As a teacher, you are powerful. There is so much good that you can do with that power you possess. Let me explain a little why I feel so strongly about this.
I just saw this teacher, super excited that AI could read a student’s paper and generate feedback for them. It was some app with a B logo….Brisk teaching- is the name of it. Programs like Brisk can generate quick feedback that is connected to the student work. It reads the paper inhumanly fast and then generates feedback from the text.
While it is important that feedback to students work be timely, it’s also important that it is meaningful. Feedback from a machine is not the same as thoughtful teacher feedback from person to person.
Feedback from human to human forms connection. When we read students work and give them our feedback we are connecting to them based on who they are, what they know, and where we want them to go. That’s a huge part of the art of teaching.
AI feedback is a tool. Teaching is a human connection.
I’m not saying don’t ever use such tools. I’m saying that don’t confuse that with teaching. Teachers can use the feedback tool as a time saver. It can be a great data point for feedback. But it is not a substitute for you. I caution, that this will NEVER be able to replace the human element of teaching and learning.
Benjamin Riley founder of Deans for Impact mentions this in Greg Toppo’s Blog called the 74million. In the post he interviews Mr. Riley about AI the title of the blog post AI Another EdTech Promise Destined to Fail.
Riley says rather than an AI tutor who has all the answers and “infinite patience and time…”
“You want, in some sense, an impatient teacher who’s going to push your thinking, who’s going to try to understand what you’re bringing to any task or educational experience, lift up the strengths that you have, and then work on building your knowledge in areas where you don’t yet have it.“
That is the power of human feedback. It is not something we should solely relegate to a machine.
Journal of Alex Walker Scott
I have so many vivid memories of when I was in school, it was as if my brain was taking notes on what to do and not to do, holding them in memory for when I became a teacher myself. Even at 3 years old I have memories of teachers, how they made me feel, and what I loved and loathed about them. Not all people do this, I realize. I wrote a blog of a memory about middle school and my peers, people who experienced these things with me, were shocked at how much I recalled from those days. Certain aspects of school really grew deep roots in my brain. I still draw upon those lessons today. One of those lessons is related to teacher feedback.
When I was in first grade, my teacher required that we write in a journal every day. I remember the feeling of opening my journal every morning to reveal if she had written something to me. I craved her acknowledgment of my efforts and her validation of my attempts.
This journal writing was hard. Some days I would really struggle with what to say, as I didn’t feel like there was anything happening in my life that was interesting. My cycle of walk to school, do school, walk back home again, play, do my homework, have supper, and go to bed didn’t seem journal worthy.
When she didn’t comment at all I was really sad. I felt like my words maybe weren’t enough and there was someone else in the class who had something better to say. Competition crept in. Sometimes, I would look at my nieghbor’s journal to see what they were writing. I realized that my neighbors were drawing! One girl, in particular was drawing these clowns. She had this kind of template for drawing clowns and puppies faces with little circles and u’s. I was amazed. She showed me how to draw them. Now, when I didnt have anything to write I could just draw a clown.
Some days, many days, I did have things to say. And when she made a small comment it made me want to write more to be connected to her. I remember in November of that year my family took a trip to Florida, the overnight AMTRAK train from New Jersey to Florida. It was my first and only trip to Disney. This was a huge and exciting moment for me. I finally had something BIG to write in my journal. I told the teacher how “excoited” I was.
You see, I felt and believed that the journal was less of an exercise but more of a conversation. It was an opportunity to get my teacher’s attention and have her respond to me! She recognized my excitement and wrote a word of two in my journal validating this. My excitement for the event was real, but her validation was everything! Wow! I’ll never forget how I felt when she wrote even a little personal note for ME in my journal.
It made my heart soar to be seen and heard. Feedback has the power of connection and relationship.
FEEDBACK is YOUR TEACHER POWER!
Understanding your students on a human level-is the power of teaching! It’s in the relationship you have with your students.
Don’t give your power of connection away! It is in these moments of providing feedback where our teacher power is the strongest!
Think about the Feedback you give
All learners benefit from feedback. Teachers guide students through Inquiry learning with listening and providing feedback. So, with your feedback –
Are you only looking to correct students?
Provide next steps for growth?
Or
Are you recognizing the human being behind the work, who are they, what might they need at this moment?
Is it personalized, and specific?
Are there positive acknowledgments of effort and work?
That is the kind of human feedback that will be meaningful to them for lasting learning, not just this assignment.
Head, hand, and heart.
So, as you start a new year and are hearing all the hype about AI, be thoughtful about when you are using it and what for. Hold your teaching power close. Do not fall prey to the hype of AI. AI is amazing and has so many uses, but a teacher, a human teacher is SO MUCH MORE than a feedback machine!
Connect, be awesome! Be you! Be HUMAN!
Stay curious!
Leslie Maniotes, PhD
