34 How to use MyLessonPal to Create Classroom Resources for Teachers
Tye Moutney
Image created with Blue Willow v4 image generator
Prompt: Apple tree in an orchard. simple.
Introduction
The education system is a fast paced and ever-changing environment. The demands on teachers in the classroom have increased with high student to teacher ratios, limited planning time and increased students’ learning complexities. Teachers are making adaptations to their course content and its delivery to reach every student while still meeting curriculum requirements. Artificial Intelligence platforms are becoming increasingly more popular in aiding both students and teachers on their learning journey. MyLessonPal (MLP) is a free artificial intelligence platform developed by the Dexter Foundation whose objective is to provide free accessible educational resources to the public.
MLP offers quick evidence-based resources relevant to many subject areas in the curriculum for student learning and assessment. This Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tool builds quizzes, tests, scripted lesson plans, worksheets, and projects. AI technology is increasingly more relevant in the educational setting and this MLP is a simple user-friendly tool regardless of one’s knowledge or experience with GAI. MLP offers solutions for designing a variety of resources for the classroom that connect to curricular outcomes.
Connection to Curriculum
Connecting MLP to curriculum is easy and covers a variety of learning outcomes. The user simply enters a subject, grade level and topic, then the AI searches for relevant data and outputs a document covering the requested curricular outcome and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) goals. For example, this AI tool recognizes the Saskatchewan Math 10 Foundations Pre-calculus curriculum (https://curriculum.gov.sk.ca/CurriculumHome?id=155) which merges the learning outcomes for students with the created resource. Once the document is generated, the user can continue to modify the document by communicating specific instructions to the AI tool until a desired product is produced. Through communicating with the AI to add context or refine the resource it created the users will engage in media literacy. Increasing educator’s media literacy is beneficial to education and this AI tool is a straightforward way to start.
Affordances and Constraints
Reviewing the AI tool capabilities and knowing the affordances and constraints prior to using the tool will save educators time and sometimes money. This is a list of MLP’s affordances and constraints:
Affordances:
- MLP is an easy use platform for teachers with basic AI knowledge.
- MLP is free and there is no sign up or passwords required. The Dexter foundation accepts donations for anyone interested in contributing to their objective to provide free accessible educational resources to the public.
- MLP is easy to edit, add images and links to resources.
- MLP constructs quizzes, tests, scripted lesson plans, worksheets, and projects in core subject areas at all grade levels.
- MLP has the capability of creating lesson scripts for beginner teachers or teachers delivering content in a new subject area.
- MLP allows teachers to save its generated resources to a computer or as a link.
Constraints:
- MLP requires the user to be specific when using the chat box to make edits or regenerate the resource.
- MLP does not interact with the user by asking questions to speed up the process or focus on an idea. If the resource requires more edits, the user needs to rephrase the question until a satisfactory resource is produced.
- MLP cannot generate diagrams for a visual presentation. It has the capability to describe the diagram in words, but this is not helpful to a visual learner.
- MLP uses unique symbols for mathematics such as a “^” symbol instead of a “²” for representing exponents which could be confusing for some students.
The Process
This demonstration illustrates how to create a quiz for math 10 on factoring polynomials using the MLP.
- Begin with accessing MyLessonPal at: https://mylessonpal.com/
- Under subject select math, for grade level select grade 10, And for Topic Factoring Polynomials.
- Next, select quiz for the type of document to create.
- In the box below it asks to “add details”. This is a point where you can chat with the AI and specific to want you want it to include in your document. I wrote, 7 questions( 4 multiple choice and 3 short answer)(write me a quiz based on this standard: Demonstrate understanding of the multiplication and factoring of polynomial expressions (concretely, pictorially, and symbolically) including: multiplying of monomials, binomials, and trinomials, common factors, trinomial factoring, relating multiplication and factoring of polynomials.) The outcome list above is FP10.5 from Saskatchewan Curriculum Foundations of Mathematics and Pre-calculus 10.
- Then click generate, it usually takes less than a minute to produce a resource. Click go to resource at the bottom of the page and arrive at the created document.
- When the quiz is generated, it will be given a title, place for the student’s name and date, instructions, questions, bonus question, and answer key. There is an option to ask the chatbot to regenerate the quiz if changes are required. In this example, the quiz was requested to be specific on multiplying polynomials. This additional prompt in the chat box can you change questions 1 – 7 to be on multiplying polynomials, regenerated the next result. Once the document has been regenerated click go to resource.
- To personally edit the quiz, click on the document and edit. As an example, create more space for the short answer questions or delete the bonus question. Adding images, diagrams, or links to the quiz is optional at this point.
- After completing edits and any requests to regenerate the quiz, copy the document to a file, print or share as a link.
Prompt Engineering
To effectively use MLP be sure to be very concise when entering a topic for the resource being created. MLP responds to detail, concise prompts, and the use of parenthesis around specific information to generate effective resources. Typing in direct curriculum indicators gives this AI tool the necessary information it needs to connect the resource to curricular outcomes. When requesting the AI to make changes and regenerate the document be succinct in the commands. Following chat box communications with AI, make edits, add images or links to improve visual appeal or variety.
Recommendations
MLP is a free and simple to use introductory AI platform for educators. The platform does not offer evidence-based learning resources, however, being able to enter prompts that connect directly to curriculum is an advantage. Being familiar with the curriculum and improving your knowledge of how to effectively use prompts will help when using this AI tool. The resources listed below are samples of curriculum and prompts to get an educator started.
- Saskatchewan Education Curriculum
- 50 ChatGPT prompts for teachers
https://www.teachingchannel.com/k12-hub/blog/50-chat-gpt-prompts-for-teachers/
- 5 Prompts to Improve Lesson Plans From ChatGPT-Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXW4kOATQEM
Informative presentation
References
BlueWillow | Free AI Art Generator. (n.d.). https://www.bluewillow.ai/
Dexter Foundation. (n.d.). MyLessonPal. MyLessonPal. https://mylessonpal.com/
Foundations of Mathematics and Pre-Calculus 10 | Saskatchewan Curriculum. (n.d.). Saskatchewan Curriculum. https://curriculum.gov.sk.ca/CurriculumOutcomeContent?id=155
Saskatchewan curriculum. (n.d.). Saskatchewan Curriculum. https://curriculum.gov.sk.ca/
Acknowledgement of AI Use
I would like to recognize the role AI had in the creation of this project. The AI art at the beginning of the chapter was produced by Blue Willow. AI was used to generate examples for the “how to use” portion as well as the chatting to assist in constructing the activity for the informative presentation in MyLessonPal. Photoshop and Blue Willow was used in the creation of the image for the video link.