On social media, I see a lot of comparisons between the teaching profession and others. Like... WOULD U EXPECT A MUSICIAN TO WRITE THEIR OWN MATERIAL?! Actually ya. The musicians we respect most in fact do write their own music. MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS DON'T JUST IGNORE RESEARCH Actually, research on menopause & standard care treatment has been largely ignored for decades? It's an issue largely talked about and ignored. But teaching and learning isn't like any other profession. Truly. I think the closest analogy we can get to is health and nutrition. It is a lot like that in some ways. We know, and have always known, more or less what we need to do to achieve our own optimal health. Eat a balanced, whole food diet. Exercise regularly. Sounds simple enough? And yet the health and fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar industry with advise swinging wildly from one extreme to another. Eat a strict vegan diet some might say. No no! Its all about Keto! No Paleo! No no... 80% veggies 20% meet and absolutely no sugar. Its aall about the Mediterranean Diet girl. What shoould you do in regards to exercise? Oh that is simple. Walk 10k steps a day. Definitely increase cardio. Decrease cardio and lift heavy! Run. A lot. Don't run a lot but do aat l east 5 days of HIIT workouts. Do not do HIIT, just lift heavy weights but like... sometimes also cardio. The contradictory advise is enough to make your head spin. And it's not far from what teachers hear constantly. We know what kids need. In 2001, what kids need was put together in this now once again incredibly popular concept known as Scarborough's Rope. We know. And yet, the advice we get to apply is at best nonsensical. Follow programs with fidelity but also definitely don't because one must teach and adapt to the needs of the students in front of them. Decodables only! Until kids master ALL phonics skills. But also that's ridiculous. Obviously they need authentic texts. Knowledge building over comprehension skills and strategies! But also definitely comprehension skills and strategies. Similar to health and nutrition advice, there is a solid path to follow. We know where to begin but... as life is... the plan is never one size fits all. What about the patient with celiac disease? Or a thyroid problem? Or Hashimoto's? What about the woman in perimenopause who suddenly is experiencing health issues she never has experienced before despite continuing an incredibly healthy life style? What about those with severe allergies? Or our picky eaters? We cannot simply suggest everyone eats a gluten-free diet. That simply doesn't work for everyone. There is no one size fits all plan for health and nutrition. And there isn't one for student learning. This is where education goes wrong. There is no solid advice when it comes to the real life students in front of us. There is only solid advice for the best case scenario. Even the best written program will not address all of the what ifs, all of the needs, all of the resources that real kids might need. And no, its often not an implementation problem. When "pendulums swing," its often a swing to an extreme. Legislation is put into place, new curriculum is purchased, and teachers are asked to teach it with fidelity. Fidelity as if all students fit into the same box. There is a refusal to acknowledge the depth and intricacies involved in teaching students. The nuances involved are such that a single program could of course give a solid starting point, but could never make up for the fact that we are neglecting so much. One single curriculum cannot fully address every issue that comes up in classrooms. We should be hiring teacher professionals (and treating them as such) to do that. A curriculum cannot address the social/emotional needs of students. This is addressed by the teacher, of course, who when given the freedom to adjust and adapt can take the base line of the curriculum and bring it to life for students. This is what students need. We now have curriculum that is deeply flawed, ignores current and past research, and is known to be culturally destructive. The lack of mirrors, windows and sliding doors in many programs today leaves inequitable gaps that simply shouldn't exist given all we know now. Our special ed system is historically and wildly underfunded. The staffing needed to make it successful is never there, rarely hired, and when they are they lack support in such devastating waays, the teachers quit for jobs with less stress and more respect. We have an unprecedented teacher shortage with teachers fleeing as fast as they can. And instead of addressing the true issues at play, the loudest voices are screaming to legislate curriculum and force it to be taught with fidelity. They are, perhaps unknowingly, screaming for an extreme solution that simply wont work. Because like nutrition, our students need balance. They need us to have a solid jumping off point, they need us to be experts in the rope. They need us to be consumers of current research and best practice. And they need us to allow our teachers to use their best judgement to adapt to their needs.
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I have been lucky to have been surrounded by incredible talent throughout my two decade career as a teacher. The teachers I know have a skill level worthy of awards. The work they do every day in their classroom is incredible and truly changes lives. Despite this truth, one thing that continues to strike me as odd is the persistent presence in educators of what some might call Imposter Syndrome, the internal belief that despite evidence of success, one maybe really isn't truly successful. It is defined as the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills. This false belief runs rampant in educations and is a symptom of a society that demands expertise in the field but refuses to treat the professionals as the experts.
No matter how successful, knowledgeable or acclaimed a teacher is, society continues to paint the opposite picture. If it isn't being done blatantly in the press, even implicitly painting teachers as lesser than, not capable of the intellectual prowess needed to make the right type of decisions to ensure student success is damaging to the entire system. Teachers constantly are painted as being weak minded. The trust in decision making is taken away from them and more often than not, the media and journalists suggest important decisions should be "left in the hands of experts." Are teachers somehow not the experts? There have been several articles and podcasts out in the last few years that bring up valid concerns with curriculum, but then quickly point the finger in the wrong direction, at teachers. Even if it is not blatant, any undertone that suggests teacher's are not capable of spotting curriculum that isn't worthy of being in schools perpetuates the belief that teacher's are not experts in their field. However, not only are teachers the true experts in education, the key to solving the most complex issues faced in our school systems can be found by simply trusting them and involving them in important conversations. The truth is, teachers have and continue to sound the alarm about curriculum that isn't up to par. We wave red flags begging for anyone in power to listen and instead are silenced. We are told to teach with strict fidelity because someone who has probably never stepped foot into a classroom claims the curriculum will ensure success. Those of us that are brave enough (or have supportive districts) are given room to apply our expertise, our art, our knowledge to the curriculum and students thrive because of it. Others are left floundering under the heavy weight of a boxed curriculum that could never live up to its claims of being aligned to evidence, because it never was. No program can be or will be perfect but some are so deeply flawed they never should have been on the market. Instead of allowing teachers to take part in these conversations, the continual silencing of the true experts in the field, the teachers, has lead to legislators and big corporations making sweeping decisions that are in the best interest of no one but themselves. The district or school that allows room for teacher voice and discretion is becoming increasingly rare. And far more often teachers are bludgeoned with the belief they are lesser than. In the eyes of the loudest in our society, they are not the experts. Their years of experience, their masters degrees, their doctorate degrees mean nothing. They and only they are at fault when a company Sells a Story and millions are spent on something they truly had no say in. When teachers bring up that they tried to say something, they tried to sound the alarm about (insert any failed initiative over the last several decades) they are hushed or worse, bullied into silence. The best of the best are leaving and finding jobs where they are treated with respect, as professionals. They are finding the Imposter Syndrome they were weighed down with was a weight put on them by society. And with that weight taken off, they are allowed to thrive in their workplace knowing that they are capable, they are intelligent, and they are worthy. We are losing teachers at an unprecedented fast pace. The teachers we need in schools, the experts among us are fed up. They are leaving. They are tired of being treated as lesser than. They are tired of feeling defeated. They are tired of feeling Imposter Syndrome imposed on them by a society that refuses to acknowledge teachers for the true experts in the field that they are. There are a lot of mixed feelings in education in regards to the use of AI. But its time for the conversation to move beyond "kids use it to cheat," and "it might replace teachers!" We need to move on towards discussing and finding ways to best implement it. Love it or hate it, AI is here and it's here to stay. From the Teacher Lens Approach with Caution The Cons - AI is still in its beginning stages and it is flawed. From the perspective of using it as a professional and through the lens of allowing students access to it considering the following.
The Pros-Overall, AI can be used as a tool to save time on tasks that can be automated to then move focus to student engagement, interaction, and building lessons that are both authentic and engaging to student learning. Align to the Science of Reading For many teaching professionals, the Science of Reading has created a strong shift in their teaching. A shift that requires materials that sometimes, at least in upper grades, are not engaging, not relevant, or simply non existence. AI provides teachers with a tool to quickly provide resources to use in the classroom. Need a list of words that match the morpheme you are teaching? Done.
From the Student Lens Cons
Explicitly Teach Critical Literacy and Being a Critical Consumer of Information In today's world, we have to teach students how to be critical consumers of information, and why that is so crucial in today's world. This of course goes beyond just AI, but in its current state is especially critical to the use of AI by students. With a tool that is known to amplify bias, they must be taught to question what biases might be present and what perspective is truly being represented. This again is crucial in any type of reading they do. Currently there are many reading curriculum on the market being adopted by districts for their supposed alignment to the science of reading but at the same time, the curriculum have been evaluated as being culturally destructive. Biases are present in most of the information we consume and we gave to proceed from a lens of teaching students how to critically analyze any information they are given. Preventing Cognitive Atrophy If used inappropriately without explicitly teaching how to use it as a tool to harness creativity and expression, students could easily develop what is known as cognitive atrophy. If we present it as something that will only help a kid spit out an essay without thought, we will be on quite the slippery slope. However, if presented in ways that will help strengthen their cognitive muscles, we can ensure that we prevent over reliance on it. We can sure that students are using it to enhance the way they think about and see the world. If we stop and reflect, who wouldn't use a tool that could bust out a well written five paragraph essay in five seconds? We need to stop, reflect, and ensure our students are experiencing AI in ways that enhance their reading, writing, and critical thinking. Re-frame Purpose of Assignments There are so many opportunities to simply have fun. In the past, I have had kids write songs to display their learning in content area (for example, a rap about Plate Tectonics) to be blunt, the level of skill this requires is immense and often too much for 4th grade. After years of teaching it became an option or an extension and not something I did whole group until... AI. Now the song can be created with prompting. Students still must use their knowledge in the prompt if they want the song to truly display their learning. The assignment then becomes a practice in building fluency for whoever needs it, continuing to practice and memorize the content, creativity, public speaking and enjoyment. Enhance Writing Students absolutely need to be good writers in order to properly prompt AI. A wonderful example activity is having students create a fictional animal. Students must use their descriptive writing skills to then prompt AI to generate a picture of their animal. This can and will lead to many revisions and often to the realization that AI is imperfect. AI can also be used (with caution) to provide instant feedback to students. The issue here is you must explicitly teach how to analyze the advice as it may not always be valid. Focus on Creativity, Expression and Communication Students will be given so many chances to simply create. In situations where they are prompted to create their own business, they can now easily prompt AI to create their own logo. They will be able to use their voices to animate cartoons, write scripts that can be brought to life with background images they create with descriptive prompts... its an exciting world out there. And I personally cannot wait to jump farther into it all.... with caution. |
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"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." - Alexandra K. Trenfor |