To AI or not to AI?

Let’s finally address the elephant in the classroom. It’s been a few months since ChatGPT has been thrust at us, and if you’re anything like me, you panicked about how to tell if your student’s essay was their own or hot off the AI press. I certainly read up a great deal on this, saw the videos about how the 5-paragraph essay may be done now that ChatGPT almost exclusively writes in that format.

^{Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels}

Yes, AI is here to stay, and us language teachers have to figure out how to leverage it in our classrooms, because whether we like it or not, our students certainly seem to and we better get on the bandwagon sooner rather than later.

Let’s face it. If used well, in the classroom, AI can be a powerful tool for enhancing learning, engagement, and student success. However, as with any technology, it is essential that we approach AI with caution and ensure that it is used in a responsible and ethical manner.

One strategy we teachers can use to incorporate AI in the classroom is to use intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). These systems use machine learning algorithms to provide personalized and adaptive instruction to students. For example, an ITS might provide different levels of support to students based on their individual strengths and weaknesses, or it might adapt the difficulty level of tasks to match the student’s skill level. By using ITS, teachers can provide students with more personalized instruction and support, which can lead to better learning outcomes.

Another way that teachers can use AI in the classroom is to use chatbots or virtual assistants. Chatbots can be used to provide students with immediate feedback on their work, answer their questions, and provide guidance on assignments. Virtual assistants are also a great way to automate routine tasks such as grading and assessment, freeing up our time to focus on more complex tasks such as lesson planning and instruction.

However, we must be cautious about the misuse of AI in the classroom. Apart from worrying only about plagiarised work, there are larger questions to consider. For example, AI can be used to monitor student behavior and engagement, but this can also raise concerns about privacy and surveillance. We must ensure that any data collected by AI systems is used ethically and in accordance with student privacy laws and regulations.

Additionally, we must be aware of how AI can reinforce existing biases and stereotypes. For example, if an AI system is trained on data that is biased against certain groups, it may perpetuate those biases in its recommendations and decision-making. We must ensure that AI systems are trained on diverse and representative data sets and also teach our students the pitfalls of AI.

That means that we need to encourage students to be critical consumers of AI. Students should understand how AI systems work, what data they are using, and how they are making decisions. This will help them to be more aware of the potential biases and limitations of AI and to use it more effectively and responsibly.

AI can be a great aid in the classroom, provided we learn how students are using it and be able to identify if it is being misused. We also need to be responsible in encouraging discussions in the classroom about AI as our students, who will the next generation of adults, are likely to be working actively with AI. Understanding the limitations of AI as well as its potential can help us lay the foundation for a whole generation of students who are most likely going to shape how AI is going to be used in the world in the coming future.

Study Guides and Annotations: Yay or Nay?

Do you recommend the use of study guides or annotations for difficult texts? By difficult texts I mean novels, plays, poems, and non-fiction. While guides and annotations can be useful, they also tend to limit a reader’s involvement with the text. They do so by prescribing particular approaches or interpretations, and this tends to generate uniform, and often lackluster, responses from students. It would be best to prescribe materials that only feature essential annotations, ones that do not interfere with students’ engagement. Sometimes students tend to read only the annotations or discussion points listed in study guides because they know they can get more than just passing grades by doing so.

An alternative would be to ask students to note down references they do not get or passages they do not understand. One can then look up and discuss these references as well as break down complex passages through collective reading. This will not only limit students’ unhealthy reliance on guides and annotations but will also help them develop an ethos of reading.

Dusting Your Workspace: Daily or Weekly?

Are you bothered by that thin film of dust on your worktable or desk? Doesn’t it always reappear two days after your weekly dusting spree? And isn’t this weekly dusting spree a deeply annoying thing at times? There is an easy solution to ease this annoyance. I’m not selling you a service or recommending an app for this. The solution is time-tested and only requires a bit of willingness on one’s part.

Here it is: dust daily. On first thought, this might seem like a dreadful chore to subject yourself to daily. However, this only makes dusting easier. Keep a dust brush of appropriate size for your workspace either on, next to, or in your desk. Pick it up and do your thing either before you begin working or do it at the end of the day. Even if you have plenty of clutter, this won’t take more than a minute, unless your desk in gargantuan (which I’m pretty sure it isn’t). In fact, for most people this process won’t take more than thirty seconds.

Dust accumulates on undisturbed surfaces; think of daily dusting like brushing your teeth, only that dusting is easier and quicker–IF DONE DAILY. It prevents your workspace from forming films of dust and might even give you that extra bit of motivation to work (we could all use it, couldn’t we?). Besides, if what might take up to fifteen minutes if done as a weekly chore can be done in less than a minute everyday, isn’t that great?

Your workspace will be so much more cleaner this way; you can also place a waste bin for dry waste by your desk. Just make sure to empty the bin regularly.

Wrapping Gifts: Yay or Nay?

There is eco-friendly wrapping paper now, but are we really frugal with how we use these? We still tend to overuse and waste wrapping paper. In other words, we don’t seem to be mindful users of eco-friendly products. What we have is a mindset problem. Because something is eco-friendly, it doesn’t follow that we can use it heedlessly. Besides, isn’t wrapping gifts tedious? Yes, wrapping them can be fun, too; it can show that you care, and unwrapped gifts are considered rude and lazy. They also chip away at the surprise element of gift-giving.

However, if you’re wondering how to spice up gift-giving AND save yourself valuable time, here’s an offbeat suggestion: don’t wrap gifts.

Let me clarify: don’t wrap all gifts. You can afford not to wrap your parents’, children’s, and intimate ones’ gifts (people with whom you can take this liberty). Here’s another twist: choose the gifts they’d really appreciate, but interchange the boxes these gifts come in. You can playfully mislead them, and there is fun to be had by doing so. I understand this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s still worth your consideration. I’ve done this with intimate ones, and I’ve mostly received positive feedback. In fact, it has also given us a new Christmas practice: gift-giving with just a touch of loving pranking.

Preserving Your Love for Blogging With Short Posts: Some Thoughts

Are you too busy to focus on your blogging? Do you find it tedious and sapping to have to open the Notes app on your phone to list ideas and points? Sure, it’s a very useful app, but if your work requires you to use your phone quite a bit, then it is quite difficult to not feel driven to use your phone to note down ideas not related to work. Here are some tips to keep yourself interested in blogging when the going gets tough.

1. Know that a blog post does not necessarily have to be a long read. Sure, Google values long articles, but assuming that your blog is already well known, you don’t have to worry about pleasing Google. Careful, discerning readers and followers will appreciate your posts even if they are short. Who knows, your readers might be pressed for time, too, so your short posts could be a hit. This doesn’t mean you can give up on long posts altogether; rather, this is just to remind you that you don’t have to publish long posts every week or month.
2. Keep a notebook or diary with you at most times to note down ideas and points. I keep a notebook in my work bag, one in my kitchen, and another by my bed. Doing so will reduce your phone dependence and will also reinforce your impetus to blog. Best of all, it helps you create mental divisions between work and blogging (should you need such compartmentalization). Thinking of blogging and work as different but nonetheless related things has helped me retain my love for both. At the very least, this will help you think about how you view your work and blogging and what type of relationship you want with them.
3. Don’t be afraid to play: when you being writing your post, look at all your notes. This means looking at all your notebooks. This might seem excessive, but this process will surprise you. It enhances creative problem solving and will also give you the pleasurable challenge of collating seemingly unrelated points into a cohesive post.
4. Finally, use the short posts as a way to recharge yourself for the demanding task of writing long posts. The latter typically require substantial research and effort (not that short posts don’t), and it’s not always possible to find the time for a good long post. So use short posts to keep your skills polished and just bide your time.

The Benefits of Asking a Good Open-Ended Question

If you–like many–are wondering how to come up with homework assignments that challenge students on their terms, here’s a really simple tip: go with open-ended prompts or questions.

This is of course an old trick. It has been tried, tested, and is highly recommended. This, however, does not mean that there are no “bad open-ended questions.” Neither is this a call to do away with simpler questions. A simple online search will you give you a number of examples of poor open-ended questions, or poor uses of open-ended questions. Be sure to avoid those pitfalls.

This post is a reminder that well-timed, well-framed open-ended questions can really spice up learning. It can enhance students’ learning experience–and by extension, your teaching experience, too. Perhaps the best feature of a good open-ended question is that it is highly inclusive; it works for students of different intelligence and competency levels. It also gives teachers the opportunity to get to know their students as thinkers.

Here are a few more benefits of a good open-ended question:

1. It can make students feel heard
2. It gives teachers the chance to offer thoughtful comments on students’ answers
3. It can showcase new aspects of students’ personalities
4. It is a great way to assess students’ ability as writers, and this in turn will enable you to identify students who might need some help or guidance with their writing and thinking
5. An extension of the previous point: it also helps teachers devise other tasks and assignments to improve students’ writing and thinking skills

Organized Clutter: Bringing Organization to Your Desk

Not all of us want a thoroughly sorted and organized work desk. Sure, the benefits and pleasures of working from an immaculately organized desk can be numerous, but let’s not shame those who find “clutter” stimulating.

In fact, what one sees as a careless dispersal of things might be just the type of arrangement someone else needs in order to be creative and sustain that creativity. It’s simply not true that people can’t find their way around clutter. Contrary to this popular misconception, “clutter people” have been known to expend a great deal of conscious thought in placing things in a particular place and a particular manner.

Being able to locate the book one is referencing without looking away from the laptop screen is a skill that is not limited to the uber-organized. Sure, there is clutter of the terrible kind–the uninspiring, depressing mess that drags you down. This post is not about that type of clutter.

There is what could be called “organized clutter”–a way of handling things that feeds creativity and focus. Think of what your desk looks like when you’re in the zone, in the thick of your work; even if you’re uber-organized, your desk will look a little less organized because you need and use things you might not otherwise need. You–and the things you use–occupy space differently.

Now that’s a thought worth considering.
Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kacey/26026424413/

Some people just tend to prefer that type of arrangement so they can locate and use things better. So, next time you feel the pressure to impose total order on your desk while you’re working, remember that you can improvise, and that improvisation can in fact help you. Just make sure the clutter doesn’t negatively affect your work or inclination to work.

3 Tips for Teachers to Keep Up Their Sanity

1. When it gets difficult and you find yourself growing restive, remember that you became a teacher because you believed you could be a noble human, a noble professional. Allow that idea to regulate your actions, to guide you. You may not always live up to the standards, but making the effort to do so is all that matters. Teaching is practice after all.
2. Your leisure time is sacred; make the most of it. That is, do not think of work during this time. In fact, using your leisure time to focus on work is detrimental because it comes in the way of your relaxation (which is difficult to come by when you’re a teacher) and also leaves you more drained. Which in turn will affect your teaching and job performance. Relax when you must; a relaxed teacher can accomplish great things.
3. Put your legs up and catch up on that sitcom you last watched two years go. Teachers may not have the time to binge-watch shows, but all we need is two episodes on the trot. The nostalgia, the feel-good factor will kick in and keep you kicking for a good while. In fact, Nicholson Baker’s The Anthologist has this to say about “trashy” television:
   “At some point you have to set aside snobbery and what you think is culture and recognize that any random episode of Friends is probably better, more uplifting for the human spirit, than ninety-nine percent of the poetry or drama or fiction or history every published. Think of that. Of course yes, Tolstoy and of course yes Keats and blah blah and yes indeed of course yes. But we’re living in an age that has a tremendous richness of invention. And some of the most inventive people get no recognition at all. They get tons of money but not recognition as artists. Which is probably much healthier for them and better for their art.”
   – From “The Anthologist” by Nicholson Baker

2 Simple Tips to Minimize Distractions

A common complaint I hear from students and parents alike is that students get distracted too easily. To elaborate, there is a feeling that students–and indeed, adults–are surrounded by distractions. It is true that the ability to focus or concentrate is being endangered. However, there are things–simple things–we can do to reclaim our ability (and willingness) to concentrate better. Concentrating can be hard work, and this post focuses on simple ways to make oneself conducive to focus/concentrate better. It does not focus on the nuances of acquiring or developing the ability to focus better. That will be a post for another day. Nonetheless, remember this: focus takes practice, so don’t be discouraged if you can’t focus as well as you want right away. Keep at it, and you will inevitably get better.

1. No matter what task you’re doing–homework, meal prep, cleaning, etc.–try to focus solely on the task. Focus on maintaining good posture, on ensuring you are not carrying tension in your shoulders or limbs. Breathe deeply to relieve bodily stress and improve posture. Carrying bodily stress inhibits our ability to perform tasks to the best of our ability. If we’re overdoing on the multitasking front, we might not be able to recognize bodily stress. Distraction does not come from gadgets alone; we tend to be good at distracting ourselves.
2. Before beginning an important task, make sure you turn off notifications from non-essential apps: Reddit, Twitter, or your news, podcast, or banking app–whatever it may be. Turning off non-essential notifications is a good way to learn how to develop focus. Besides, reward yourself for focusing by spending some time on your favorite non-essential apps. If you’ve focused well, you will have saved time, and some of that time can be used to unwind. You will find that you are able to check your apps leisurely, that is with more focus without worrying if you are wasting time or procrastinating.

7 Study Tips for Kinesthetic Learners

Do you learn better when you are busy doing something besides focusing exclusively on the material? Are you good at sports and/or physical activities? Do you enjoy building models and other tactical tasks? Do you like taking things apart to see how they work?

If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, you have the privilege of being a kinesthetic learner.

Kinesthetic learners

What is Kinesthetic Learning?

Kinesthetic is one of the four types of learning styles in the VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading, and Kinesthetic) system. Kinesthetic learners like to be active while they learn. They learn better when they are physically engaged with the material. They generally have high energy levels, good motor memory, and excellent hand-eye coordination.

Unfortunately, most classrooms are ill-equipped to meet the needs of kinesthetic learners, who often struggle with staying focused in class. If you are a kinesthetic learner (or the parent of one) who struggles with grasping or retaining information or has trouble sitting still in the classroom, you will likely benefit from the following.

2. Trace and learn

Kinesthetic learners (especially younger ones) benefit when they use their hands to learn. Tracing your finger as you read, counting on fingers, spelling words in the air, and “drawing” math problems are some of the ways learning can be made more physical for kinesthetic learners.

2. Work on your feet

Standing up allows learners to flex their muscles, which impacts the way their bodies internalize information. For kinesthetic learners, standing in the classroom can lead to better comprehension, improved focus, and greater retention of information.

3. Use flashcards and highlighters

Kinesthetic learners trying to learn new information can activate their brain cells by preparing flashcards or simply by highlighting important points with a highlighter. Since you prefer movement, flashcards work as a moving memory machine that your brain will naturally favor over stationary words on a page.

4. Adopt a creative approach to learning

Doodling, drawing, and diagramming on a whiteboard can act as aids to memory and understanding. It is easy to create your own learning material with short videos, storyboards, or mind-mapping software to help you learn, memorize, and recall concepts.

5. Build models

Kinesthetic learners enjoy working with their hands, so model building and construction kits are right up their alley. Not only does model building help you become more dexterous, it also makes you a better planner, problem-solver, and logical thinker. Kinesthetic learners enjoy designing and creating physical models of things they learn about – think science exhibits, building blocks, posters, chemistry experiments, and the like.

6. Take frequent breaks

Kinesthetic learners tend to fidget and have a hard time sitting still for long periods of time. You will need to schedule regular breaks, depending on how long you can focus while studying. This will help you focus more when you are actually studying, so your study sessions will be more efficient.

7. Study and Exercise

Instead of cozying up on the couch with your notes, consider combining study sessions with short bursts of exercise. Shoot hoops, do jumping jacks, jump rope between chapters, or do burpees as your study buddy or friend quizzes you on the material. Combining study with exercise helps cement ideas in your brain and keeps you alert. Besides, kinesthetic learners need an outlet for their energy even, or especially when, they have to study.

If these study tips resonated with all you high-energy kinesthetic learners out there, what are you waiting for? Share your own tips and tricks in the comments. Let’s make learning productive, regardless of learning style!