The Non-robotic Heart of a Teacher

 

I teach online now after spending 20 years in the classroom. This year, we are using a new learning management system. I don't particularly like it, so I will admit I was not very engaged initially. In rebellion,  instead of working my way through the new lessons to teach my students, I decided to give AI a try. I copied and pasted and allowed AI to write my lesson plans for me. 

Huge mistake.

 First of all, let me say that I pride myself on writing very creative lesson plans. I like to know what my students are learning and then supplement it with questions, images, games, examples, whatever it takes to reach them, right?

However, after only spending a couple of hours writing out lesson plans for four different English resource preps, I thought, “Hey, I am onto something!” I even had a little free extra time to grade and take a little crafting time for myself.

What happened, you ask?

Well, without really paying attention to what I had created because, mind you, I'd only put in the subject title and subtitles and not really looked at the depth of the content, I started my class.

 I began going through slides that even I could not relate to because I didn't know the content, and the information made no sense. 

 It was awful, and then I realized I had preached to my kids about using AI responsibly and using the suggestions but not taking it at face value for completed work, and I face-planted. My students, who are always game for the crazy ideas and concepts I throw at them, were bored.

The joy that I usually have when presenting a lesson to my students and hearing positive exchange did not come. There was only me drowning in AI slop-like content that was dense, unfriendly, mechanical, almost nonsensical

 I have learned my lesson. 

So now it's back to old school: going through the content, creating helpful worksheets and resources for my students who require modifications and accommodations. 

I return to my old ways,  knowing and loving what I'm teaching to the students who deserve so much more than a robotic, formulaic approach to instruction. I realize they require and deserve the human touch. No robot can ever take the place of a teacher with a heart for kids.

"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you." ~~B.B. King