84. Teach Smart: AI-Powered Planning to Prevent Teacher Burnout [Systemize & Simplify Series]

Nov 28, 2023

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Automating your classroom to reduce teacher burnout has never been easier before. If you’ve tinkered with idea of incorporating AI into your workflow, you're in the right place! I've been diving deep into the world of AI for a year now, and let me tell you – it's a game-changer for us teachers. We're talking a massive 30-40% time saved on grading and admin tasks. That's more time for coffee breaks and actual teaching!

AI isn't just about crunching numbers; it's like a personal teaching assistant for each of your students. It gets their learning style, helps them at their own pace, and even gives you the inside scoop on where they need a little extra help which saves you TONS of time in the planning stages. And the best part? It's making learning fun and engaging for them, which is a huge win in my book.

I've been on a quest to find the crème de la crème of AI tools. I'm talking about those all-in-one, Swiss Army knife kind of tools that save you time and keep you from feeling like you're juggling a million things. In this episode, we're going to explore these gems together. They're specially designed for teacher superheroes like you, dealing with the nitty-gritty of curriculum changes, diverse student needs, and, let's be honest, trying to keep your sanity.

By the end of this episode, you'll be all set to integrate three of my favorite tools into your daily teaching & planning routine and hopefully, feel that spark of passion for teaching all over again.

TOPICS COVERED:

Uncover 30-40% time savings in grading and admin with AI tools.
Learn how AI enhances student engagement through personalized teaching.
Explore ChatGPT's limitless possibilities in lesson planning and execution.
Discover MagicSchool AI for effective syllabus creation and special education tools.
Utilize EduAide for comprehensive, teacher-created content and planning assistance.
Learn to use AI for decision fatigue reduction and focused teaching efforts.
Understand the role of AI in streamlining lesson differentiation and addressing misconceptions.
Get insights on overcoming the limitations of teacher-specific AI platforms.
Debunk myths about AI replacing teachers and reaffirm the importance of human touch in teaching.
Actionable tips for integrating AI into your teaching workflow to combat burnout.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

Grab the Intro to Automating with ChatGPT Challenge
Join the Waitlist for Automate Your Classroom Course - Learn the step-by-step roadmap TO creating a sustainable teacher task simplification and automation system to beat burnout, squash stress, get back YOUR time, and sustain your career in education
EduAide.ai
MagicSchool.ai
ChatGPT

RELATED RESOURCES:

FREE Teacher Email Template Guide - This FREE guide will provide you with strategies for your simplifying your teacher workload and for use in your classroom. You will learn to:
- Use templates in your e-mail server
- Use swipe-copy templates to reduce the amount of time you spend writing and responding to e-mails
Grab the Ultimate Automated Teacher Email Toolkit - BRAND NEW RESOURCE NEVER OFFERED OUTSIDE OF THE AUTOMATE YOUR CLASSROOM PROGRAM
Request Professional Development from your Administrator
Interested in getting support for your school - Check out the For Schools Page
Watch the FREE "Balance before Burnout: Work/Life Balance Audit" Mini-workshop
The Ultimate Teacher Digital Planner
FREE Affirmations for Burned Out Teachers Workbook to help change your mindset

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MORE ABOUT THE RESILIENT TEACHER PODCAST:

The Resilient Teacher Podcast is the show that will give overwhelmed educators the support, tools, and mindset to reduce teacher burnout and keep teaching sustainable. Each week, Brittany Blackwell, M.Ed. & her guests will share inspiration and actionable steps to avoid or recover from the dreaded teacher burnout. You'll be inspired to individualize self-care and learn to prioritize your well-being and mental health, all while making a bigger impact on your classrooms and community.

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TRANSCRIPT:

AI-driven tools: Time-saving and personalized teaching benefits

[0:00] Did you know that statistics show that teachers who use AI-driven tools often report a 30 to 40% time saving in grading and administrative tasks?
AI is particularly beneficial because it allows us to allocate more time to those student interactions and that personalized teaching.
I've been using AI for the past year to help teachers automate and reduce the burnout that we experience.
Not to mention, AI tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated and offering more personalized learning experiences for students, adapting to individual learning styles and paces.
This not only enhances our student engagement, but it also supports us in identifying areas where maybe students need more help, or supporting us in accessing more effective teaching strategies.

AI tools: Enhancing student engagement and effective teaching strategies

[0:44] And it's no secret, I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to testing out AI tools and finding ones that have more all-in-one capabilities to really save us time.
Throughout this episode, we are going to unveil the hidden gems of AI teacher tools, each one meticulously designed to tackle the very challenges that keep you up at night.
Overwhelming workloads, the constant shuffle of curriculum changes, and the need to meet the diverse needs of your students.
By the end of this episode, you'll be eager to explore these tools and integrate AI seamlessly into your teaching arsenal, Hopefully igniting your passion for education like never before. So, let's get into it.

AI's potential in education and changing mindset about it

[1:22] And so, I'm pretty darned stoked about the possibilities that AI has opened in the past year.
I first heard of ChatGPT probably December of last year, and that sent me on a rabbit hole of constant learning how to use it effectively.
And it really just, it opened my eyes. We talked back in episode 46 about how I think, you know, chat GPT could be a part of the future of teacher burnout prevention, and I haven't changed my stance on it.
But in that episode, we specifically talked about changing your mindset about the possibilities, especially if you're a little apprehensive.
So if you haven't checked that episode out, I will drop it in the show notes to help you out. Or heck, if you know a teacher who might be apprehensive, definitely send that to them.

Focus on planning workflow and reducing decision fatigue

[2:05] But in this episode, I really want to focus on the planning aspect and how this can help us in that regard.
Because we all know that we are experiencing decision fatigue and I want us to start to utilize these tools in our planning workflow to reduce that and, focus more on how we can use these to really enhance our teaching efforts.
While I'm focusing on the planning aspect of these tools, I want to note that each of these tools also have several other time-saving teacher components and so obviously I want you to take some action here and I want you to check them out.
And the first one that I believe needs probably no introduction is ChatGPT.
I will stand with this, but above all other teacher-specific tools.

[2:48] I believe that ChatGPT is the best.
While tools like BARD and Bing and other tools are available that are similar, I see ChatGPT as the ultimate.
And it's insane the amount of enhancements that have been made since its release only a year ago.
The reason I think that this tool is the best is because it's not teacher-specific.

[3:10] With ChatGPT, the possibilities are really quite limitless.

[3:13] It's not really confined to a specific educational niche, which means any ideas that you have, any concepts you want to explore, and any questions you seek to answer, those can be brought to life with ChatGPT's assistance.
I think of it like having a brilliant co-creator at your side, ready to bring your vision to reality.
And so if you know how to prompt ChatGPT effectively, you won't need any other tools. Simple as that. I've heard people say, well, it gives really basic responses, this, that, and the other. And yeah, sure, it can.
But it's all about the information and in the prompt that you give it.
The other part of this is that I think it's important to note that if you begin using more teacher-specific platforms at any time, that usage that you have on that other platform, that could be limited.
That could put you behind a paywall. So if you create your own personalized and custom prompts for ChatGPT, you will likely never lose access to that on the free account.
So being a teacher, my idea is that the more that you know, the better advantage you have.

[4:23] I do have a completely free challenge to help you get started with creating these ultimate prompts you can use with the free ChatGPT.
That way, you can never have to rely on another software or any of that.
But then also, by completing this challenge, you'll be able to leverage the power of ChatGPT to help streamline certain aspects of your teaching process.

[4:45] Freeing up time for that personalized instruction, that individualized support, those more meaningful interactions.

[4:51] So if you're brand new to ChatGPT, or you just want to streamline your processes, you can access this brand new free resource at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash chat GPT challenge.
This challenge is also inside of the automate your classroom program inside of the teach smarter with AI bundle which is a bonus that includes the ultimate chat GPT teacher prompt bank with over a hundred perfectly curated prompts for teachers.

[5:16] AI with automations workshop and pretty much everything you need to do to leverage the power of chat GPT.
So if you're a student inside of the program you can find that inside of your portal in the bonus section.

Introduction to Magic School AI for lesson planning and differentiation

[5:26] The next two tools are teacher-specific tools, but I think that because they've been programmed to teachers, they have the power to save us a lot of time.
And both of these tools use open AI connections, so basically they're just powered by ChatGPT, just refined with specific prompts.
And the first of those tools is Magic School AI.
When it comes to creating lesson plans or curriculum mapping, I think first and foremost, their tool to create a syllabus is a powerful strategy to then mapping out your lessons.
When you begin with a well-structured syllabus, you're gonna have that clear roadmap for your curriculum mapping and your lesson planning.
Not to mention saving your precious time by having a solid foundation to help build upon, ensuring that your lessons actually align with your overall course objectives.
Another part of their tool that stands apart from others is their section specifically for special educators and special education students. That really got me.
So whether you are a teacher who teaches students with IEPs or 504s or not.

[6:31] You can still use their assignment scaffolder, which is a huge support for creating these layered assignments that cater to every student's skill level.
Their accommodation suggester tool also supports getting top-notch suggestions.

[6:46] To accommodate diverse learning needs inside of your classroom.
They also have a full IEP draft generator, which I think is a pretty good start for beginning an IEP.
I just don't recommend that you copy and paste. This is more of a kickoff tool to help you out.
And just a reminder, if you do use this, make sure that you do not use any personal identifiable information because that would be not so bueno.
They also have a behavior intervention plan tool and behavior intervention generators for handling some of the stress that comes with problematic behaviors in the classroom.
The other part of Magic School that can help with saving time and streamlining more effective lesson planning is differentiation, which can take a lot of time. But Magic School has this embedded tool called Common Misconceptions Generator.
So you can plan for those common mistakes that students make when given this type of lesson or having those already planned out, which kind of allows you to nip those in the bud.
So say you have a lesson that you created using these different tools as part of your workflow, you might use the common mistakes to have those common slip-ups, for the topic you're teaching, and Magic School provides you with strategies and ways to tackle those with your students.

[8:04] Using these tools as a part of your workflow really helps you to streamline that planning, and then also narrow your focus on, say, providing tailored support to students with diverse learning needs, promoting that inclusive classroom environment.
Plus, the ability to anticipate and address those challenges, such as those misconceptions or those behavior issues results in more effective lessons, i.e.
Less stress for you. So creating a system to utilize this tool as part of your lesson planning workflow collectively is amazing.
But their new feature to share outputs that you create in Magic School is really neat, too.
So you can basically share and collaborate among the teachers in your building, making it kind of a win-win for both you and your colleagues, and keeping that consistency across the classrooms.

Introduction to EduAid as a comprehensive tool for teachers

[8:55] The third tool I want to talk about is EduAid. And it's probably my favorite aside from ChatGPT, and I think the most comprehensive that I found thus far.
We also have an interview coming up with Thomas Thompson, who is the founder, and I think it's really cool that he is a current social studies teacher from Maryland.
He's still in the classroom, and And he took his interest in artificial intelligence and turned it into a tool that every single teacher can use.
And so if you've not played around with EduAid, I highly, highly recommend you go into it.
The fact that teachers have created these is probably my favorite part.

[9:33] What I really like about EduAid is they're really easy to adjust interface.
This tool has four separate sections, so it's got a content generator, a teaching assistant, a feedback bot, and then a chat with EduAid, which is similar to chatting with ChatGPT.
It's just adjusted specifically for teachers.
Inside of the content generator, you can access teaching resources that are kind of grouped by instructional activity.
So if you used Magic School to create your syllabus, you can then go into EduAid and use their unit plan option to enter the topic, the standard, any other information.
I really like that whatever tool that you use inside of it, it has this enhance button.
And so it enhances what you placed in that text box to give more context or elaborate what you've put inside of it.
And then once you have that, you can then hit add to workspace where it puts this output into its own card.
There are other planning content types like unit plan, lesson seed, prior knowledge and scaffolding, learning objective and success criteria, and you can change the subject in the grade level to match your needs at the top of the content generator section.
The content generator has different sections for each part of your planning workflow, so obviously it's got the planning, it's got information objects, options for independent practice, cooperative of learning, gamification, and even some questions.

[10:57] Once you have that card with one of these types of content, that output is automatically saved.
So you can rename it and you can find it at any time.

Edu-Aid's Transform Button and Resource Suggestions

[11:06] Edu-Aid includes a transform button up at the top of the card.
That way you can easily differentiate to summarize, to chunk, to extract keywords, or increase and decrease the Lexile level.
I also really like that it gives suggestions for your next steps.
So basically what it does is it will suggest a resource to pair with the content that you just created and it will automatically create a new card for that content once you choose it.
Edu-Aid has literally over a hundred resource types and learning objects to choose from.
And while teachers can use it for free, the free option is limited to 15 generations where the pro option is unlimited, but it's 5.99 per month for individual teachers.
So, like I mentioned before, any of the teacher-specific AI tools, they often have some type of paywall or some limit to usage, which does impact how you can use it without paying.
And that's why I obviously think that learning to use that base-level chat GPT, is the best and most cost-efficient option.

[12:08] I know that there's at least one teacher out there who is thinking, you know, I don't want to use this because it's going to take my job.
And I have seen some news articles that are trying this out.
So that is definitely a concern that I understand.
There was an Austin, Texas private school that was allowing AI to teach core subjects.
So I can see that concern. I see that it's totally relevant, but let's be real.
Teaching is so much more than just providing content, right?
We know that the majority of students need more personalized, person-to-person instruction because that's how we learn.

AI's Role in Simplifying Workload and Personalizing Learning Experiences

[12:43] AI like EduAid, Magic School, and ChatGPT, that's here to simplify your workload, personalize those learning experiences, and offer those valuable insights.
But it's really you who brings the magic into the classroom.
Your unique perspective, your passion, your ability to connect with students on a personal level, those are irreplaceable.
That's something that AI can never do.
The AI tools that are available are only as good as the teacher who's utilizing them. End of story.

[13:12] AI could create an entire lesson, a curriculum, whatever, but at the end of the day, it's you who is bringing that content to the table.
And so I hate to break into that private school in Austin, Texas, and I'll link that article in the show notes if you want to go check it out.
But at the end of the day, that's why I'm so passionate about helping teachers to utilize tools to reduce that overwhelm so you can actually show up in the classroom and bring that human connection.
Because when we're bombarded by more and more tasks, that can't happen.

[13:42] So my passion for it comes from this place of ensuring that amidst the sea of tasks and technology, the heart of teaching, that personal human touch, that remains at the forefront.
And simplifying and systemizing our teaching efforts reduces decision fatigue and truly allows us to have the capacity to be that human connection piece.
We have just a few more episodes in the Systemize and Simplify series, but as always with this series, I want to help you take some action.
So if you're more interested in learning about the ChatGPT route, definitely check out the ChatGPT Challenge that is free, linked in the show notes, or head over to Magic school or edu-aid to try out some of their features that we talked about when you go to plan your next week's lessons.
Feel free to share your insights and what you found to be helpful or the challenges that arose in your workflow over on the resilient teacher community on Facebook.
You can also share this episode with a teacher friend by just grabbing the link and sharing it with them in a text or on your socials and just sit down with them and do this together.
Seriously, let's stop gatekeeping these burnout busting tools.
Don't forget you are a resilient teacher. We're in this together. You got this.

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