Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I will admit to be apprehensive about this course as I always saw AI as a form of “cheating” and an easy way out; probably due to how it can be perceived online. I have come to realise that as a busy teacher it is invaluable and will benefit both myself and my pupils immensely.
I intend to integrate AI into my teaching by first using Diffit as a tool for differentiating for my class; as I have some significant learning needs in my room this year. I also plan on using Gamma to develop high quality visuals not just for these pupils but the class as a whole. Google’s teachable machine was a tool that I felt could work very well with my group of pupils; I think they would enjoy the challenge of teaching a machine to learn and monitoring it’s progress. Scratch is also another tool that I have had some experience with but was unaware of all its functions and resources available. I think my class would enjoy this programme and I hope to incorporate it into our weekly ipad sessions.
Part 2: Lesson plan
Frog Life Cycle
Class: 1st Class
SESE — Science (Living Things)
Variety and characteristics of living things; Life cycles of plants and animals
Working scientifically: questioning, observing, predicting, investigating, recording, communicating
Oral language: discuss, describe, explain
Reading: vocabulary development (topic words); simple non‑fiction features
Writing: labelling, simple captions and sequencing sentences
Integration
Gaeilge: Foclóir: frog = frog, frogspawn = uibheacha frog, tadpole = puisín frog, pond = lochán, legs = cosanna
Maths -Sequencing and ordering
SPHE – Caring for living things; personal safety (pond safety)
Digital Literacy / ICT – Safe and purposeful use of age‑appropriate AI tools for images, audio, and quizzing
Learning Outcomes:
to name and order the stages in a frog’s life cycle.
to use scientific words like spawn, tadpole, froglet, adult frog.
to ask and answer questions about how animals grow and change.
to use AI tools safely to help us learn (images, audio, quizzes).Vocabulary – spawn (frogspawn), tadpole, gills, froglet, adult frog, metamorphosis, pond, habitat, predator, life cycle
Resources
Teacher slides or printed images of the four main stages, Sequencing cards (images + words),large life‑cycle wheel/anchor chart or pocket chart, Glue sticks, scissors, paper plates for life‑cycle craft; crayons/markers, Sticky notes or exit ticket slips
AI Tools: AI Image Generator: create simple, friendly images of each stage for cards/posters, Text‑to‑Speech (TTS): a short life‑cycle paragraph read aloud for all learners.
AI Quiz Builder – Quizizz – generate 6–8 multiple‑choice questions for plenary.
Classroom Chatbot (teacher ipad) pupils suggest questions; teacher types and curates answers.Introduction:
Mystery Reveal Show a zoomed‑in AI‑generated image (or photo) of frogspawn. Pupils predict what it is.
Pair‑share: What could these be? Where would you find them? Collect ideas on board.Life Cycle Story
Present the four stages on the board (spawn → tadpole → froglet → adult frog).
Use TTS to read a short, teacher‑written paragraph while pupils track images.
Quick actions: pupils mime gills breathing, growing legs, losing tail.Order & Explain: Mixed‑ability pairs receive sequencing cards. They order the stages and match words to pictures.
Prompt frames: “First is ____. Next is ____. Then ____. Finally ____.”Stations / Active Learning
Rotate every ~5 minutes (4 stations):AI Image Station (Teacher‑led): Generate an image of one stage, pupils help choose labels, print or display for the class chart.
Craft Station: Paper‑plate life‑cycle wheel (divide into quarters, draw/label each stage).
Language Station: Write one caption per stage using word bank
Inquiry Station: Observe clean water with magnifiers, discuss habitat and safety. (No collection of wildlife.)
AI Quiz
Use an AI quiz builder to create 6–8 questions. Pupils answer on mini whiteboards.Differentiation & Inclusion
SEN: reduced sets (2–3 stages), scribe support, visual schedule.EAL: picture dictionary, sentence frames, dual‑language labels, TTS playback.
Assessment: questioning during teaching, observe pair discussions, station checklists, plenary quiz responses.
Great idea for a lesson, sounds fantastic and i’m sure the pupils would love it. May have to do this myself at some point!
I will be teaching 1st class next year and would very much like to begin the introduction of AI to the pupils. Most, if not all will have used AI in some format for gaming online already, but to give them the tools and knowledge to allow them to use AI for educational purposes will be my priority. I feel the pupils need to know how AI works, how does it know all these things and is able to produce content for us so quickly and efficiently.
I like Google’s Teachable machine and feel it would work well at this class level, while giving pupils an idea of how AI actually works. I think they would enjoy providing knowledge to the machine in order for it to learn and expand it’s knowledge. The pupils could take photos of various things, make various sounds (based around topics we are currently covering) and teach the machine to increase it’s knowledge, all the while learning about how AI actually works and how it uses data.
I think this would be an excellent idea and would appeal to a lot of children throughout the school. It’s an excellent easy to follow programme.
Me before starting this course “I don’t like AI, it feels like cheating”
Me now:”We’ll that’s the powerpoints done for the first month in 5 minutes”
These tools are incredible. I’ll be honest as a post holder and class teacher sometimes my evening time is literally spent at the kitchen table, but no more! I will 100% be using Gamma ( already have!) to provide visuals for my lessons that are completely tailored to my class and their ability. I find that unless you make the power point yourself then sometimes the content isn’t relevant to Ireland and can occasionally be levelled too high or low for the class ability.
Diffit is also fantastic. I have pupils from the Autism class integrate with my class regularly and they do need considerable differentiation for most subjects. I will definitely be using their resources to help me with this area of my teaching and learning.
There is massive potential for all these tools to become a complete game changer for both teachers and pupils. Time is such a constraint for so many and I feel these tools will give teachers back some of their much needed time for their own families and also provide amazing tailored tools for the ever increasing range of needs and abilities within our classrooms.
Your post on here motivated me to check this out probably far sooner than I would have done otherwise and wow! The time that can be saved using this tool is incredible. This will be recommended during our first teach meet back at school!
I would have a couple of children in my class that would be very weak readers and it is becoming a huge self esteem issue for them. The immersive reader is definitely an AI tool that I will be experimenting with this coming year in order to give these pupils a boost to their self esteem and help improve their reading. I also have EAL pupils who I feel would also benefit from the use of this tool.
I have used Google forms in the past and found them an incredibly useful tool. Our school also took part in a pilot project using Minecraft as a tool to teach pupils about media. the pupils loved it and it would definitely be something I’d use with an older class. We have Minecraft educational on all our ipads in the school.
The idea of AI creating my planning makes me feel like I’m cheating somewhat, but it does take up a massive amount of teachers’ own personal time so I feel as long as it’s tailored specifically by the teacher to individual classes, then it can only be worth a try!
I agree. Those headbands are a step too far in my opinion. I feel for pupils who may have issues around concentration being punished for being unfocused. It’s frightening. AI is definitely beneficial within the education sector but I feel continuous monitoring like that is unnecessary.
I have always had quite a negative view of AI and have only ever really used Chat GPT, so this first module was quite eye opening for me. I think as teachers; well, for me personally, AI was always seen as something pupils would use to do work for them; hearing stories from secondary school teacher friends who had to return assignments because it was quite obvious that an AI tool had written it. I worked in Junior Infants for a long time and didn’t ever see the need for it; so ignored it’s existence; it’s not like I had to worry about AI with 5 year olds’ homework tasks. The list of generative AI tools introduced to us in this module were incredible and I can see how my tasks could be greatly enhanced with their use; saving me time and allowing me to be more organised in my day to day teaching. As an assessment tool I feel it would actually be the most useful within a classroom. I do feel that I would need a lot of practice with my input in order to get accurate results that were usable in my classroom.
As much as it is obviously beneficial for teachers, I do feel a balance needs to be struck, as pupils spend so much of their time at home on a screen and I feel that their time in the classroom should be spent making real-life interactions with their peers.
I agree Emma, one of the reasons I did this course was because I had a very negative view of AI with all the things I’ve seen and heard in the media and online. Yes it has it’s problems but after the first module I was pleasantly surprised at what can be done with it within the classroom, and it can potentially make parts of teaching less stressful.