#002 AI Time Savers for Teachers

Hello, educational explorers! Welcome to 'Adventure with EdTech,' the podcast that navigates the thrilling landscapes of education. I'm your guide, Karen Bellidoro, 5th grade teacher and founder of Adventure with EdTech podcast and website and I invite you to embark on an exhilarating journey where we unravel the mysteries, conquer challenges, and uncover the treasures of implementing educational technology.

In today's episode, we'll don our virtual backpacks and set out to explore AI tools that are transforming classrooms. From chat gpt to Magic School AI, 'Adventure with EdTech' is your passport to the future of teaching and learning.

Today we are going to be exploring Effortless EdTech: AI Teacher Tools that will help with using our limited time as teachers more effectively. 

There are so many different AI tools available to us, however I have chosen just a few to share with you today. We will explore ChatGPT, Perplexity, Canva Classroom Magic, Curipod and Magic School AI.

ChatGPT 

ChatGPT is currently a freemium tool. At this point in time I would not suggest having students in the classroom use this tool. Make sure you take a look at the terms of use and get parental permission before using this in the classroom. However, it is a great tool for teachers. Let’s discuss different ways that we can use this tool. 

Before we get started I did want to share one of the most important things to do when using AI is to be as in depth and thoughtful as possible when providing a prompt. I am working on a prompting guide to help get the most out of these tools. 

ChatGPT can be used to guide planning instruction. I have included 10 different ways that you can use ChatGPT in your classroom.

1. Create unit outlines- In your prompt align it to your required standards. You can craft an outline by grade, subject, or a timeline. 

2. Create Lesson Plans- Ask ChatGPT to write a lesson plan. You can compose activities, scaffolding, student facing objectives, assessments, and much more. You can make adjustments to create a plan for your instructional needs. 

3. Slideshow outline- as of right now ChatGPT cannot create visuals, however, you can ask it to guide you in your slideshow creation by asking it to create an outline for your slideshow. In your prompt include your topic you are presenting about, how many slides you’d like it to be, and what level you are presenting to.

4. Simplify topics- ask chatgpt to take a more complex topic and simplify it. Prompt it to the level of simplification you’d like. 

5. Discussion questions- Use it to write engaging and higher order thinking questions for a class discussion on a specific topic. 

6. Choice boards- Prompt it to create a choice board on the topic or topics you are interested in having in your choice board. Include in your prompt what age group you want.

7. Rubrics- Make simple rubrics for any assignment. Include the grade scale you would like to have on the rubric and also include the criteria you would like to use to grade the assignment. 

8. Assessments- Use ChatGPT to create assessments for any topic. Include what type of questions you would like to include in your assessment. You can be even more specific and include the level of DOK questions you’d like to have included. 

9. Professional Correspondence- ChatGPT can be a great resource to create professional emails or letters. When you create your prompt, include the tone you’d like to use in your email. 

10. Writing Feedback- Similar to the rubric, include the criteria you’d like to receive feedback on when getting writing feedback. You can simply focus on spelling and grammar or go more in depth such as character development, plot, or sentence structure. 

Perplexity

The next tools I’d like to share with you is Perplexity. This tool is very similar and works in the same way that ChatGPT does. The difference between these two is that on Perplexity it will provide you with easily clickable sources to continue your learning and it also cites the sources it learned the information it shared with you. This is a free tool as well. I recently used this to help me plan a unit around the upcoming solar eclipse. It provided me with links to great resources, NASA and PBS for lessons to teach my 5th grade students. 

Canva Classroom Magic

The next resource that I am excited to share with you in Canva Classroom Magic. These tools are available to you if you have a free educators account through canva. Students can also use these tools in their free account as well. 

I’m going to break up the tools into different categories. The categories are tools to engage students, tools to save time, and tools to easily edit. 

The great thing about Canva is students' ability to work on the 4 C’s, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication. These tools that canva has built right into their platform promote these skills even more. 

Let’s talk about tools to engage students first. 

1. Magic animate- This is a tool that students can use to add sleek motion effects and seamless transitions to presentations, videos, and more with just one click. To use this tool in canva open a design, then select the animate button. You will see an option to click on magic animate. You can choose the recommended style or choose an alternative style to include. You can then tap present or play to view your animations in action. 

2. Magic grab- This tool is every photoshop person’s dream made simple and easy. Easily redesign materials using magic grab and use magic grab text to quickly update text in photos. To use this tool upload or place your photo you’d like to alter. Select the photo and tap edit photo. From there you can select the magic grab or grab text. You will be able to reposition, or resize your subject or text. 

3. Magic Media Text to Image is a tool that can help turn students' ideas into engaging images in a matter of seconds. Tap the waffle iron icon, the icon with 9 dots, search for magic media. Select the images button and describe the image that you would like to create. The more detail the better your result will be. If you have a specific style or color you’d like in your graphic, include it in your prompt. If you want it to convey a certain tone or emotion, include it in your prompt. Using adjectives and verbs to provide specific detail will help AI create a more detailed portrayal of your prompt. Once you’ve typed your prompt, you can choose the style of graphic you’d like and what aspect ratio. Then hit create your image. 

Next let’s look at tools to Save Time. The first tool in this category is

1. Magic Write- Magic write is a tool to help with writing tasks. This tool can reword sentences or paragraphs, summarize text and so much more. You can use this tool to improve the structure and cohesion in your writing. You can use it to help you write lists, explanations, finish sentences, and much more. This tool can be helpful with differentiating text based on our students abilities, shorten articles and extract the main idea from a text. You can also prompt it to use a certain tone, you can make it more fun or more formal.  

2. Magic Design for Presentation will help create more engaging presentations with a simple prompt. Let Magic Design do the heavy lifting for you. Type in your prompt your idea and watch as the slideshow comes to life. It will create an outline and also provide some lessons for your content. In your prompt make sure to include keywords, outcomes, grade, audience and purpose. Try to narrow these down to 5-10 words for the best results. For example an informative presentation on solar eclipses for 5th grade. To access this feature open a presentation template. Tap on the design tab and write your prompt. From there a section will show up called magic design and you will see presentations created for you.

3. Magic Switch allows you to quickly transform your designs in a matter of seconds. You have the ability to change the format, language, and the dimensions of your designs. When you open your design, tap magic switch. You will have a choice to translate, transform into a doc or resize. It will create a new design for you based on your specifications. 

 

Tools to easily edit your designs. 

1. Magic edit is a tool that allows you to unleash your creativity. You are able to reimagine your ideas by adding, replacing, or editing your image. Once you find the image you’d like to include in your design, click the edit photo button. Select the magic edit tool and brush over the area you’d like to edit. Prompt what you’d like the replacement to look like until you get the perfect fit. With this tool you can swap out backgrounds, change the color of images, and even add objects. 

2. Magic Morph allows you to transform words or shapes to boost your content from basic to advanced and visually more appealing effortlessly. When you are on a design, go to the apps button. Search for magic morph and then select the element in your design you’d like to improve. Describe the new look that you are looking for and then tap the magic morph. 

3. Magic expand, extends an image in any direction. This will help prevent weird proportions or strangely stretched photos. Choose the photo you’d like to extend and tap on the edit photo button. Click on magic expand and choose the size you’d like the photo to now be. Hit the purple button to expand and choose your favorite rendering to now include in your design. 

Canva is a tool that allows you to really elevate your teaching materials to the next level with ease. It also allows the students to explore and elevate their creativity and presentation skills. 

Curipod

The next AI tool that I want to share with you is called Curipod. I have been using this tool more recently in my classroom and the students have really been enjoying it as well. Curipod allows you to plan and deliver interactive lessons on any topic with the help of AI. Curipod has suggestions for topics or lessons that are favorites for students, but you can also create one from scratch as well. I’m going to share with you some of my favorites that I’ve used so far or that I am planning on using with my students. To run an interactive slideshow, you need to prompt or create a presentation, then when you are ready for the presentation hit play. Depending on when you want the students to join you will need to hit the person icon at the bottom of the screen to bring up the code for students to join. 

• Feedback from a historian allows you to specify what grade level you are teaching, then name the historical figure you’d like to get feedback from and then type the question the students will need to answer. Curipod will then create a slideshow to share with the class. The slides will include some background information on the historical figure that you chose and then prompt them to answer the question. Students will have an opportunity to answer the question with an allotted time. You can customize this right inside the presentation if they need more time. Then students will submit their answers to get feedback. The feedback will be from the historic figure that you chose. I tried playing around one day with King George III and George Washington providing students with feedback about the causes of the American Revolution. Not only will you get information on the level of understanding from your students by answering the questions, you can dive deeper into more critical thinking by having them analyze the response from the historian, if what they said is accurate. 

• Paragraph of the week is simple to get started. You will be prompted to choose a grade level. From there hit do magic, and the prompt will be created. A slideshow will be created with a writing prompt for the students. They will be able to receive feedback when they are done writing. By default it provides them with 30 minutes to complete the writing task. 

• Word of the day is similar to paragraphs of the week. With this activity there will be a word for the students to explore. It will give the definition of the word, have students write a sentence using the word, write a synonym for the word, and an antonym for the word.

• AI Feedback slides- Each day that I go and check these there seems to be more added. As of this recording these are the ones that they have included. These activities provide students with feedback based on the criteria that has been predetermined. They currently have options for narrative writing and argumentative. The narrative story is a magical story where students get a prompt and they have to complete the story. It is suggested for students 6th through 8th grade, however, my 5th grade students thoroughly enjoyed this prompt. One of the prompts they were given was to write a story about a magical doorway that appears in the middle of your school playground during recess and where it leads to. The students will write their story and when the time is up they will submit their story. The students are limited to 1000 characters. They will receive feedback on their story from AI. The current options for argumentative writing are to convince the evil AI ruler, convince ai to buy, and monsters and magic. All of these you will be given an option to determine either the rule, monster, or object to buy. The students will then be prompted that they need to convince AI to do these things based on the quality of their persuasiveness and quality of their writing. 

There are so many different options and exciting lessons available on Curipod. Go check out the website and see what you think would work for your classroom. 

Magic School AI

The final tool I am going to talk about today is Magic School AI. Magic School is a platform made specifically with educators in mind. The tools available on magic school are designed and focused on everyday tasks for teachers. Just a reminder not to include student names or personal information and again always check for bias and accuracy. They also have just released MagicStudent which is a way to use AI in the classroom that is guided and managed in a way that teachers can see everything students are doing in terms of what they are prompting and researching. 

I’m thinking I’m going to have to create a whole episode just on this tool. Be on the lookout for that in the near future. I am going to share just a few of my favorite tools that can be found on magic school ai. 

• Student work feedback is based on a custom criteria, the feedback will come back in the form of areas of strength and areas of growth. Specify the grade level, the assignment description, focus of the feedback or the rubric criteria, and then copy and paste the student work. It will then generate feedback based on the custom criteria you input. 

• The next tool is report card comments. Report card comments always took so much time, making sure they were professional but got across what I was trying to say. Now with the report card comments section you can generate report card comments with a student's strengths and areas for growth in a matter of seconds. It has made doing report cards much easier.

• Rubric generator is a tool that has AI write a rubric for an assignment you are creating for your class in a table format. Include the standards or objectives, the assignment title, assignment description, and the points scale. From there it will create a rubric for you to use. 

• Email responder, professional email and email family are all great tools to help you generate customized professional email communication for multiple purposes. This has come in handy when having difficult conversations with parents. 

• Science labs can generate an engaging science lab based on topics and standards of your choice. 

• Exemplar & non-exemplar is a tool that creates responses to specific assignments to help “see” what is expected. This has come in handy when doing different writing assignments or projects. 

Again, there are so many different tools available on Magic School, you really need to just go check it out for yourself. This is a tool that I personally use on a daily basis and has saved me a lot of time doing everyday teacher tasks. 

Connections Game Creator

For our final segment I am going to share with you a quick tech tip of the week. Every day at the end of the day in my classroom we play the new york times games. One gamer  that the students love is connections. I recently found a website that you can create your own connections game. Connections is a puzzle game where there are 16 words and the player needs to find the connection between the words. There are 4 words in a category and 4 categories. This tool could be great to use as a way to integrate a game they love and use it for vocabulary words for a science unit or a social studies unit. Maybe you are working on prefixes and suffixes. There are so many possibilities with this site. I will link the website in the show notes. 

 

 

Thank you for listening to Adventure with EdTech.

Karen Bellidoro
Instagram: adventure.with.edtech
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventurewithedtech 
Website: https://www.adventurewithedtech.com/