knowledge.

By creating and improving Grok, we aim to:

Gather feedback and ensure we are building AI tools that maximally benefit all of humanity. We believe that it is important to design AI tools that are useful to people of all backgrounds and political views. We also want empower our users with our AI tools, subject to the law. Our goal with Grok is to explore and demonstrate this approach in public.

Empower research and innovation: We want Grok to serve as a powerful research assistant for anyone, helping them to quickly access relevant information, process data, and come up with new ideas.

Our ultimate goal is for our AI tools to assist in the pursuit of understanding.

The journey to Grok-1

The engine powering Grok is Grok-1, our frontier LLM, which we developed over the last four months. Grok-1 has gone through many iterations over this span of time.

After announcing xAI, we trained a prototype LLM (Grok-0) with 33 billion parameters. This early model approaches LLaMA 2 (70B) capabilities on standard LM benchmarks but uses only half of its training resources. In the last two months, we have made significant improvements in reasoning and coding capabilities leading up to Grok-1, a state-of-the-art language model that is significantly more powerful, achieving 63.2% on the HumanEval coding task and 73% on MMLU.

To understand the capability improvements we made with Grok-1, we have conducted a series of evaluations using a few standard machine learning benchmarks designed to measure math and reasoning abilities.

GSM8k: Middle school math word problems, (Cobbe et al. 2021), using the chain-of-thought prompt.

MMLU: Multidisciplinary multiple choice questions, (Hendrycks et al. 2021), provided 5-shot in-context examples.

HumanEval: Python code completion task, (Chen et al. 2021), zero-shot evaluated for pass@1.

MATH: Middle school and high school mathematics problems written in LaTeX, (Hendrycks et al. 2021), prompted with a fixed 4-shot prompt.

On these benchmarks, Grok-1 displayed strong results, surpassing all other models in its compute class, including ChatGPT-3.5 and Inflection-1. It is only surpassed by models that were trained with a significantly larger amount of training data and compute resources like GPT-4. This showcases the rapid progress we are making at xAI in training LLMs with exceptional efficiency.

Since these benchmarks can be found on the web and we can't rule out that our models were inadvertently trained on them, we hand-graded our model (and also Claude-2 and GPT-4) on the 2023 Hungarian national high school finals in mathematics, which was published at the end of May, after we collected our dataset. Grok passed the exam with a C (59%), while Claude-2 achieved the same grade (55%), and GPT-4 got a B with 68%. All models were evaluated at temperature 0.1 and the same prompt. It must be noted that we made no effort to tune for this evaluation. This experiment served as a "real-life" test on a dataset our model was never explicitly tuned for.

We provide a summary of the important technical details of Grok-1 in the model card.

Engineering at xAI

At the frontier of deep learning research, reliable infrastructure must be built with the same care as datasets and learning algorithms. To create Grok, we built a custom training and inference stack based on Kubernetes, Rust, and JAX.

LLM training runs like a freight train thundering ahead; if one car derails, the entire train is dragged off the tracks, making it difficult to set upright again. There are a myriad of ways GPUs fail: manufacturing defects, loose connections, incorrect configuration, degraded memory chips, the occasional random bit flip, and more. When training, we synchronize computations across tens of thousands of GPUs for months on end, and all these failure modes become frequent due to scale. To overcome these challenges, we employ a set of custom distributed systems that ensure that every type of failure is immediately identified and automatically handled. At xAI, we have made maximizing useful compute per watt the key focus of our efforts. Over the past few months, our infrastructure has enabled us to minimize downtime and maintain a high Model Flop Utilization (MFU) even in the presence of unreliable hardware.

Rust has proven to be an ideal choice for building scalable, reliable, and maintainable infrastructure. It offers high performance, a rich ecosystem, and prevents the majority of bugs one would typically find in a distributed system. Given our small team size, infrastructure reliability is crucial, otherwise, maintenance starves innovation. Rust provides us with confidence that any code modification or refactor is likely to produce working programs that will run for months with minimal supervision.

We are now preparing for our next jump in model capabilities, which will require reliably coordinating training runs on tens of thousands of accelerators, running internet-scale data pipelines, and building new kinds of capabilities and tools into Grok. If that sounds exciting to you, apply to join the team here.

Research at xAI

We give Grok access to search tools and real-time information, but as with all the LLMs trained on next-token prediction, our model can still generate false or contradictory information. We believe that achieving reliable reasoning is the most important research direction to address the limitations of current systems. Here, we would like to highlight a few promising research directions we are most excited about at xAI:

Scalable oversight with tool assistance. Human feedback is essential. However, providing consistent and accurate feedback can be challenging, especially when dealing with lengthy code or complex reasoning steps. AI can assist with scalable oversight by looking up references from different sources, verifying intermediate steps with external tools, and seeking human feedback when necessary. We aim to make the most effective use of our AI tutors' time with the help of our models.

Integrating with formal verification for safety, reliability, and grounding. To create AI systems that can reason deeply about the real world, we plan to develop reasoning skills in less ambiguous and more verifiable situations. This allows us to evaluate our systems without human feedback or interaction with the real world. One major immediate goal of this approach is to give formal guarantees for code correctness, especially regarding formally verifiable aspects of AI safety.

Long-context understanding and retrieval. Training models for efficiently discovering useful knowledge in a particular context are at the heart of producing truly intelligent systems. We are working on methods that can discover and retrieve information whenever it is needed.

Adversarial robustness. Adversarial examples demonstrate that optimizers can easily exploit vulnerabilities in AI systems, both during training and serving time, causing them to make egregious mistakes. These vulnerabilities are long-standing weaknesses of deep learning models. We are particularly interested in improving the robustness of LLMs, reward models, and monitoring systems.

Multimodal capabilities. Currently, Grok doesn't have other senses, such as vision and audio. To better assist users, we will equip Grok with these different senses that can enable broader applications, including real-time interactions and assistance.

We believe that AI holds immense potential for contributing significant scientific and economic value to society, so we will work towards developing reliable safeguards against catastrophic forms of malicious use. We believe in doing our utmost to ensure that AI remains a force for good.

If you share our optimism and want to contribute to our mission, apply to join the team here.

Early Access to Grok

We are offering a limited number of users in the United States to try out our Grok prototype and provide valuable feedback that will help us improve its capabilities before a wider release. You can join the Grok waitlist here. This release just represents the first step for xAI. Looking ahead, we have an exciting roadmap and will be rolling out new capabilities and features in the coming months.

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A research assistant that helps you ask the right questions, find information online and make sense of the world.

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Google NotebookLM | AI Research Tool & Thinking Partner

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Meet NotebookLM, the AI research tool and thinking partner that can analyze your sources, turn complexity into clarity and transform your content.

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Today, few people make software.

And even fewer make edtech. What would happen if millions of educators and students started building tools for their own contexts?

Tools that Save Time

From IEPs to emails, teachers spend hours on paperwork. Teachers are building tools to save time so they can focus on what matters.

Tools to Empower Better Design

Get tailored help with idea generation, creative brainstorming, and designing project-based experiences. Start from scratch or remix existing tools to fit your context.

Tools for Students to Explore

Share purpose-built chatbots for knowledge exploration, reinforcement and inquiry-based learning. Have students can also build their own tools to share with their peers.

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Today, few people make software. And even fewer make edtech. What would happen if millions of educators and students started building tools for their own contexts? Tools that Save Time From IEPs to emails, teachers spend hours on paperwork. Teachers are building tools to save time so they can focus on what matters.

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Modern Classrooms - Blended Student-led Learning

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Modern Classrooms - Blended Student-led Learning

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Modern Classrooms Project - Free blended, self-paced, mastery-based PD, built by teachers.

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An innovative, research-backed instructional model that responds to every student's needs. Our free online course has empowered thousands of educators!

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Directions for Use: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-n1LUY9CKsYQB8P_kIhgnQcY-YLT-oZzg0MEEgOLU04/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.pp9yfqy9b1au

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Tell me what subject(s) and grade level you teach to start the simulation.

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Chipp | Build & Sell Custom ChatGPT & AI on Your Website

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Turn prompts into products. Build, share and sell your AI tools. Simply copy and paste to embed them into your existing products and services.

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20 useful ways to use Padlet in the classroom

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Padlet is a web app that lets users post notes on a digital wall. The uses for this site in the classroom are virtually endless!There’s a good chance

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Create groups and stay on track during small-group learning. Sign up for free and get started in seconds.

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AI-Powered Language Experience Platform

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Twee – Tweak your lessons with the power of AI

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🤯 Create questions for any YouTube video in just a few seconds😲 Generate dialogues, stories, letters or articles on any topic and for any level😱 Quickly create multiple choice questions, open questions, and True/False statements🤭 Find interesting discussion questions, facts, and quotes by famous people related to the topic🤩 Brainstorm vocabulary related to the topic and create fill-in-the-gap and open-the-brackets exercisesAnd much more!

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TeachAI brings together education leaders and technology experts to assist governments and education authorities in teaching with and about AI. The initiative is led by Code.org, ETS, the International Society for Technology in Education, Khan Academy, and the World Economic Forum and advised by a diverse group of 100+ organizations, governments, and individuals. TeachAI’s goals include guiding policy, building community and capacity, and increasing awareness. To learn more about TeachAI, please visit www.teachai.org/about.

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Get visuals from your text

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Napkin AI - The AI assistant for visual communication

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Just type, copy-paste or generate your text and Napkin will instantly transform it into insightful visuals. Make your communication more effective with Napkin.

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22 killer keyboard shortcuts (and a challenge!) for busy educators

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Hunting and clicking is so slow. If you’re navigating your computer, laptop or Chromebook primarily by using your mouse or touchpad, you’re squandering

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Prompt Library

Prompts on this page (but no other content on the site) are licensed under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International This license requires that reusers give credit to the creators (Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick). It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes. Use prompts at your own risk, outputs may not be correct.

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Prompt Library - More Useful Things: AI Resources

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Prompts on this page (but no other content on the site) are licensed under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International This license requires that reusers give credit to the creators (Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick). It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes.

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Teaching Naked - AI and Teaching Workshops

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COMPLETE PROMPTS from TEACHING WITH AI - Teaching Naked

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Here are all of the AI prompts from Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning by José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson, available from Amazon or Johns Hopkins (with 30% using the code HTWN). They are here in order and by chapter to allow you to copy and paste quickly. Many of

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Formerly JamBoard

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Skip to main content Try FigJam

FigJam empowers teams to build better products, together. Define ideas, align on decisions, and move work forward-all in one place.

Jump to use cases

FigJam empowers teams to build better products, together. Define ideas, align on decisions, and move work forward-all in one place.

The right tool for any job

From brainstorm to build and everything in between, FigJam makes it easy for teams to collaborate in real time.

Riff and build on ideas in real time to discover new ways to tackle tough problems.

Learn more

Get a running start with templates

Project kickoff

Give your team jams a boost-with AI

FigJam's AI features help you and your team get going and keep going.

Features that keep everyone on the same page

Empower everyone throughout the product development process to contribute, give feedback, and make better decisions, faster.

Try for free

Work seamlessly with Figma

Share assets between Figma and FigJam to easily transition from early thinking to final revisions.

Get started

Create a workflow that works for you

Whether you're breaking the ice or planning a project, FigJam has all of the integrations, widgets, and plugins your team needs to move work forward.

Explore widgets

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The Online Collaborative Whiteboard for Teams

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A visual collaborative whiteboard where teams can diagram, brainstorm, and organize ideas together.

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MagicSchool.ai - AI for teachers - lesson planning and more!

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Join over a million teachers saving hours of time using the #1 AI Platform for Education, MagicSchool, to help lesson plan, differentiate, write assessments, write IEPs, communicate clearly, and more!

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SchoolAI gives educators the time, data, and tools to design a better, more personalized classroom experience. Free for teachers. Create. Personalize. Engage.

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AI with SOURCES!

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Create questions from videos

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Twee – Tweak your lessons with the power of AI

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🤯 Create questions for any YouTube video in just a few seconds😲 Generate dialogues, stories, letters or articles on any topic and for any level😱 Quickly create multiple choice questions, open questions, and True/False statements🤭 Find interesting discussion questions, facts, and quotes by famous people related to the topic🤩 Brainstorm vocabulary related to the topic and create fill-in-the-gap and open-the-brackets exercisesAnd much more!

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Don’t do the work if you don’t have to.Our templates get your students to work quickly.Download or make a copy. Adjust as necessary. Assign to your

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All over the world, people live in diverse regions, and climates with different animals, plants, and interesting nuances. As I have traveled the world working with teachers and students, I have tried…

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6 AI-powered Google Tools for the classroom

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6 AI-powered Google Tools for the classroom

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6 AI-powered Google tools for the classroom

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AI large language models (LLMs) are here. And they’re already starting to impact how we teach and learn.We’re thinking twice about their role in student

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10 Low-prep High-return activities for tomorrow!

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10 Low-prep High-return activities for tomorrow!

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10 low-prep, high-return activities for class TOMORROW

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There’s no shame in low-prep! Here are 10 solid teaching ideas for tomorrow that will free up some time in your life.Low-prep doesn’t have to mean less

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CodeTribe | Text-based Coding for Middle- & High-schools

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CodeTribe.com | The No.1 Platform to teach Text-based Coding in Middle and High Schools

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CodeTribe | Like repl.it but for Teachers. Create lessons, quests or open projects in a snap. Mobile-friendly, collaborative and incredibly fun. Try it!

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Getting Started with FigJam (formerly Jamboard)

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Getting Started with FigJam (formerly Jamboard)

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Ed Tech

We learned quickly how to use online whiteboards during remote teaching and many of us now even have interactive displays in our classrooms.

But how does that translate to face to face learning?

And how do we make the most of new technology like interactive displays in our classrooms?

Enter FigJam, an online collaborative whiteboard developed by Figma. It's perfect for both blended learning and whole-class instruction with interactive displays. Its user-friendly interface and engaging features are quickly making FigJam a favorite among educators.

Really, it has all the features we hoped Google Jamboard would have (but didn't).

And now, with Google Jamboard being phased out, FigJam can step in and fill that void with a product that's not going anywhere AND the ability to migrate Jamboard files into FigJam.

So ... what's it all about? How do we use it?

In this post we'll explore some of the standout features that make FigJam a must-try tool for teachers and ways to use them in your class tomorrow.

What is FigJam?

FigJam is an online collaboration tool developed by Figma that allows groups to brainstorm, develop, and organize ideas. Multiple people can work on a FigJam board at the same time, adding reactions to other people's work and even sharing fun "emotes" that display their emotion in the moment.

Getting started with FigJam

In Day 1: Exploring FigJam your students will go through four different activities to help them learn and discover the possibilities of FigJam. They will use the marker tool to draw a self portrait, add a stamp to a place they would like to visit, use the sticky notes to share some of their favorites and record a voice memo with their best animal impression.
Day 1 in FigJam: Exploring with Students

Must-know FigJam features

Thankfully, FigJam is a really intuitive app -- meaning, it's easy to figure out just by trying it. However, there are some features and details that take a bit of explaining. Once you get them, though, it makes your use of FigJam more powerful! Here are some of our favorite FigJam features to get you up to speed.

Sticky Notes

Pen and Highlighter

Shapes and Connectors

Timer

Stamps and Emotes

Link Previews

What are they? Link previews in FigJam help guide meeting participants to focus on the content that matters most, making it easy for teachers to direct students' attention to specific areas of the board.

Learn more: Add link previews in FigJam

Comments

What are they? FigJam enables students to leave comments on each other's work, ask questions, and provide feedback, fostering a supportive learning environment.
Learn more: Comments in FigJam

Widgets

Stickers

Sections

High Fives

What are they? High fives in FigJam are a fun way to celebrate achievements and encourage collaboration. This feature adds an element of excitement and positivity to the learning experience
Learn more: Stamps, emotes, and high-fives

20 ideas for using FigJam in class (plus templates)!

So ... what could this look like in class? I'm glad you asked! Here are several ideas for using it with your students.
Need help bringing FigJam to your school or class? Fill out the form here! You can email education@figma.com for any questions or to schedule a free PD training.

FigJam tips and tricks:

S= Sticky Note

X= Connector

M= Maker

Shift M= Highlighter

T= Text

Cmnd/Ctrl + = Zoom in

Cmnd/Ctrl - = Zoom out

V= Select

H= Hand

Hold H= High Five

W= Washi Tape

E= Stamp/Emote

R= Add a Square

O= Add a Ellipse

C= Add a Comment

More FigJam resources

Live training

Sign up for a free bi-weekly FigJam training workshop here.

Invite an educator now on the Figma Edu team to host a live or virtual PD session for your staff - email education@figma.com to schedule.

Tutorials & Courses
Learn at your own pace with Figma's tutorials: Learn from FigJam advocates in the Google Champions community: Teachers can also take FriedOnline's free FigJam self-paced certification course!
Templates

FigJam has hundreds of free templates and lesson plans at figma.com/@education. Duplicate your own copy to get started in seconds!

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

FREE teaching ideas and templates in your inbox every week!

Subscribe to Ditch That Textbook

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Upcoming Speaking

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©2024 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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How to use FigJam in the classroom: 20 ideas + templates

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Post sponsored by FigmaWe learned quickly how to use online whiteboards during remote teaching and many of us now even have interactive displays in our

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Building better reflective thinking foundations for students and teachers automatically.

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Brisk Teaching is the #1 AI-powered Chrome extension , helping you automate your workload without adding to it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 star rating * 200,000+ teachers

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Provide Instant AI-Powered Personalized Feedback

Give personalized feedback and ensure high-quality feedback on every assignment, from the first to the last. Brisk's four feedback styles - Targeted Comments, Glow & Grow praises, Rubric Criteria, and actionable Next Steps - simplify your feedback routine.

Create AI-Driven Curriculum, Lesson Plans, Quizzes, and More with Ease

Say goodbye to the endless challenge of crafting engaging and relevant instructional materials. With just a few clicks, you can quickly generate rigorous quizzes, comprehensive lesson plans, detailed rubrics, captivating presentations, effective interventions, and much more, streamlining your preparation process.

Inspect and Assess Student Writing with AI Tools

We've taken AI detection to the next level. With the 'Replay' feature, you can see exactly how your students put together their assignments, with a video of their whole process from beginning to end.

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Ensure every student can access classroom materials. With just a few clicks, instantly convert any online text into a Google Doc that's either simplified for different reading levels and/or translated into another language.

AI-Powered Professional Tools That Educators Deserve

Brisk is a free AI-powered Chrome extension that helps busy teachers save time directly within the tools they already use, like Google Docs, Slides, YouTube, and web articles. Quickly create instructional materials, share feedback, evaluate student writing, and adjust or translate texts - all without leaving your current workspace. With Brisk, the days of toggling between apps are over, freeing up more time for what you love: teaching.

Prep for the week in seconds with the Create Menu

No matter what grade level or subject area you teach, you can create, personalize, and differentiate curricular materials, lesson plans, quizzes, IEPs, rubrics, and more with the click of a button.

Using Google? Brisk integrates seamlessly with Google workspace. Google docs and forms created with Brisk can be instantly assigned in Google Assignment and Google Classroom. No copy and paste needed.

Drastically reduce time spent grading with feedback in Brisk

Leave feedback for students in four ways: ✨ Glows & Grows, 🎯 Targeted, 📏 Rubric Criteria, and 🪜 Next Steps.
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Brisk's unparalleled 🎯 Targeted Feedback tool instantly crafts Google Doc comments aligned with your rubric and standards, guiding students precisely where they need to revise. (Premium Feature

Inspect writing to understand the evolution of student work

Wondering how students revised their work? With Brisk you can watch a step-by-step playback of your students' revision history, including their copy and paste actions.

Brisk also leverages a cutting-edge AI-detection model to estimate the likelihood of AI writing. This gives you a starting point to facilitate conversations around academic honesty and dishonesty.
‍

Level educational materials to meet students where they're at

Have you encountered a resource that doesn't match your classroom's reading level? Brisk takes content from any Google doc, article, or website and converts the material into a document that is suitable and leveled for your students. Brisk will simplify complex ideas, shorten lengthy sentences, adjust the word choice, and so much more.

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Trusted by Over 200,000 Educators

"Brisk Teaching is an incredible AI tool. It serves as a blueprint for instant student feedback - which you can edit on the spot. If this would have come out years ago, more teachers would likely be feeling way less burnout. You can tell this is a product made by teachers for teachers. They thought of everything. If you're a teacher and haven't tried this tool, do it."

"I just have to say, Brisk is the gift that keeps on giving.to my classroom. I have used it almost every day... As a teacher who left teaching because of burnout and came back because I missed the classroom so much, your tool has made my job SO MUCH MORE MANAGEABLE, and has allowed me to give such quality feedback to my students in SECONDS! As an ELA teacher, this is life saving. Truly."

"As a Language Arts teacher, one of the hardest parts of my job is providing enough meaningful feedback for my students. Brisk has allowed me to provide way more specific and actionable feedback for my students. It has also helped me to see more elements of quality that I had previously overlooked in my students' work. The ease of access with Brisk is also a huge bonus. I can use this tool in all of the different platforms that my students use. I can't wait to see future versions - that will continue to help me provide the feedback that my students need."

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Queens College Taunton

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English Teacher
Derry, New Hampshire

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Brisk is a free AI-powered Chrome extension that helps busy teachers save time directly within the tools they already use, like Google Docs, Slides, YouTube, and web articles. Teachers use Brisk as a Targeted Feedback Generator, AI Presentation Maker, AI Quiz Maker, AI Lesson Plan Generator, AI Rubric Generator, Letter of Recommendation Generator, IEP 504 Template Maker, and so much more.

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How to ACE Student AI Literacy in Schools

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INTERACTIVEFREE TIME CHOICE BOARD

Start

I sure do!

Hello!Got some free time on your hands?

I want to hear a story/podcast

I have LOTS of extra time

I want to go exploring

I want to play a game

I want to show my creativity

I want to learn something new

Great! What are you interested in?

I want to hear a story/podcast

I have LOTS of extra time

I want to go exploring

I want to play a game

I want to show my creativity

I want to learn something new

Change your mind? That's ok! You can choose something else.

Nice choice! You can hover over each icon to learn a little bit about it. Then click on it to try it out.

There is SO much to explore! You can hover over each icon to learn a little bit about it. Then click on it to try it out.

Games are super fun! You can hover over each icon to learn a little bit about it. Then click on it to try it out.

Let's get creative! You can hover over each icon to learn a little bit about it. Then click on it to try it out.

Listening to a story or podcast is a great way to spend your free time! You can hover over each icon to learn a little bit about it. Then click on it to try it out.

This is fantastic! With all of this free time you can do something really cool! Check out these options.

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15 ideas for digital end-of-semester projects

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15 ideas for digital end-of-semester projects

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Assessment

After months and months of learning, it all comes down to this. The end of the semester project. How can your students encapsulate the most important parts of the semester to demonstrate learning?

At the end of the semester, it's easy to slip into "review for the test" mode.

Projects let students take what they've learned, put it all together and show off a little of their own creativity and personality.

And maybe, just maybe, that project may spark a passion that may stick with them for the rest of their lives.

End-of-semester final projects are cumulative

These projects are, in many ways, summative assessments.

We aren't checking for fact recall from the latest activity. These cumulative activities pull from lessons learned throughout the whole semester - or year.

Some ideas for making end-of-semester projects as effective as possible:

Provide some thinking time. Let students probe their brains - and notes and other resources - for what stands out to them, what they remember. This is an assessment, after all. We want to see what stuck in their memories.

Avoid lots of whole-class review. Re-teaching lots and lots of content from the semester will make many students turn their attention switches to "off". If these are independent projects, let them do their own independent review.

Give choice and personalization options. I've heard someone say that student projects where they all turn out exactly the same aren't projects. They're recipes. Giving students some choices in their projects - and letting their personalities shine through wherever possible - can be messy. But messy for you may be liberating for them. See this through the students' eyes.

Prioritization is key. These projects, believe it or not, are exercises in curation and brevity. Students can't include everything from the semester in these projects. They're choosing carefully. Help them find the right subset of what they've learned - or summarize and choose from their pool of learning wisely.

Think about the audience. Who will get to see these projects? If the audience is larger than one person (the teacher), there's a chance students' motivation will be higher. Creating for an audience doesn't mean sitting through an oral presentation by every student for three days. A digital gallery walk can be done in short order. Plus, not every student has to see every other student's project.

Think about a higher purpose. In his book Drive, Dan Pink says there are three main drivers of motivation, according to science. Purpose - doing something bigger than yourself - is one. As you and your students think about these projects, think about how they can be done to benefit others. Your students have developed knowledge and skills that can benefit others. Connect with an organization - or an underserved population in your community. Sometimes, it can be a simple shift, like creating the project with a specific group in mind.

15 end-of-semester final project ideas

So, how can we pull a semester's worth of learning together in one project?

Here are some ideas to use - or to spark your own creative ideas!

This plays back to the purpose tip at the top of this article. Can your student use the skills and information they've acquired to benefit others? It could be ...

People in your community

Students at your school

People in need around the world

Those seeking information on the Internet

Some internet searching - or discussions with students and others - can reveal a cause. A video call with a representative of the cause or organization could shed new light for students and motivate them. You can set this up yourself or use

Empatico.org is a fantastic (and free) platform that gives teachers everything you need to connect your classrooms to another. Empatico automatically finds potential matches for you based on similar interest in activities, classroom schedules, and student ages. See the video below to learn how to get started.

Doing something in service of others can get higher motivation and better results.

Suggested tool: Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Empatico.org

Resource: Classroom video calls. You can do this. Here's how.

Make learning memorable!

Take your teaching to the next level by transforming your lessons into a memorable learning experience.

For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

FREE teaching ideas and templates in your inbox every week!

Subscribe to Ditch That Textbook

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Upcoming Speaking

There are no upcoming events.

©2024 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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15 ideas for digital end-of-semester final projects

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Final projects can help students summarize and review content from the entire semester. Plus, they can create fantastic products!

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40 sites for students with free time on their hands

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When students are done with an assignment or project, how can they spend extra time wisely? These sites give them something academic to chew on. As a

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Flippity.net: Flashcards and Other Resources for Educators and Learners

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Create an interactive virtual breakout activity.

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Best AI tools to increase productivity. An organized database that categorizes the top AI tools for you to achieve superhuman abilities. All the latest AI news, trends, and tools.

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Worksheet to WOW: 20+ Ways to Upgrade Your Worksheet presentation slides

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Steal Like a Teacher - Ditch that Textbook

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Steal Like a Teacher - Ditch that Textbook

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Ed Tech

We teachers are the BEST at stealing things.

And I don't mean that in a criminal, nefarious way.

I think Austin Kleon explains it best in his book, Steal Like an Artist ...

Every artist gets asked the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" The honest artist answers, "I steal them."

How does an artist look at the world? First, you figure out what's worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing. That's about all there is to it.

I mean, it only makes sense. We teachers are notoriously short on time. (When you plan your bathroom breaks in advance, it's a good sign that you're time-strapped.)

Here's another thing about us teachers. We're also super generous. We share ideas with fellow educators, students ... really anyone who can benefit.

That means there's a lot of good stuff out there, but it isn't perfect for exactly what we need to do.

So, what do we do?

We steal.* Then we remix, reuse and repurpose. We assign it to our students.

Then we move on to the next thing.

Want to get better at this essential skill -- something that helps you get more done AND serve your students?

In this post you'll learn ...

How to find good material you can use in class

How to steal it (copy, remix, adjust, and assign)

How to cut WAY down on flashcard sets and review games you create

How to find pre-written lessons in popular apps

How to find "copy, adjust, and assign" lessons to use right away

Know of more resources? Please share them in the comments below. Because, you know ... we're generous ... and we like to enable other teachers' stealing habits!
*Note: Please always give credit to the original creator. We absolutely do not mean for anyone to steal other educator's ideas and pass them off as their own. Take, borrow, steal and remix as you like, and is allowed by CC and/or the creator, but give a shout out to the original creator when you share or present.

About the resource: Quizizz (quizizz.com) can be used as a simple multiple choice review game. It's student-paced, meaning that students answer questions on their own screen and only advance after they've answered a question personally. But it's much more than that! Quizizz has leveled up the game experience with fun power-ups and lots of response types (draw, match, poll, video, audio).

How to steal like a teacher: You can copy and edit any of the millions of publicly-available Quizizz games. Search for one in the Explore section. Open it and use the "Copy and Edit" button to add questions, change existing questions, or delete questions.

When you create a Quizizz game, you can "teleport" questions from other quizzes and lessons. Search with a keyword and use filters to narrow down your results. Click a quiz/lesson to see its questions. Then find questions you like and click "Add question" to put them into your quiz/lesson. The video below demonstrates teleportation. (Of Quizizz questions ... not real teleportation ... yet ...)

About the resource: HyperDocs are purposefully designed digital lessons and can transform your class. They truly are so much more than a doc with links. The creators of HyperDocs - Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis - describe them as a transformative, interactive Google Doc replacing the worksheet method of delivering instruction, the ultimate change agent in the blended learning classroom.

How to steal like a teacher: You can browse HyperDocs Samples to find one that fits your needs. Go to File > Make a copy to get an editable version saved to your Google Drive.

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Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

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©2022 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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Steal Like a Teacher: Where to find quick teaching ideas

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That means there's a lot of good stuff out there, but it isn't perfect for exactly what we need to do. So, what do we do? We steal. Then we remix, reuse and repurpose. We assign it to our students.

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Free Flyer Templates In Google Docs | Thegoodoc.com

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Get free Google Docs Flyer templates from professional designers. Edit a template for free to build your personal brand.

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Time to go shopping for HyperDocs! Look closely at design elements, different packaging options, engagement strategies, and more. Imagine the potential and possibility of digital lesson design with HyperDocs!

Click on the image below to access HyperDocs in each content area.

Did we miss a subject area or topic that you want? Is there a problem with any of the HyperDocs linked here? Leave a comment here and let us know!

Comments (29)

Please add a HyperDoc example for 45 minutes lesso

Please add a HyperDoc example for 45 minutes lesson (world language)

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Time to go shopping for HyperDocs! Look closely at design elements, different packaging options, engagement strategies, and more. Imagine the potential and possibility of digital lesson design with HyperDocs! Click on the image below to access HyperDocs in each content area. Did we miss a subject area or topic that you want?

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Get all students talking!

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FREE Digital Escape Rooms

We hope you and your students enjoy these FREE digital escape rooms! Below you will find links to each escape room along with the locks, answers and explanations.

If you and your students are new to digital escape rooms it might be fun to try one out as a class so that you can experience it together. After that, you can assign these escape rooms to your students in groups or individually by giving them the direct link to the digital escape room (they don't need a special copy). Click on the images for links to the escape rooms.

Here are couple of tips to help you and your students feel successful:

Take a look at what lock combinations you are looking for first.

Share the link to the escape room with students, but don't share this teacher pack!

Click everywhere, clues could be hidden inside of text, hyperlinked in an image or multiple links could be hidden inside of an interactive slide or picture.

Don't give up. It's supposed to be challenging! Those answers are there for you in case you need to give little hints though.

Watch this quick video overview of our Halloween Haunt Digital Escape Room to see what a digital escape room looks like.

You will notice that many of these escape rooms are created with Google and Microsoft tools. Some school/districts block Google sites created outside of their domain. However, the escape rooms created with Microsoft tools seem to work.

Still have questions? Take a look at our digital escape rooms FAQs page for answers to our most common questions and if you still have questions email Karly at social@ditchthattextbook.com.

🚀 Take learning to a whole NEW level 🚀

with the Getting Started with Digital Escape Rooms Online Course!

You'll get:
🔐 Video tutorials to guide you in getting started

🔐 PDF guides to help you plan

🔐 LOTS of example escape room ideas you can use as inspiration

🔐 25 digital escape rooms with lock combinations and companion resources in a downloadable PDF

🔐 A step-by-step companion website with templates to help you and your students create your own digital escape rooms

🔐 A resource locker FILLED with BONUS resources

Digital Escape Room Teacher Pack

Digital escape rooms bring the excitement of hunting for clues and the joy of solving puzzles right to your student's devices. Here are over 40 digital escape rooms to try plus resources for creating them yourself!

Upcoming Speaking

There are no upcoming events.

©2022 Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller.

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FREE Digital Escape Rooms We hope you and your students enjoy these FREE digital escape rooms! Below you will find links to each escape room along with the locks, answers and explanations. If you and your students are new to digital escape rooms it might be fun to try one out as a class so that you can experience it together.

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Toy Theater is your source for free educational games specially designed for elementary-aged students. It's available on all desktop computers, tablets, and mobile devices, ensuring learning is never out of reach. If you are a fan of our site, we encourage you to share Toy Theater on your social media or website.

Explore Toy Theater

Here's a sneak peek into what Toy Theater has in store:

Math Games: Ranging from counting and numeral recognition to division and telling time, there's a vast assortment of interactive math games.

Language Arts: Students can work on spelling, letter recognition, and even practice reading with online books.

Art and Music : From teaching students to play simple songs on a keyboard to exploring symmetry via art games, the platform fosters creativity alongside learning.

Puzzles and Games: Ideal for early finishers or indoor recess, their online educational puzzles and games promise fun-filled learning.

Teacher Tools: Need a fun timer or a spinner? Or perhaps a simple way to evaluate basic math skills? Their virtual teacher tools have got you covered.

Whether you project Toy Theater games and interactive tools on your smartboard for the whole class to see or use them during small group work, you're sure to love them!

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Toy Theater | Fun Online Educational Games for Kids

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Make learning a blast! Toy Theater is chock full of interactive online art, reading & math games for kids. Designed with the needs of kindergarten through third grade classrooms in mind, these free games are trusted by teachers around the world to provide real educational value.

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SFUSD Math Elementary School Closure Lessons