Despite misgivings about plagiarism, many educators are excited about the promise of ChatGPT to help students research content-area topics for papers and projects. MiddleWeb’s John Norton shares his “conversation” with the new ChatGPT-4 while researching some family history.
If educators are serious about teaching critical skills and serving the whole child, they need to get serious about SEL education and “make it a core and central organizing principle for middle school programs,” writes teacher, principal and leadership mentor Jason Ablin.
I Will Screw This Up / Technology
by Dina Strasser · Published 03/12/2023 · Last modified 05/21/2023
If we teach writing right, we’ll be fine with our kids having access to ChatGPT, says ENL/ELA teacher Dina Strasser. ChatGPT is a machine, following a formula. “It is not a student in a learning community.” She shares several instructional strategies to AI-proof your classroom.
The flash fiction format is engaging, appealing, and motivating to students and to teachers, precisely because of its brevity, accessibility, and manageability, writes teacher/author Linda Rief. “For the first time I am finding joy in hearing and reading my students’ fiction.”
5th grade teacher Kathie Palmieri has been exploring ways to better infuse mathematics in other subject areas and help students gain a more positive attitude about math’s central place in their lives. She shares some ideas about SEL and two examples from her science lessons.
“In my classroom, sticky notes earn top honors for Best Multipurpose Teaching Tool,” writes literacy teacher Kelly Owens. She displays 15 ways to use the tacky squares to chunk large tasks into manageable clusters and empower students to contemplate, coordinate, and connect.
How might lessons connect local history and historical fiction? Katie Durkin and her 7th grade team are partnering with the Wilton CT historical society to engage students in a project that raises awareness about how fiction writers use history to tell authentic stories.
Find out how adopting a lawyer mindset can help all students develop critical thinking skills and dispositions in Thinking Like a Lawyer by Colin Seale. NBCT Kim Rensch likes that the book is a quick read and offers reasonable ways to integrate thinking skills with curricula.
Whether you’re a principal facilitating a change initiative or a teacher leader facilitating a content-level team, it’s essential to set clear parameters with adult learners upfront so that neither goals, nor trust, nor people’s hard work is compromised. Elisa MacDonald shows how.
We’ve accomplished so much this year and we still have another big stretch to conquer, write teachers Maggie and Piers Blyth. We’ve reached the peak – we’re ready for the downhill race. It’s important to chart our path and stay alert for the obstacles and opportunities ahead.
