SchoolAI's Newest Teacher Tools

I'm the kind of nerd who follows SchoolAI's "Changelog", which informs me of any new improvements, updates, and features. I have it set up to email me every time something new is posted. Last Friday afternoon, I got SEVEN emails! I was like...what are they doing over there??

Well it turns out, they were busy adding a bunch of new tools for teachers!

As you can see, I tested them all out and I'm here to tell you how they work and show you some cool examples!

Choice Board

For this one, you provide the tool with your learning goal, subject, and grade level and then choose the type of choice board you want to create. It generates the board as well as instructions for you. In my example, I asked for a board for a Spanish class working on reflexive verbs. Here was the result:

If it were me, I wouldn't want students to be able to choose any 3 in a row because they might opt for only the "Understand" column. I'd rather them choose one from each column. But the great news is that like anything from AI, you can (and SHOULD) take what it provides and adapt it to fit your specific needs.

Exit Ticket Generator

Just what it sounds like. Put in what you are doing in your class, how many and what type of questions you want, and get a printable exit ticket (or take the questions and put them into a Google Form for a digital version). In my example, I was an Intro to Art teacher covering perspective. Here's my exit ticket:

Standards Unpacker

This one is my favorite. I don't know about you, but I think all standards are written in "eduspeak" (a term coined by a former colleague of mine...shout out to Mr. Cassidy!) Do we really expect students to look at a list of 4 or 5 standards and know what they are supposed to learn or do? I'll pick on my own content area for this one. Here is one of the ISTE technology standards for students:

Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

For this one, I can either copy and paste the standard into the tool or select from a list of state, national, or international standards. I can also choose a grade level and subject area. Then the tool essentially makes the standards easier for students to understand. It puts them in student-friendly language and then provides information about what the students must know and do, key vocabulary, success criteria, and common misconceptions. Basically everything you need to help your students actually understand what they are being assessed on! Here's what it looks like:

Differentiated Activity Generator

This one takes your existing lessons/activities and helps you easily differentiate it for complexity, scaffolding, pacing, or product. Simply paste or upload the existing content and select how you want to differentiate it. I used Biology for this one. It's a little too long to screenshot, but you can see the full differentiated activity here!

Email Drafter

This is exactly what it sounds like. If Bruce Banner has been smashing things in your English class because he would rather be in science, you can use this tool to help you write a professional email. You can even have it translate to a different language:

Here's the result:

Question Ladder

This one is the quickest tool! You simply enter a concept or topic and grade level (you can upload files and attach standards if you want too) and it provides a list of questions that "climb" Bloom's Taxonomy from Remember to Create with one question for each step. If I were a high school algebra teacher reviewing slope and rate of change, I could get a document like this one!

Literature Circle Role Sheets

This one is pretty specific to English, but maybe you could find a way to make it work for other topics. But let's say my class is reading To Kill a Mockingbird and we are focused on chapters 3-6. I can put in that information into the tool and select whatever literature circle roles I want (full disclosure, I had to ask my librarian colleague what the heck a literature circle was!) The AI then creates an instruction sheet for each role as well as a teacher instruction sheet. Here's what I got for this example.

Phew! That was a lot of new tools! I tried to provide a variety of different content areas for these examples, but other than the Literature Circle, these tools can be used by anyone at any grade level or content area.

As you explore them, the most important thing to remember is that you should NEVER just take something you get from AI and use it in class without first reviewing it and making adjustments to make it your own. You can certainly use AI to increase your productivity, but you should never use it to replace your creativity.