Happy Christmas from the Tower Hamlets Learning Advisory Team!
We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Signalong)
categories: 5 minutes for inclusion
Christmas Jokes Part 2
categories: 5 minutes for inclusion
Little Donkey Signalong
categories: Special Events
Enjoy!
Christmas Jokes
categories: 5 minutes for inclusion
Enjoy!
Happy Christmas from the LLC Team!
categories: Special Events
Happy Christmas, Tower Hamlets!
From everyone in the LLC Team.
British Dyslexia Association – Revision Skills
categories: Cognition and Learning, SEND
This one-hour webinar from the BDA is helpful for staff, parents, and pupils with dyslexia. It covers how to develop memory skills and positive metacognition. It gives practical examples for making revision fun, using games and teaching valuable techniques for tackling exam questions.
Using AI creatively in Literacy
categories: Cognition and Learning, SEND
A ten minute from video from Darren Coxen demonstrating how you might use AI in three creative and interactive ways to explore a literacy text.
This is a very good example of how we can use AI creatively to bring the curriculum to life. We worry a lot about AI doing the students’ writing for them, but what about AI responding to the student’s work?
With a bit of imagination, we could make this work at the primary level by writing postcards to characters in our text. Or what about describing our characters using lots of lovely adjectives to create an image?
Worried about the cost? If you have Google Classrooms, you’ll likely already have access to Gemini, and there are plenty of other free or low-cost options.
Please get in touch if you want to explore ways to incorporate AI into your curriculum to motivate your reluctant writers.
AAC Forum for Tower Hamlets
categories: Communication and Interaction needs, SEND
Inspired by the inspiring Communication Matters AAC forum (which you should join also), I’ve set up a similar space for professionals interested in AAC, specifically for Tower Hamlets.
It’s a place for all professionals involved in AAC to ask questions (no question is too daft), share, learn, and work together to improve the provision and knowledge of low and high-tech AAC within the borough.
If you wish to join, please send a blank email to lbth-aac-professionals+subscribe@googlegroups.com.
I hope to see you there!
AI Tools for Teacher Planning and creating resources
categories: 5 minutes for inclusion
We’ve all been inundated with stories about AI since ChatGPT was launched at the end of 2022. During this time, you may have encountered articles discussing how AI could potentially undermine students’ critical thinking skills. Conversely, you may have also read about the potential for new tools to transform education, offering each student access to their own personal tutor.
As a technology enthusiast, I’ve been keeping up with the latest developments for some time. However, the guidance in this field has been changing rapidly, making it challenging to keep up. New services are being launched every day, and even Twinkl has its own impressive AI services! When I received an email from Oak Academy “introducing” me to Aila, their new free lesson planning AI bot, I realised it was time to take stock and gain an overview of the current state of AI in education. AI in education is a vast and controversial subject. Let’s start by discussing the least contentious aspect: teachers using AI to prepare better lessons faster.
Before I go any further, it’s worth noting that it costs many $billions to develop an LLM (Large Language Model) – the engine behind any chatbot or most AI services. Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Facebook’s LLaMA. All of the other services (Aila, Twinkl AI etc.) are built on top of them. It’s not hard to build a chatbot. I made one to incorporate appropriate assistive technology into lesson plans. It wasn’t difficult. But it’s not finished. There are lots of helpful guides and videos online.
You should also know that AI lies (hallucinates). Always check important information.
It would be impossible to list all the resources here. They’re constantly evolving, and new ones are being launched. However, if you’re still manually writing out your lesson/unit plans, you’re wasting a lot of time. Used intelligently, AI can be like having a personal assistant, leaving you more time for the critical part of the job. Spending time with students. However, if you’re looking for somewhere to start, take a look at the information below. If you use any others, please leave a comment to share your experience with the community.
Generate creative prompts and brainstorm ideas for lesson activities. Get instant explanations and examples. Generate questions for quizzes. Create lesson plan outlines.
Keep in mind the following information: Give it a learning objective, an age group, and details of prior learning, and it will generate a lesson plan, a PowerPoint, 2 quizzes, and a worksheet. Its plans align closely with the English curriculum. You can edit them. You’ll need to do so since it doesn’t seem to want to differentiate them. It’s free. One of the best parts of the generated lessons is the quizzes, which can be accessed directly.
Twee works well for warm-up activities. Give it a YouTube video, which will generate various quizzes about the content.
Primary only. Lesson planning includes differentiation and maps to their existing (and extensive) pool of resources. Also has a whole host of useful time-saving tools. Definitely worth a look.
Creates incredibly engaging AI-enhanced presentations. Very impressive! Free trial for teachers.
Summer Reading Challenge in Idea Stores and libraries
categories: Cognition and Learning
The Summer Reading Challenge is for children aged 4 to 11 to in all Idea Stores and libraries.
It starts on Saturday 6th July.
As the children read books over the summer, they receive small prizes. When they have read six books, they receive a certificate and a medal. Alongside the challenge, there is a full and varied summer programme of events for children and families.
All events are free and include crafting, storytelling, drama workshops and theatre productions.
Children who struggle with reading can enjoy reading in the summer holidays with their parents and carers using the ‘Paired Reading’ approach’.
Click the link below for a 2 minute video showing you how to do it.