[Sarah Carey]

Part 1:

There are so many elements of this course that I will be trying out in September. I am definitely going to use AI to introduce my 1st Class students to, and help illustrate the importance of, adjectives and adverbs. I think Magic School, Twee and Quizzizz are going to feature heavily in my lesson planning also. I’m so excited to experiment with all these newfound tools to supplement my practice to make it as effective as possible.

Part 2:

Lesson Plan: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Class: 1st Class
Subject: STEM
Duration: 45 minutes

Objectives:
Introduce the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a simple and engaging way.
Help students recognize basic examples of AI in their daily lives.
Encourage curiosity and excitement about technology.

Resources:
IWB
Internet access
Simple AI demonstration tools (like Google’s Quick, Draw!)
Picture cards showing examples of AI
Drawing paper and crayons

Lesson Outline
1. Warm-up Activity (5 minutes):
Discussion Question: “What is a robot?”
Activity: Show pictures of various robots (both real and fictional) and ask students to share what they know about robots.

2. Introduction to AI (10 minutes):
Teacher Explanation:
Explain that some robots and computers are smart because they have something called Artificial Intelligence, or AI.
Use simple language to describe AI: “AI helps computers think a little bit like humans do.”
Examples: Show images of AI in everyday life (e.g., voice assistants like Siri or Alexa, self-driving cars, recommendation systems like Netflix).

3. Interactive Demonstration (10 minutes):
Activity: Use Google’s Quick, Draw! to demonstrate AI in a fun way.
Explain that the computer is trying to guess what you are drawing.
Draw simple shapes or objects and let the children see how the AI guesses.

4. Group Activity: Spot the AI (10 minutes):
Activity: Show picture cards of different scenarios, some with AI (e.g., a child talking to a voice assistant) and some without (e.g., a child talking to a parent).
Task: Ask students to raise their hands if they think the picture shows AI.
Discussion: Briefly discuss why each scenario is or isn’t an example of AI.

5. Creative Drawing Activity (5 minutes):
Activity: Give each student a piece of drawing paper and crayons.
Task: Ask them to draw their own “smart” robot or computer and think about what special things their creation can do with AI.
Sharing: Allow a few students to share their drawings and explain what their AI-powered creation can do.

6. Wrap-up and Q&A (5 minutes):
Conclusion: Summarise the main points about AI.
“AI helps computers do smart things.”
“We see AI in things like Siri, games, and even drawing tools.”
Q&A: Answer any questions the students might have.

Resources:
Google’s Quick, Draw! (https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/)
Picture cards with AI and non-AI scenarios
Crayons, drawing paper

[Sarah Carey]

Thanks for that Pat.  I’ll have a play around with Khanmigo Tools. I have watched Sal Khan’s TED Talk. He’s a great speaker. His demo was great. The fact that the AI actually paused for thinking time before answering in a manner which provided meaningful, constructive feedback blew me away. I didn’t ever imagine AI with those kind of capabilities.

[Sarah Carey]

The application I’m going to focus on is Khan Academy Kids.

Having used this app as an independent station in Numeracy Station Teaching this year, I’ve was impressed by the breadth of topics in Numeracy. I love how units can be assigned to be completed within a certain time frame. I also love how content can be individually assigned so that students who need to work at a lower or higher level are enabled to do so. There is a section to monitor progress in different areas.

Skills my students needed to access this are basic IT literacy skills such as powering on and selecting the app and logging in via class code or QR code. They really enjoyed using the QR login.

I’ve used the Khan Academy app before for older children from 2nd class and upwards. Whilst it does allow for a more individualised approach, the user interface was not suited to the devices we had at the time. I’m looking forward to them expanding the Khanmigo AI tool to Europe to see how that works.

[Sarah Carey]

I can absolutely see myself using Magic School going forward. The possibilities are endless. I will use it for writing social stories in SET and personalised stories in mainstream. Using Twee to generate questions on these stories is definitely working smarter. Combining two platforms is something I wouldn’t ever have though of.
I also will use Magic school to generate Maths activities for my class. With the new Primary Maths Curriculum, there is a move away from textbooks and therefore a need for more forward planning for teachers in terms of having appropriately engaging activities prepared for their students.
I think I will definitely utilise this in terms of writing personalised word problems for the children in my class.

Many of our units of work in our school’s chosen SESE scheme are not substantial enough and I find that I often turn to YouTube for content to bulk out our lessons. Using YouTube with Twee I will save much of the hassle of starting and stopping videos and watching and rewatching to ensure that I haven’t missed anything. Twee will be an invaluable tool form me going forward.

Diffit is something else I will definitely use. It’s sometimes challenging to carve out the time to prepare appropriate, meaningful, differentiated tasks for each lesson and I often default to differentiation through oral questioning or by outcome/expectation. Diffit opens up a world of possibilities in terms of planning activities to make lessons engaging for all students , whatever their ability.

[Sarah Carey]

Having worked as a Special Education Teacher for many years, the benefits I can see from AI in aiding my students in accessing the curriculum are enormous. I think that a good use of SET teaching time would be to teach students how to use Immersive Reader with a view to fostering some independence in their learning. Having to wait for somebody to read something or waiting until the teacher has time to help you individually is frustrating for students. They lose interest and motivation. A tool like this could open up a whole new world for some students. This would require lessons on how to use Immersive Reader both in the SET setting and through in-class support. I am moving from SET to 1st Class this September so I will  work with the SET to implement this.

I could foresee many challenges to implementing the use of Immersive Reader. Some students do not transfer skills easily from one context to another so would require support in using it independently. And of course, the barrier to everything technology-related in Irish primary schools: the lack of funding to provide a device to assist everyone who would benefit!

[Sarah Carey]

Module One has opened my eyes regarding the developments in Artificial Intelligence in recent years. I had only been aware of Chat GPT! The potential uses of AI tools in the classroom context are endless really.

AI tools make information for lessons, topic studies, projects, etc accessible in seconds. If used correctly, it could completely streamline a teacher’s lesson preparation which leaves us with the time and energy to teach!

I’m very much looking forward to exploring how generative AI can help me by providing suggestions for differentiated tasks in the coming school year. It can sometimes be a struggle to source differentiated activities for all levels in any given student group.

I was chatting to a teacher I went to college recently. She had used Chat GPT to generate meaningful phrases for feedback in her students’ end-of-year reports. When faced with over thirty report cards to complete, she noticed what she was writing was quite repetitive. Chat GPT provided her with suggestions that were well-worded, accurate and context-specific.

I’m also looking forward to experimenting with generating assessment tasks using  AI.

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