It’s been said that good teachers borrow cool ideas, and great teachers steal them outright and make them their own. AI has made it easier than ever to synthesize and personalize great ideas.
This year, I had the opportunity to provide the back-to-school address to the district staff. As I shared with our team members during that message, having been given this opportunity I knew I had to do something different. Something that had never been done before in the district’s history. Something so revolutionary, so previously unimaginable that the very notion would astound those who had come before me with its novelty! Something, dare I say, GAME CHANGINGLY EPIC!
So I talked about…
THE WINNING DETROIT LIONS!
Come on, you know I’m right! That could NEVER have been done before now!
Now, I’m a fair-weather fan in the truest sense of the word, so I know very little about Lions football, other than I like going to their games because they have a dome and there’s no concern of inclement weather in a dome!
But I have learned more than I ever thought I could about the Lions and their impressive turnaround from Colin Ripmaster’s “Leadership in Motion” series.
As each segment was published this summer, adding layers of relevance and reflection, I began to think about how I might incorporate what I was taking away into something that could translate into meaningful nuggets for school staff.
And then the full back-to-school frenzy fried every last creative brain cell and ounce of mental energy I had! Hyperbole aside, time grew short and my calendar got full! So, what is a principal on a deadline to do?
Well, this principal grabs a cup of very strong coffee and turns to AI!
Although I originally loved reading each of the installments of this series, I did not have the time to reread them all with the analytical mind necessary to synthesize the key points into the 10-minute timeframe I was working with for my speech.
Clark input: Hi, Chat!
Yes, I am friendly and conversational with ChatGPT. The humans may be winning at the moment, but at some point if the tables turn, I’m going to want to be on Chat’s good side! I saw The Matrix. I know how this could end if I don’t!
Clark input (continued): I have enjoyed reading the 6-part series that is attached (attach 6 PDFs, 1 of each article) that likens our school summer off-season and our upcoming pre-season work as time for culture building and other most important elements, similar to that of the Detroit Lions who had an INSANELY good season last year after not being good in … well, ever. I would like to take the KEY POINTS of each and incorporate them into my welcome back spiel, maybe using them as a frame for the welcome, including “building the team” as the introductions of new people. Can you help me synthesize the 6 articles into key points for the “frame” of my speech?
Yeah, not the world’s best prompt, but in fairness, it was EARLY, and I was tired. And, it turned out okay-ish for a first attempt.
Chat obliged, and within moments I had an awesome output:
CHAT Output: Perfect — I’ve synthesized the six-part Lions leadership series into a set of key points you can use as a frame for your welcome-back spiel. I’ll give you a compact structure you can weave into your remarks, with each article becoming a “theme” you can drop in as you transition between agenda items, culture reminders, and introductions (like new staff as part of “building the team”).
Near instantly I had bullet points and suggestions for next steps and an offer to make me a slide deck. I took Chat up on a couple of those items, and then tweaked and polished and reviewed and practiced and tweaked some more and, well, it turned out pretty darn well, I’d say, because a number of staff members from all buildings and levels and departments mentioned it afterward.
Well, look at this girl! Talking about sports and making an impact! (BOOM! Thanks, Colin!)
That night I got a text from a colleague who shared his “teacher-leader action figure” that our amazing President-elect Steve Forsberg had his staff make during their back-to-school staff meeting, and another idea was born: Since everyone was feeling the concept, and I have an empty bulletin board in the staff lounge I annually decorate for fun and as a reminder of the key concepts/theme for our year, we would create our own action figures with Lions colors and swag – unless we had people whose NFL team is NOT the Lions; I am not forcing any Cheeseheads or Vikings fans (and I have a couple) into Lions-wear, not even just for giggles!
This was a fun icebreaker with the high school instructional team (“force copy” doc of the instructions shared here, if anyone wants the prompt or to know how I approached it – steal and make it your own!). I gave my group around 10-15 minutes to “play” and work on this task. Having learned from “Past-Past” President Todd Simmons that any ice breaker is only as good as its debrief, this activity led to great “debriefing” conversation from a number of perspectives:
- Some talked about the discomfort we feel as educators when we stray from the content in which we are experts and wander into “innovative” territory. ESPECIALLY when technology is involved.
- We need to get comfortable with discomfort if we are going to make big changes in education!
- People mentioned how “native” this is to our kids, and how foreign it felt to them to copy/paste text from a photo of the prompt. Some voiced frustrations with the process and found empathy for how students might feel if they get stuck on something and other students are finishing the task or if the teacher keeps going on to the next steps before they get unstuck.
- But now that they know they can, it’s really cool to be able to! They will know how to access any website or link a presenter puts up on a screen without having to type it all in!
- Some talked about the devices themselves and how they prefer doing this on their phones, or that they like their Chromebooks better, or some want a big ol’ desktop computer, if they have a choice! And that led to conversation about having choices and personalizing their process, their learning and their action figure!
- SCORE! There it is! That’s the one we were looking for, as innovative practices to provide student choice and personalization opportunities is our major instructional focus this year!
Staff members enjoyed “playing” with the concept, and tweaked their images until they were relatively happy with them; then they sent them to me via text or email. I am going to print in color and cut them out, and those will be the items on our lounge bulletin board with our reminders of how we Frankenmuth Eagles are learning from the Detroit Lions.
I guess my point in sharing this is that people keep saying AI can save me time, and it sure did on this concept, speech, and bulletin board! But maybe what I took away was just how important the innovative efforts of providing choice and allowing people to personalize their work really is. Innovation does not have to be grand or expensive. It just has to be intentional. Borrow a good idea, adapt it with care, and use tools that make participation engaging and easy. That is how momentum starts and how it lasts.
(Check out the sidebar for the full line-up of Colin Ripmaster’s Leadership In Motion series, including the Lions-inspired features JoLynn mentioned – access limited to MASSP members.)