- Cris
- Feb 17, 2023
- 10 min read
Amid all of the hyperbolic discourse centered on ChatGPT and its role in K-12 education, one important truth is consistently left out of the discussion: as much of a game-changer as it is for students, it is as-if-not-more pivotal for teachers. Often, when I talk to school districts, the conversation begins with teachers’ concerns about academic integrity: cheating, originality, plagiarism, falsifying one’s prose, et al.
“What can we do,” I’m asked, “about the rampant cheating?”
What’s strange is that, to date, I’ve never been asked “how can we use this to our advantage?”
The answers to this question are nearly limitless, but I’ve decided to break down a few scenarios in which ChatGPT either:
saves teachers a tremendous amount of time, or
offers teachers a usable starting point for instructional tasks, or
offers administrators a usable starting point for administrative tasks.
In today’s blog post, we’re going to focus on #3: How ChatGPT offers educational administrators and school leaders a starting point for administrative tasks.
Outside of MTI, I’m also a school district administrator here in New Jersey.
Specifically, I oversee the humanities from grades K–12: English Language Arts and Social Studies, plus everything under the Visual and Performing Arts umbrella, as well as a few CTE courses. On any given day, I’m between six buildings. That means I’m a conduit between our district’s central administrative team and our six different school principals, 200-or-so humanities teachers, innumerable purchase orders, and multifaceted vendor relationships…not to mention the cornucopia of data-tracking mechanisms that must be actively managed, implemented, analyzed, and deployed to improve instruction. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: I also have to conduct teachers’ observations, manage their SGOs, and organize and/or lead professional development.
I’m exhausted just typing all of that. I live by my Google Calendar, and on some days, by the first time I look at my watch, four or five hours have gone by. It’s fun, but it’s hectic. Given all of this, I find any little time-saving trick worth exploring.
In my last few posts, I have focused on how ChatGPT streamlines tasks for teachers, but now I’d like to focus on administrators: ChatGPT can be a pivotal component of your workflow, too.
In this post, I’m going to demonstrate the role(s) ChatGPT can play in making classroom observations a little bit quicker, thus giving you more time to focus on recording high quality feedback.
Observations often have a negative connotation, but—and I may be in the minority here—I mostly enjoyed these when I was teaching, and I continue to enjoy conducting them as an administrator. This is perhaps another way of writing, “wow, I really miss teaching.”
Anyhow, one aspect of conducting observations that I definitely do not like is the convoluted process by which I must awkwardly shoehorn my (copious) written notes into the STRONGE evaluation template hosted on my district’s evaluation management platform of choice, Frontline. I (and, I’ll bet, you too) could wax poetic on how inadequate the STRONGE evaluation model is for both teachers and administrators, but irrespective of my opinion, it’s a necessary evil. It is what I must use in the interest of compliance.
For those whose districts use a different evaluation model, the STRONGE model requires the observer to weigh in on the teacher’s observed lesson according to the following indices:
1) Professional Knowledge
2) Instructional Planning
3) Instructional Delivery
4) Assessment of and for Student Learning
5) Learning Environment
6) Professionalism
7) Student Academic Progress
Each of these indices have standards within them, and—on some level, I will concede—all of these are pertinent to a well-rounded education. The problem with the model doesn’t lie in its breadth; all of these areas are more than worth measuring. The problem with the model lies in the fact that it requires observers to not only observe what takes place during the lesson, but actively categorize what is happening during the lesson so that these phenomena fall into distinct categories that are, at best, ambiguous.
At a certain point, wouldn’t it just be more sincere, more accurate, and ultimately more worthwhile to simply write what happened?
As a quick example of this task’s difficulty, consider: how objective (or observable) is the administrator’s discernment of the teacher’s instructional planning as opposed to the teacher’s instructional delivery? To what extent is one’s instructional delivery fundamentally different from one’s assessment of student learning, if assessment = the teacher’s planning, based on professional knowledge, to deliver an accurate reading of students’ academic progress as part of a professional and supportive learning environment?
See what I mean?
As an adaptation to make the process a bit more straightforward, many administrators make a Google Doc with their own version of the STRONGE template, and—with their laptops open and ready—type throughout the period so that they can place into the appropriate boxes the evidence of what they are seeing in the teacher’s classroom. On days when I’ve had to do 4–6 of these in different buildings—in addition to putting out whatever figurative fires are burning across the district—this methodology definitely saves time.
Still, I find it disingenuous. I also find it counter to the actual purpose of observations: to document a teacher in practice, discuss what happened during the lesson, mutually reflect, and share professional guidance so that the teacher can improve. When I conduct observations directly into my own template, sure, it’s expedient—I only have to write the observation once—but I find myself so concerned with placing what I’ve written into the right box that I miss out on what’s going on right in front of me.
I prefer to take observational notes as a sort of play-by-play to accurately depict the rhythm of the lesson, to note the students’ reactions to the lesson, and—this part is critical—to have a chronology that reflects what actually took place rather than a detached extrapolation of how the teacher met the STRONGE template requirements.
The hit that I take, of course, comes when I have to reread the pages of notes I’ve taken and transpose these into the STRONGE template. To write a good observation from these notes takes a long time.
Remember: Observations are effectively legal documents. There is a lot riding on a teacher’s observation.
It could be the difference between retaining or firing a teacher, it could be a record of a teacher’s ability to honor the fidelity of a student’s IEP or 504 plan, it could be a testament to a teacher’s demonstration of pedagogical mastery, or it could be the evidence that determines whether a teacher can be brought up on tenure charges. In any of these situations, recent observations are critical to decision-making.
Okay, so what does ChatGPT have to do with all of this?
During a 5th grade reading lesson that I observed, I took about five single-spaced pages of notes, and each note was about 1–4 lines.
I asked ChatGPT:
I am a school administrator in a New Jersey district that uses the STRONGE Evaluation model for teacher observations. I recently conducted an observation of a 5th grade teacher's reading lesson, and I took notes during the observation. Can you synthesize my notes into a format that aligns with the STRONGE teacher evaluation model? Here are my notes…
I then inserted my notes in the question box. Here is ChatGPT’s response:
Based on your notes, I can synthesize the observation into a format that aligns with the STRONGE teacher evaluation model.
Here is an example of how this could be done:
Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
The teacher's 5th grade reading lesson was well-prepared and organized. The lesson included a variety of activities that were relevant to the students' learning needs and interests. The teacher used a prompt on the board to encourage students to write about something they were proud of, and then checked on students' work as they wrote. The lesson also included a review of story elements, which the teacher used to help students recall and analyze the story they had read previously.
Domain 2: Classroom Environment
The classroom was arranged with students sitting at four-desk tables, which allowed for collaboration and discussion. The teacher circulated around the room, checking on students' work and offering assistance. The students were actively engaged in the lesson and showed a willingness to participate in the activities.
Domain 3: Instruction
The teacher's instruction was effective and engaging. The lesson included a variety of activities that were relevant to the students' learning needs and interests. The teacher used a variety of strategies to encourage participation, including asking questions, using the Smart Board, and having students work in groups. The teacher also used a video to engage the students, and asked questions that prompted critical thinking and analysis.
Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities
The teacher demonstrated a high level of professionalism and commitment to student learning. The lesson was well-prepared and organized, and the teacher showed a willingness to adjust the lesson as needed to meet the needs of the students. The teacher also demonstrated a commitment to ongoing learning and development, as evidenced by the use of a variety of instructional strategies and resources.
Overall, the teacher's 5th grade reading lesson was effective and engaging, and aligned well with the STRONGE teacher evaluation model.
Not half bad. Perhaps not great either, as even though this is generally an accurate rendering of what I wrote in my notes, this is also far more generalized. This writeup also lacks both a great deal of the evidence that I noted, and it only breaks down four, rather than my required seven domains of the STRONGE model. I do think it's fascinating that ChatGPT settled on an overall effective rating (as opposed to—for those operating outside of STRONGE—ineffective, partially effective, or highly effective).
I decided to modify my approach. I asked ChatGPT:
Can you modify this response so that it is broken down into these seven categories:
1) professional knowledge, 2) instructional planning, 3) instructional delivery, 4) assessment of and for student learning, 5) learning environment, 6) professionalism, and 7) students' academic progress?
Here is ChatGPT’s response:
Sure! Here is a modified version of the response that aligns with the seven categories you provided:
Professional Knowledge:
The teacher demonstrated a strong understanding of the content and instructional strategies appropriate for a 5th-grade reading lesson. The teacher used a variety of strategies to engage the students, including using the Smart Board, asking questions, and having students work in groups. The teacher also used a video to engage the students, which showed a deep understanding of how to use technology to support learning.
Instructional Planning:
The teacher's lesson was well-planned and organized. The lesson included a prompt on the board that encouraged students to write about something they were proud of, and the teacher used this as an opportunity to check on students' work. The lesson also included a review of story elements, which helped students recall and analyze the story they had read previously.
Instructional Delivery:
The teacher's delivery was engaging and effective. The teacher used a variety of instructional strategies to engage the students, including asking questions, using the Smart Board, and having students work in groups. The teacher also used a video to engage the students, which prompted critical thinking and analysis.
Assessment of and for Student Learning:
The teacher used a variety of strategies to assess student learning, including asking questions, checking on students' work, and having students work in groups. The teacher also used a video to prompt critical thinking and analysis, which helped to assess students' ability to analyze and understand the story.
Learning Environment:
The classroom was arranged with students sitting at four-desk tables, which allowed for collaboration and discussion. The teacher circulated around the room, checking on students' work and offering assistance. The students were actively engaged in the lesson and showed a willingness to participate in the activities.
Professionalism:
The teacher demonstrated a high level of professionalism and commitment to student learning. The lesson was well-prepared and organized, and the teacher showed a willingness to adjust the lesson as needed to meet the needs of the students. The teacher also demonstrated a commitment to ongoing learning and development, as evidenced by the use of a variety of instructional strategies and resources.
Students' Academic Progress:
The lesson was effective in promoting students' academic progress. The teacher used a variety of strategies to engage the students, including asking questions, using the Smart Board, and having students work in groups. The teacher also used a video to prompt critical thinking and analysis, which helped to develop students' ability to analyze and understand the story. The students showed a willingness to participate in the activities and were actively engaged in the lesson, which suggests that they made progress in their learning.
The verdict? A bit repetitive, far too general, but—as I continue to stress in these blog posts: it is something from nothing. What ChatGPT does for me in this context isn’t “write my observation for me.” I don’t even want it to do that, if I’m honest. ChatGPT did, however, do exactly what I wanted it to do: it synthesized my notes’ general trends and placed them into the appropriate domains. Now, with that out of the way, I can go ahead and concentrate on the important stuff: what actually transpired. In a packed workday, this is vital.
This isn’t “cheating.” This is a time-saving tip that can actually make me write better observations because, having overcome the most time-consuming, bureaucratic hurdles of the STRONGE model, I can dedicate my attention to what matters: documenting with fidelity what actually transpired.
As a bonus, I asked ChatGPT one other question.
I’ll let you make meaning of this on your own:
I asked ChatGPT: What recommendations would you issue to this teacher based on this observation?
Here is ChatGPT’s response:
Based on the notes you provided, here are some recommendations that could be issued to the teacher:
Use a variety of teaching strategies: The teacher demonstrated effective use of instructional strategies such as questioning, small group work, and the use of technology. Continue to use a variety of strategies to engage all students, especially those with different learning styles.
Provide more explicit instructions: While the teacher used the Smart Board to display prompts, some students still had questions about what to do. Consider providing more explicit instructions or modeling the activity before students begin.
Encourage more student interaction: Although the teacher used group work to promote interaction, some students appeared to be hesitant to participate. Encourage more student-to-student interaction by assigning group roles or providing opportunities for pair sharing.
Scaffold instruction: While the teacher reviewed story elements and asked questions to prompt critical thinking, consider scaffolding instruction to help students understand more complex concepts. This could include using graphic organizers, providing examples or non-examples, or providing additional resources.
Provide timely feedback: While the teacher circulated around the room to check on student work, it was not clear if students received feedback on their writing or responses. Consider providing more timely feedback to students, especially during independent work time.
Differentiate instruction: While the lesson appeared to be well-structured and organized, consider differentiating instruction for students who may require additional support or extension activities. This could include providing additional resources or modifying the activity to meet students' needs.
Continue to reflect and seek professional development: The teacher demonstrated a commitment to ongoing learning and development, which is an essential component of effective teaching. Continue to reflect on the lesson and seek out professional development opportunities to continue to grow as a teacher.
In closing, I should be really clear: for this post, I used an anonymized version of an old observation that I had written up. This teacher does not currently work in my district, and I did not use the ChatGPT-generated version of this observation in my formal write-up. This is merely for illustrative purposes.
That's it for now! Thanks for reading. Please continue to check in for more posts focused on how schools can take advantage of ChatGPT and AI.
Is your district, school, or team interested in learning how ChatGPT can help to solve educational issues?
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PS: If you’ve used ChatGPT to help you with your school’s or district’s curricular initiatives, I’d love to hear about your efforts. Feel free to reach out to me (cris@mindfultechinitiative.com) to describe these efforts.