A New Mechanism for Grade-Level Bulletin Boards with AI (Gem)
I am a teacher at a local public elementary school.
This school year, I am working as the grade-level head for a grade with four classes.
The current grade-level team is very fresh, with many young teachers and teachers who have not been at this school for very long.
While ensuring we meet the minimum requirements as a whole grade, I am managing the grade level with the mindset that since I am working with young teachers, we should work together to cut out as much waste from our daily tasks as possible, finish early, and allow each teacher to 'fully express their own color' in their respective classrooms.
Also, because it is such a fresh team, I want to try challenging ourselves with something new as a whole grade.
The other day, I discussed a certain topic with the teachers in my grade.
It was about independent study (commonly known as 'jigaku') notebooks.
Currently, the children are working hard on their independent study notebooks.
I don't feel there is a major issue with the quantity or quality of their work itself, but two months after the first semester begins, it is a time when issues inevitably start to appear, such as the work becoming 'routine,' not being connected to what is currently being learned in class, or questions about whether it is truly the learning the child needs right now.
I want to proceed while building a common understanding of this across the entire grade, but it is not easy to find time for a full meeting for everyone, given the heavy daily workload and family circumstances such as picking up and dropping off children, which I also have.
It is wonderful that the teachers go home early, so I was thinking about how we could approach this in a better way without undermining that benefit.
Therefore, the approach I introduced as a means to solve this issue is using 'Gem,' a customized version of Google's AI.
As a major premise, since we have four classes in the grade, I have a desire for the children to share their independent study notebooks with each other as much as possible.
Sharing only within the class is one option, but there is a concern that this would lead to differences in efforts between classes.
Actually, two years ago, I created and implemented a system to share the entire school's independent study notebooks via tablets (digitally). (Though it was an imitation.)
Of course, it would have been possible to use that method this year as well, but this time I chose an analog method because I wanted the homeroom teachers to 'first clearly convey their intentions of what kind of independent study they want the children to do' and to share that within the grade level.
Specifically, I decided to utilize a large bulletin board in the grade's shared space to create a place to visualize and introduce the children's efforts in their independent study.
However, just introducing them normally is not interesting.
To boost the children's motivation, I thought about introducing them using catchy frameworks (worldviews) such as 'Three Musketeers,' 'Five Stars,' 'God Seven,' or 'Inquiry (9) Nine.'
It is a mechanism where we post them prominently with a special catchphrase that highlights the child's effort.
However, coming up with attractive catchphrases from scratch for the notebooks of over 100 children is a heavy burden for the homeroom teachers.
At the very least, I am not very good at that kind of naming sense, and I am worried that the worldviews might become inconsistent depending on the teacher.
The Gem I created this time was made to solve this problem.
This Gem is customized to generate the perfect catchphrase based on a common worldview, such as 'Three Musketeers' or 'God Seven.'
For example, if it is 'God Seven,' it will output words in a tone like the catchphrases of the idols that are the source material. (Setting aside whether the children or young teachers know the source material.)
The homeroom teacher only needs to type in the specific characteristics and efforts of the child's notebook, or simply talk about them using voice input.
Even if the way of speaking is somewhat long and disorganized, Gem will summarize it properly and instantly create a catchphrase that fits perfectly into that worldview.
By sharing the URL of this Gem among the grade level, any teacher in the same grade can immediately use this system at their own hand.
Teachers do not need to worry about 'what should I write,' and can focus on observing the good points of the child's notebook in front of them.
With this mechanism in place, I, as the head, do not have to take on all the work and burn out, and other teachers do not need to go out of their way to come and confirm, 'Head, is this catchphrase okay?'
While respecting each other's time, we are able to work as a team with a sense of unity, moving at a reasonable 'same pace'.
This 'reasonable' part is very important. I hope this gets across!
For the children as well, I hope that the posting of their casual independent study notebooks will turn into an event that makes them a little excited.
Starting a new initiative certainly adds one more step to our work.
How much of a burden this will be for other teachers, or whether it will produce effects that outweigh that, is something to be verified from here on, but I want to try it first.
Before I knew it, there is only about one month left in the first semester.
While using this mechanism, I want to enjoy watching over the growth of the children's independent study notebooks together with the teachers of the same grade.
