Soak Up the Sun and Some Fresh Insights

I hope you're finding time to enjoy these summer days—whether that means long walks, beach trips, backyard lounging, or catching up on your favorite activities. As educators, we know how challenging it can be to stay on top of new technologies during the school year. That’s why I wanted to share a fantastic find with you: an EXCELLENT podcast that’s perfect for a 45-minute walk, a workout, a drive to the coast, or even just relaxing in the sun with your earbuds in.

This is a great way to recharge while still staying inspired for the year ahead.

PLAY

(YouTube Version)

Don't have time?  Check out this TTSD approved tool "NotebookLM" that can help you and students digest a variety of information by providing the content in a variety of formats: 

1. Open NotebookLM
2. Add resource(s): YouTube Version
3. Click "Studio' & choose from:
• Audio Overview
• Reports >
• Briefing Doc
• Study Guide

There are a number of resources available to help guide your use of AI for professional growth & efficiencies, as well as beginning to educate students how, when and why they choose to leverage AI tools, with teacher guidance and approval. 

From "Guidance for the Use of AI in the K-12 Classroom", here is a nice overview of how we can embrace the use of AI in the K-12 classroom (staff and students):

Pillars of AI Use in the Classroom:

• PILLAR #1: Use AI-infused tools to develop more cognitively demanding tasks that increase student engagement with creative problem-solving and innovative thinking.
• PILLAR #2: Use AI to streamline teacher administrative and planning work.
• PILLAR #3: Use AI to support personalized learning.
• PILLAR #4: Develop students as ethical and proficient AI users.

Many of our ELA & Social Sciences teachers are especially concerned about student use of GenAI tools (like ChatGPT), we will be placing a special emphasis on addressing AI use concerns, such as: 

"Cheating: As AI tools become more advanced, students can be tempted to misuse these technologies to gain unfair advantages in their work. For example, AI-powered writing assistants or problem-solving tools can facilitate shortcuts that bypass genuine learning processes, leading to academic integrity issues. This misuse undermines critical thinking and problem-solving skills and diminishes the trust in AI technologies and their potential benefits. Educators must emphasize the importance of ethical behavior and ensure that students understand how to use AI responsibly and transparently, reinforcing that AI should be a tool for learning, not a means of circumventing effort and integrity. Students need to be exposed to learning activities where they can and cannot use AI so they can develop a sense of ethics around AI use." (pg 12,  SREB’s Guidance for the Use of AI in the K-12 Classroom.)

TTSD's Response:

1. TTSD "Academic Integrity" Policy (IKI) and the IKI Administrative Regulation (ie rules / application of this policy)
2. TTSD "Responsible Use of Technology" Policy (IIBG) and the IIBG Administrative Regulation
3. TTSD "Artificial Intelligence" Policy (IKJ)
• "Specific rules for the independent use of generative artificial intelligence for assigned student work may be developed by the teacher and communicated to students."
• "....Failure to follow these rules may result in incomplete credit or disciplinary action."
4. TTSD "AI Guide for Educators"
• See Page 6 (AI Stoplight - communicate to students IF AI is allowable per assignment) and page 8 (how to interact with students with the use of AI is suspected, but was not allowed or cited)