Blog #6 - End of Semester Reflections!

 End of Semester Reflections:)

HEY AGAIN FRIENDS! 

- for the very last time:( 

Throughout my five week practicum within grade 4, I had several opportunities to meaningfully integrate AI into my planning and teaching. The main tools I used were ChatGPT and Magic School, particularly for lesson planning, generating activity ideas, and creating assessment tools like rubrics, checklists, and self-assessments. AI became a valuable part of my professional workflow especially during weeks when time was limited and I was juggling multiple subject areas or prepping for other things going on with the school. Which is something my mentor teacher encouraged, especially during times like those to make things easier rather than adding on more stress!

One of the biggest ways AI supported my practicum was by helping me brainstorm engaging activities and games to make my lessons more interactive. It also helped me think through differentiation, especially for students who needed extra scaffolding or extensions. While AI was a strong starting point, I quickly realized that I know my students best. Their personalities, needs, humour, attention spans, and triggers are things AI simply cannot grasp. Because of this, I often had to take what AI generated and modify it even further, making it aligned more for my kiddos, with our class routines, and more responsive to the dynamics of my particular students. In that sense, I found AI most helpful as a thinking partner, not a decision-maker. I also used Magic School and ChatGPT to create rubrics and simplify language to make assessment tools more student-friendly. While the AI saved me significant time, I still needed to revise wording to ensure my Grade 4s could easily understand it and use it meaningfully. This reinforced the idea that technology can support teaching, but cannot replace our intentional touches as teachers who deeply understands our students' needs because we have that relationship with them!

Throughout this course, my perspective on technology integration evolved significantly. At the beginning of the semester, my first burning question was “How can we use AI as a tool within our lesson planning so that it actually supports learning in diverse classrooms?” After my practicum and this course, I now understand that AI is most powerful when paired with teacher judgment, relationship-building, and pedagogical knowledge. AI can help with planning, spark creativity, and offer initial differentiation ideas, but it is the teacher’s responsibility to adapt, refine, and decide what will genuinely benefit the students in front of them, a lot of the process with using AI is picking and choose what goes and what we can use to build off from. My second burning question was “How can we teach students to use technology responsibly, including issues like cyberbullying?” this question was also addressed throughout the course and within our staff meetings at my practicum school because this was something our school always valued deeply which I absolutely loved. I now feel more confident in how to model responsible digital citizenship, teach students about safety and boundaries online, and make conversations about technology both realistic and proactive with students by having open and honest conversations with them and also allowing them to bring forth questions they may have as well to further help deepen understanding. 

I also learned a great deal from my peers throughout the course. Seeing how others incorporated tools like Google Translate for students who only spoke another language, and seeing this helped expand my understanding of how technology can support inclusive learning environments at really any time to help maximize student learning and understanding and help them to feel more included and welcomed. At the same time, I contributed to others’ learning by sharing my practicum examples, my successes with AI generated assessments, and my reflections on balancing technology with relationship-based teaching, such as with my mentor teacher and breaking down the steps on what to ask AI in order to get the response/answers you are looking for, and how you have to be very specific during the process as we learned during this course! Another major thing I learned from my mentor teacher was to also always have a plan b/ backup plan incase the technology we are using doesn't go as planned or there are issues that occur, so that we are able to still continue the lesson and be able to adjust on the fly! This ongoing exchange reminded me that teachers grow best when they collaborate and remain open to learning from one another! 

Overall, my biggest takeaway is that AI is not here to do the teachers job, but it is here to empower them and work as a tool along side them. When used intentionally, ethically, and thoughtfully, it can support creativity, differentiation, and efficiency. But when used without context, it can miss the heart of teaching and the connection/relationships we build with students which is so important within the classroom. My practicum allowed me to find this balance, and I feel much more prepared to integrate digital technologies into my future classroom in ways that enhance authentic learning!

Thank you for tuning in friends! It has been such a great semester:)