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This is a really valid point, Peace. Children pick up ideas about gender, race, culture, and identity so early, often well before we cop on to it, and by the time they come out with something in school, they may already have it down as fact. The examples you gave are very familiar. “Boys are better at sports,” and “girls are better at drawing.” They can sound harmless enough in the moment, but they do quietly shape what a child feels comfortable having a go at. I like that you leaned towards questioning them rather than just correcting. “Why do we think that?” or “Could someone get better with practice?” is a far better way of getting children to do the thinking themselves. Circle time would suit this really well, especially if they can talk it out in a relaxed sort of way. And I love the idea of using the local library, as a good picture book will often open up a conversation far more naturally than any formal lesson would.
This sounds like a very useful word work lesson, Aine. I like that you’ve kept it simple with one word per slide, as that would make it much easier for the children to really look at the word, read it properly, and connect it with the image. The word recognition activity on Google Slides to then having a cloze activity, makes sense too, bringing a bit of variety to your lesson Adding audio is something I have done before. Hearing the word and then saying it aloud would be a great support, especially in learning support. Repeated practice is so important.
Ancient Greece is a great topic to try Gemini out on Robbie, because there are so many possible directions it could take. I like that it gave you a clear structure with a warm-up, main activity and exit ticket. That kind of outline is handy when you’re planning, even if you know you’ll need to change parts of it afterwards. Your point about keeping it student-led is a good one. If the children have Chromebooks to work with then it makes total sense to build the lesson around what they can do for themselves rather than having it all driven from the top of the room by the teacher.
Hi Catherine. I think a lot of teachers are in the same place, where ChatGPT might be familiar, but tools like Gemini, Vidnoz or Minecraft Education are still new territory. Immersive Reader is a great one to pick out. The read-aloud feature and syllable support could make such a difference for children who find reading tiring or frustrating, and it’s useful that it can support lots of pupils without singling anyone out. I liked what you said about Minecraft Education too. Children already talk about Minecraft so much, so it’s interesting to think about how that enthusiasm could be used for learning, rather than seeing it only as a game.
I’d say a lot of teachers are in the same position Fionola. You’ve found one tool that works for you, especially for writing genres, but there’s still that next step of figuring out which tools are actually worth using day to day. I like the St. Patrick’s Day narrative example. That’s a nice practical use of ChatGPT, especially for modeling writing. Having a clear setting, characters, problem, and resolution ready to discuss with the class would save time and give the children a good structure to work from. As you point out, it’s hard to know how far you can go with it in terms of worksheets or printable resources. It can be hard to know which tools are free, which ones are limited, and which ones would actually be worth a school subscription.
I like the line you picked out Fiona: “to be a global citizen is to care”. That’s a simple idea, but it says a lot. For children, global citizenship probably does start with caring about the people around them and then gradually widening that out to the wider world. You’re spot on that classrooms are much more diverse now, and children are hearing and seeing more than ever through news, social media and conversations at home. That gives us a chance to explore these issues carefully and in age-appropriate ways. Its always good to start locally first. Often children understand issues like fairness, inclusion and kindness best when they can see examples in their own school or community first.
Hi Louise. I like that you’ve picked up on the idea that development education isn’t just about handing children facts but about getting them to think about their own values and the kind of person they want to be. And SESE and SPHE are the natural homes for it, I’d agree. Real-life examples and stories, maybe a bit of project work, can make the ideas far more meaningful for children. The resource-sharing folder on Google Drive is a great idea as well. Teachers are often more than willing to give something a go — it’s just that having a few ready-to-use resources, or an example or two from a colleague, makes it so much easier to get off the ground.
Hi Elaine, and you’re very welcome to the course. That line about technology taking barriers away rather than just replacing what we already do is so relevant. And in an autism class it matters even more because so much can come down to the way a task is put in front of a child in the first place.
I know that feeling too about wanting to be sure of it yourself before you bring it in. When a child is already struggling with something, the last thing any of us wants is the technology becoming one more thing to get frustrated over. Once the Chromebooks start to feel like second nature to you, I’d say you’ll notice the whole room settling a bit.
The Google accessibility tools are a great place to start. Voice Typing, Read Aloud, the visual supports could take the pressure off a child who finds the reading or writing tiring, and they’d still be taking part in the same learning as everyone else, which is really the whole point of it.This sounds like an exciting step for your school, Grainne. Getting Chromebooks in place is a big investment, so it makes sense to think carefully now about how they’ll actually be used in the classroom. I like that you’re linking it with SSE rather than just seeing the Chromebooks as a new “extra”. Looking at current practice first, and then deciding on a clear focus, should make the whole process much more useful for staff and pupils. Google Classroom would be a great place to start, especially for assigning work and gathering it back in. As you say you would save on photocopying and make things easier to manage, particularly with open-ended tasks.
“Old reliable” topics are often the best place to start when you’re trying out something new, Helen. The life cycle of a butterfly is ideal for that age group because it’s visual, simple to sequence, and children are usually genuinely interested in it. Big images with very little text in Google Slides would be great and would make the stages much easier to remember. I like the circular layout idea too. It helps children see that it is a cycle, not just four separate pictures in a row. The interactive idea sounds perfect. Even something simple like having the four stages as movable pictures on a slide, where children drag them into the correct order, would be a great start. You wouldn’t need to make it too complicated.
The American Revolution can be a big enough topic for 5th class Lisa, so having a clear structure, discussion prompts and assessment ideas would definitely help with planning. Like you mention, simplifying the language by using a small glossary and providing visual supports like maps, timelines and images can make a topic like this much easier to follow, and this is where ai tools can really assist the teacher
This would be good area to look at for SSE Victoria. It’s easy for any school to say it “has technology”, but the real question is whether the technology is actually improving learning for the pupils. I like that you mentioned the variation between teachers too. That’s very real. Some teachers are very confident with digital tools, while others might only use them in a limited way, so a staff discussion would be a good starting point. Getting pupil feedback through a Google Form is a great idea as well. The children are the ones using the technology, so their experience would tell you a lot about what is working and what isn’t. Your point at the end is also very important Victoria. We can’t just assume technology is helping because it is being used. It has to be purposeful, and it needs to move with the needs of the pupils.
This sounds like a lovely way to use AI without taking the writing task away from the children Aoife. A story opener or prompt could be just enough to get them started, especially for pupils who find the blank page a bit daunting.
I like that the pupils would still have to create their own characters, develop the plot and come up with their own endings. That keeps the thinking and imagination with them, which is the important part.I agree Edel that the lesson plan examples were impressive. It’s a bit of an eye-opener when you see how much detail can come back from one well-worded prompt. I like your idea of trying the same prompt in a few different AI tools and then choosing what suits your own class best. That feels like a sensible approach, because one tool might give a lovely structure, while another might give better activities or differentiation ideas. The device issue is a very real one though. Tools like Teachable Machine or Minecraft Education sound brilliant, but they’re not much use if the school only has a small number of iPads or if access is limited. Sometimes the best starting point is using AI for teacher planning first, where it can still save time without needing every child to be on a device.
To me, assistive technology in the classroom is all about giving every child a fair shot at learning. It can often be low-tech items like a simple pencil grip or a printed graphic organiser to help a child. Other times it’s the medium-tech stuff like audiobooks or speech-to-text for a child with dyslexia who has great ideas but struggles to get them down on paper. When you match the right tool to the child using something like the SETT framework to work out what they actually need, it can completely change their confidence. They stop feeling stuck, and they start working away far more independently, right alongside the rest of the class.
