Maximize every minute: AI in the classroom with Hāpara

Listen to an audio version of this post:

AI seems to be everywhere now, and while it hasn’t escaped controversy, it does have the potential to actually help educators. Just like any technology, the goal is to use it as an instructional assistant, not as a replacement for educators. AI can actually be a powerful tool that helps educators support a variety of learning needs, simplify teaching workflows and analyze data. 

Lisa Monthie, Hāpara Engagement Manager and former high school educator, presented a webinar on AI in the classroom. She highlighted her go-to AI tools and broke down real examples of how to use tools like Gemini and ChatGPT for lesson planning. She also explored why Hāpara, along with AI, can streamline teaching routines and support learners.

Getting started with AI: New tools to try

There are a lot of AI tools available now, and it can be overwhelming to know which ones are best for the classroom. Rather than try all the tools at once, it’s best to choose one or two to explore deeply. 

Lisa recommends trying out Brisk Teaching and Magic School AI tools. They lighten educators’ workloads and make it much easier to create an inclusive learning environment. They also integrate well with Hāpara when learners are on devices.

Brisk Teaching Chrome or Edge extension

Brisk Teaching is a Chrome and Edge AI extension with a free version. Once you install it, it allows you to take any online article and instantly adapt it for your group of learners. Lisa gave an example using a National Geographic article (which is also a free resource). If you look at a National Geographic article with the Brisk Teaching extension, you’ll see an icon on the bottom right. When you click on it, you can automatically change the reading level. Or you can select multiple reading levels for learners at different instructional readiness levels. 

To boost engagement, you can also use it to build resources like a discussion page or an interactive activity for learners. If you use it on Chrome, it integrates with Docs, Sheets, Slides, and even YouTube.

Magic School

Magic School is another free tool that acts like a hub for AI-powered educational resources. It contains a large library of tools for lesson planning, differentiation, assessment and more. A great feature to check out is the ability to create “collections” by starring favorite tools. For example, educators can build a collection specifically for supporting students with IEPs or 504 plans or a collection to support English language learners. 

You can also share a Magic School collection by creating a link to share with a group of colleagues or make your link public.

Focus on the pedagogy

Sometimes we focus on a tool too much and not enough on what we’re planning to achieve instructionally. Or we force the use of the tool in a way that doesn’t actually boost learning. Technology should never replace educators, but it should enhance and celebrate what they’re doing. The goal is to find the tool that helps support your learning standard or content expectation. 

The best way to approach using a new AI tool in the classroom is asking, “What do students really need right now?” 

Lisa suggests thinking of it as an upside-down pyramid:

1. Start with your goal: At the top, the widest part, are your content standards and academic outcomes. What do you want students to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson? This is always the primary focus.
2. Define success: Next, consider what a successful final product looks like. Create an exemplar or sample that students can aim for. What knowledge and skills are needed to create that product? You can even use an AI tool to create an example.
3. Select the tool: At the bottom of the pyramid is choosing the tool that will best support the learning process. Remember that the tool is there to support the pedagogy, not the other way around. 

It’s all about the prompt

Anytime you start with any AI tool, it’s all about the prompt you give it. You’ll get the best results by fine tuning the prompt over time. What specifically are you wanting your learners to achieve? Crafting your prompt is going to save you a lot of time, especially when working with large language models (LLMs) like Gemini.

Gemini

Lisa recently completed the Google Gemini Certification for Educators and recommends it for other educators. It’s free and doesn’t take too long to work through. One of the things she learned in the Google Gemini course was how to write a strong prompt for AI. She found it similar to the RAFT writing strategy that many educators have used with learners.

• Role: Identify who the AI should be. “You are a high school English teacher.”
• Objective: State what you want to achieve. “Brainstorm engaging activities for my unit on making inferences.”
• Audience: Specify who the output is for. “The activities are for ninth-grade students with diverse reading levels.”
• Structure: Describe the desired format and any constraints. “Structure the response as a choice board with at least six options. Include a brief description and the expected product for each.”

When you get your results, try refining the prompt if you need to. You can go through multiple iterations, asking the AI tool to change the tone, add more detail, or adjust the learning level until you have exactly what you need. 

ChatGPT

Lisa also uses the free version of ChatGPT to help streamline workflows. Here are her recommendations for educators.

1. Create a new chat each time. That way, your searches are saved. You can quickly find an iteration you created earlier and then look at it and rework it as a different prompt.
2. Rename chats as needed. This keeps your work organized and makes it easy to revisit and refine previous prompts. You can also share your chats with other educators on your team.
3. Quotation marks tend to confuse ChatGPT. Use the tilde/backtick (the key under ESC) instead. For example, here’s a prompt Lisa created to create a clear task for the AI: 

In this sentence below, between the triple backticks, identify the nouns:

“`Lisa loves using AI tools.“`

Inaccurate responses

Sometimes you can get “hallucinations” or inaccurate responses. Remember to double-check your information and verify any research or facts. Although the LLMs are improving, and Lisa is finding fewer inaccuracies, she always recommends reviewing the responses.

Five ways to use AI in the classroom

Once you understand how to prompt an AI tool, you can use it to support your teaching in many ways and save time. Here are five strategies Lisa created to get you started.

1. Prime the AI 

Priming the AI tool means to give it context before asking it to do something. For example, provide information about the learning standard, or give the AI a piece of your own writing so it understands your writing style.

Prime with learning standards

The first way educators can prime Gemini or ChatGPT is to share the learning standard the class is working on. 

As a former high school English teacher, Lisa often worked with the learning standard of “making inferences.” This is a challenging skill because it asks learners to blend textual evidence with their own background knowledge. 

By pasting this standard into Gemini, Lisa asked it to unpack what learners need to know and what proficiency looks like. The AI broke down the standard, explained it using Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels and even provided examples of proficient student responses that she could use as exemplar models. 

From there, it generated engaging performance tasks, including a choice board, and rubrics. Directly from Gemini, Lisa exported this information to a Google Doc.

Once you prime the AI with a learning standard, Lisa recommends reflecting on whether it encompasses the desired depth and complexity for learning and if rubrics are accurate. If not, prompt it again with some fine tuning.

Prime for writing and differentiation

You can also prime Gemini or ChatGPT with content you’ve written and use that to produce writing in your voice. For example, you can use it to draft class communications such as parent/family emails. 

Another idea is to use the AI to rewrite texts to various grade and instructional readiness levels. Or prime the AI with a fun text such as Taylor Swift lyrics, and ask the AI to write content for learners in that style.

Prime the AI to create an escape room

Another example Lisa gave is to prime the AI again with the learning standard and ask it to create an interactive activity. She gave Gemini the learning standard on making inferences and asked it to make a short 10-slide deck escape room. Gemini quickly created this based on what students need to accomplish to meet the learning standard.

2. Explain it like I’m five

To teach more complex or abstract standards, Lisa uses the “Explain it like I’m five” strategy. The AI will provide a very basic, easy-to-grasp explanation. 

Then to adjust the learning complexity, she might tell the AI, “Now explain it like I’m sixteen.” The AI will provide a more detailed and technical response. 

This technique is helpful for creating leveled explanations for learners, helping create instructions or nonfiction texts, or even just helping you understand a topic as an educator.

3. Summarize and rewrite at different reading levels

One of the best ways to use AI in the classroom is to generate new reading content and create summaries. This is another way educators can save prep time.

For a fun writing activity, Lisa asked Gemini to write a superhero backstory for a pet. It gave her different options, and she asked it to rewrite the story for a ninth-grade reading level and expand it to be a bit longer, modeling the text length learners might see on a state test. 

Then she prompted it to “Create a summary and discussion notes for this story.” In minutes, she had a new fictional text, a summary and a set of guiding questions for a classroom discussion. This is a great way to create original content for learners that they haven’t seen before.

4. Analyze data to inform instruction

AI can save educators a lot of time by analyzing data instantly. By uploading a spreadsheet (ensuring no student names or other personally identifiable information are included), the AI can dig through numbers and spot patterns and even create visuals like charts or graphs. This allows educators to identify learning gaps and plan for reteaching. Just remember to double-check the AI’s analysis for accuracy.

5. Visualize concepts for deeper understanding

Learners often understand concepts better when they can visualize. With AI, creating classroom resources like anchor charts, graphic organizers or picture vocabulary lists is simple. For example, you can upload a vocabulary list for an upcoming unit and ask the AI to generate illustrations for each term. 

You could also ask it to design an anchor chart. For Lisa’s inference lesson, she could prompt the AI to create a graphic that visually represents the formula: Text Evidence + Background Knowledge = Inference. 

How Hāpara streamlines AI in the classroom

Creating engaging lessons and resources with AI is the first step. Hāpara Classroom Management makes it easy for educators to distribute those resources with learners and keep them focused while they work. That way educators can spend less time on classroom management and administrative tasks and more time on instruction.

Share Links

Did you find a great article and use Brisk to change the reading level? Or maybe you used Magic School to create a resource collection. With Hāpara Highlights, you can share up to ten links directly with your entire class, specific groups or individual students. This makes it easy to share differentiated materials with a single click.

Share Screen

Hāpara Highlights’ Share Screen feature allows educators to share a specific tab or window from their computer to learners’ devices. Display the anchor chart you created with AI or walk through an escape room you designed in Gemini. It’s a simple way to guide direct instruction or display a resource for collaborative work.

Guided Browsing

To keep learners focused on a resource you created with AI, use the Hāpara Highlights’ Guided Browsing feature. You can create a “Focus Session” that restricts students to only the URLs you’ve allowed. This is helpful for station rotations or independent work time, ensuring learners stay on track.

Share Files

All the documents, rubrics, and choice boards educators create with AI can be easily shared with learners using Hāpara Teacher Dashboard. Use the Share Files feature to send copies of Google Docs, Slides, or Sheets to learners. The files can be instantly shared with everyone in the class or specific learning groups, making differentiation simple.

Using AI to create classroom resources, paired with Hāpara’s streamlined sharing features, helps educators save time and create a more inclusive learning environment. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are the benefits of using AI in the classroom?
AI in the classroom helps educators save time, differentiate instruction and create engaging, personalized learning experiences. It also simplifies tasks like lesson planning, data analysis and resource creation.

How can Hāpara support AI in the classroom?
Hāpara makes it easy to share AI-created resources with students through features like Share Links, Guided Browsing and Share Files. These tools help educators keep learners focused and engaged while working on their devices.

What are some recommended AI tools for teachers?
Brisk Teaching and Magic School are free AI tools for educators. They help educators adapt resources for different reading levels, create interactive activities and simplify lesson planning.

How can educators ensure AI tools will enhance learning?
To effectively use AI in the classroom, focus on instructional goals first. Choose tools that support your learning standards, and write clear prompts to get the best results from AI tools and LLMs.