Any teachers out there using AI for planning?

[bluedelphiniums]

Snowed under at work and overwhelmed by the planning I have to do. A friend of mine who teaches at another school uses AI and says they produce good plans. Anyone else on here tried it, and if so what's it like?

I have family members who use it to simplify texts and create comprehension questions. For example scan in information that’s dense from GCSE history book and ask ChatGPT to summarise with a specific reading age in mind. With AI the more specific your instructions are the better it is in terms of the output you get. Give it a go and see how it turns out.

Having seen some of the AI answers on Google they are not always correct (I have found this by looking at non AI answers and also own knowledge) and I find that it sometimes tell you the answer it thinks you want rather than what you want.

The other downside is that you know the class, and their ability and AI does not. I also find that it does go into too much depth and that is not always appropriate, depending upon the class or key stage.

The other danger is that the students can also use AI and they will realise that that is what you have done. This may lead to some awkward conversations, such as "All you do is copy from the Internet" or "We may as well use our phones" Then you get letters (emails) from parents. That is never good.

I used a lot of revision websites (take care with Bitesize) and then images and use this information and placed in a word document. If it is from the US change the spellings. Much quicker and easier than producing Powerpoint. Also added hyperlinks. 30 minutes per lesson maximum. The advantages is that it is quicker to produce. You can change them quickly in a lesson and you can also highlight the keypoints. They can also be printed off to support students that are SEN or EAL

These can then be kept and reused either in this year or following years or new schools.

Use AI as a support not as the main teaching resource.

As you progress in your career it does get better.

I love AI - but it does have limitations.

I tend to use it more for my admin tasks. I am an induction tutor - so I'll write a report and then ask chatGPT to tidy it up. It means I don't have to be clear the first time round and saves me redrafting a piece of writing. I also use it for emails where I have to communicate confusing timetables.

However - occasionally - it's done things like change the day on me - which is highly irritating...! So if I've put Wednesday 15th - it'll change it to Tuesday 15th even if the 15th is a Wednesday... (Example!)

I also use it for any cover lessons - I'm a music specialist - and the cover lessons tend to need to be written focussed as the cover teacher can't always deliver the right content.

I also use it for my GCSE classes where I need them to learn the definitions of vocab. Occasionally it does make mistakes.

I tell the students when ai has created something and we all have a laugh about how lazy I am - but it's the way the world is going and there is value in ai. I don't see why if we have a tool we shouldn't use it.

Be careful though - don't give it names - as it does store data so don't give it loads of pupil information. Be generic and if you're using names only use first names. Our school insists we use copilot and the work function if using pupils names or data, but I find copilot rubbish and prefer Gemini or chatGPT...

I use it for planning.

It can save so much time. I give it the spec points, how many lessons in the sequence and what main points/ skills I want to cover.

Then I use it as a planning friend, it suggests something, I tweak and change somethings up. It gives a frame to build on, which I find easier even if I change everything out.

You have to know what you are doing to spot when it gives you random shit, so you should use with care but it can really speed things up.

Thanks everyone, that's v helpful. I tried it for MTPs today and it produced a pretty good overview which I will us, but as people have said, some tweaks still needed. I'm trying to step away from the guilt as it feels like cheating, but frankly, with the amount of planning to do, if it saves me work, then that's a win as far as I'm concerned.