Professional Learning Time Includes Session on AI

During last month’s early release for professional learning, teachers from across the Pelham Public Schools spent time honing their skills and developing strategies to further the district’s strong program and superior student outcomes. This planned professional learning offers dedicated time for structured professional development, grade and department level meetings and to plan for upcoming classroom activities. Staff also have dedicated collaborative time to work in groups to dig deep into a topic of their choosing based on the Strategic Plan – known as professional learning communities (PLCs). 

Among the many activities that took place that afternoon was a deep dive into Artificial Intelligence for kindergarten and first-grade teachers. This session was led by Instructional Technology Specialist Alicia DelMastro and Director of Technology John Sebalos and focused on how emerging AI technology can save teachers time and enhance instruction to help meet the needs of their specific students.

“The AI tools that we’re going to talk about today are going to be really helpful in your classrooms for streamlining your work outside of class and giving you supplemental things you can use right away in your classrooms,” said Sebalos.

Over the past two school years, the District has been developing guidelines for teacher and student use of AI as part of an AI user committee. The goal is to identify ways in which AI can support students and teachers in the classroom, while still focusing on building skills and knowledge expected of Pelham students. 

The training focused on how teachers can use Google’s AI platform, Gemini, to support instruction based on prompts built specifically for education. These prompts allow teachers to create resources based on their preexisting curriculum information.

“Teachers actually built these prompts with Google specifically for education, and now they’re available for us to use,” DelMastro said. “It can help you make vocabulary lists, an audio lesson, write a story about the content of a lesson, develop reading comprehension questions or develop a choice board.”

By using these tools responsibly, teachers can spend more time using their professional skills and acumen on the individual needs of students and less time creating worksheets like lists of vocabulary words.

As one example, DelMastro used the District’s Science 21 curriculum paired with the AI tool to generate an entire picture book, complete with diagrams and concepts from the curriculum, told through the lens of a story of a child and her inventor grandfather. The ability to generate a resource like this creates opportunities to use powerful visual and narrative tools to enhance education, which a teacher might not ordinarily have access to.

The District looks forward to continuing to refine its practices with this emerging technology and leveraging its capabilities to improve students’ experiences and outcomes.