Mar 13th, 2026

computer from unsplash
computer from Unsplash

Today in Class we did an Ed tech Camp: I chose Group #1 on AI use for lesson planning.

Key points from all groups:

Group #1

  • struggling to use it properly
  • Doesn’t generate answers specific
  • Direct quotes of circular competencies
  • Sometimes it will hallucinate sources and competencies
  • Templates may or may not work. Copy and paste might be better
  • Claude and perplexity are more useful than chatgpt
  • These tools will ask refining questions if the prompts are not specific enough
  • Works in the background
  • NotebookLM is useful for research and slides
  • Using AI to help with time management/Transition time
  • Using prior knowledge and resources to help with prompts?

Group #2

  • Technology has introduced new challenges, including deepfakes, impersonation online, and videos taken out of context, which can put teachers at risk professionally.
  • Teachers face serious consequences if they lose their temper, yet some students are increasingly engaging in negative behaviours.
  • We also need to remember that many teenagers are dealing with significant emotional and personal challenges, so situations should be handled with awareness and empathy.
  • Teachers need stronger support systems, including help from administration, more staff in schools, and clear boundaries so they can protect their wellbeing and step back when needed.
  • Make use of district benefits to get yourself counselling or the care you need.
  • Stress leave is a possibility in severe cases. Find out what is available for you.
  • Many teachers were never trained to deal with issues like social media harassment, digital manipulation, or students recording teachers. Professional development needs to evolve to address these modern risks.
  • Technology has blurred the boundaries of the job, Emails, platforms, and messaging systems create extra pressure for teachers to be available outside work hours, which contributes to burnout.
  • In many professions people receive training on workplace dynamics, conflict, harassment, communication and professional boundaries. Teaching is equally complex, yet we rarely structured training for those realities.

Group #3

  • The overall school system is inefficient because it tries to accommodate too many different students at different levels. I think if the school system transitioned more towards something that resembles PSII would help students have choice in their learning. This would support the learners who are behind who disengage and those that are too far ahead who disengage because they are bored.
  • We as teachers need to make lessons engaging: ask yourself “would I watch this lesson as a YouTube video?” Some strategies we can use are to make lessons multimodal, to break down assignments and activities using task initiation, include choice and let students design projects around things they have personal choice in, include a community-facing sharing fair/performance to motivate students. We also need to make sure we develop good relationships with students early on- students will not buy in if they don’t have a relationship with us.
  • Build a support system: don’t do everything yourself, work with admin, parents, and other teachers
  • From primary school on, students need to learn resiliency, self-efficacy, and how to handle boredom without turning to idle scrolling on their phones. Learning how to direct attention and focus are vital for lifelong learning and enjoyment

Group #4

  • There is a need to be intentional about how you bring students outside. There are obvious benefits to learning utside, but we also need to be clear about the purpose and the proposed outcome for students, otherwise it risk: becoming tokenizing.
  • Outdoor learning can be highly cross-curricular, engaging with multiple subject areas (ex. Physics and Math, PHE,

Chemistry and Foods, etc.)

• Learning resilience, preparation, and new skills through outside learning is also a good challenge for students.

One way to overcome potential challenges with student attitudes can be through collaborative decision making (we need to do a lesson this week outside, what day would you like to do it?)

Group #5

  • Anxiety comes from lack of preparedness- taking away presentations is removing the opportunity to practice and get better at something
  • Students will feel more empowered and confident in their everyday life
  • Provide students with support to deal with nerves or anxiety throughout the process
  • Teaches students what it means to be a good audience and listener
  • With the rise of Generative Al hand written assignments may start becoming more common again, get them practicing legibility and spelling skills
  • Could focus on cross curricular skills that aren’t specific to one subject area

I was interested to see what everyone discussed, as all these topics are very important. Unfortunatley our group was smaller so we ran out of things to talk about rather quickly.