GRAB and GO – Is AI the New Coffee?

This article offers a look at the ‘quick fix’ approach to teaching that is becoming the mainstay in the global classroom. The instant tap of the keyboard and the flick of a screen produces a vast array of ready-to-go resources and curriculum planning sheets at your fingertips. No different to the aroma of your favourite coffee pod selections brewing in the staffroom coffee machine, ready to pour and consume in an instant. Could these ‘grab and go’ moments be masking an underlying movement of lethargy that promotes altered standards within the teaching profession in our current global society?  Are these standards having a deleterious rippling effect on the student and collegial enrichment that is on offer within the educational field?

A case example

Just Grab a CP

A new student had recently been enrolled into a local primary school. After initial testing, the results returned showed an exemplary level of mental computation and complex number patterning accuracy that the teacher had not seen with her current year level of teaching.

The grading showed their working level was substantially higher than their current cohort of peers. There was nothing out of the ordinary with this child’s interactions with his class. No competition, one-upmanship or arrogance, just a love of numbers and the ancientness of its patterning. No hyper-stimulation each time the lesson began, rather a joy and focused filled purpose in working on number problems and celebrating how the answers were discovered.

The class teacher reached out to a staff member who worked specifically in this area and had a wealth of experience in team projects, extending these skills that came so naturally to this new student. These teachers are specialised in their subjects and are the ‘go to’ for the best resources, engaging activities and encouraging students to ‘look outside the box’ at how number is used in all aspects of life.

The specialised teacher's response was … “It’s much easier to just grab a CP”.

Puzzled at what the CP stood for, the colleague elaborated and suggested going to Co-Pilot. A virtual assistant that is powered by A.I. A simple go-to approach of typing in your keywords in a search bar, and literally scrolls of suggested activities roll off the screen. Cut and paste and lessons done!

The sense of relief, of fighting the uphill angst of curriculum differentiation and the offering of a ‘quick fix’ mode of action is very much welcomed by many teachers as they constantly feel the pressure, expectations, and overall demands of the teaching profession escalate each year. Access at your fingertips conjures up a ‘grab and go’ approach. A time saver? Or could this ‘no fuss’ method of teacher practice be breeding a flavour of lethargy towards the quality planning that sets the standards and collaborative engagement with our peers?

An approach that promotes ‘efficiency’ yet has the undertones of the beginnings of lethargic movements and a gradual disengagement from true collegial support. A movement that often has the throwaway line heard all too often in school environments, ‘Let’s just do it this way … it’s quicker.'

Could this movement towards ‘efficiency’ rob us of depth of planning time where we are enriched by the expertise of our peers in their ‘favourite subject to teach’, reassured that the content presented has been planned with detail and care for the students and their foundational needs.

The copious printing trail of AI-sourced material leaves unstable foundations for our students and uproots the core values of teacher professionalism and expertise. What community values are presented to our students when a computer-generated algorithm offers the calibre of teaching actively promoted by the teachers?

Have we stopped to question why digital downloads are being used to generate education lessons en masse, rather than being used as an adjunct to lessons where the teacher remains the primary source of contact with the fabric of learning?

PEAKS and TROUGHS

The school calendar is often the gauge of when we are embarking on the ‘busiest’ times of the school year. In the past, there would have been a more distinctive time in the termly overviews where teachers would start to prepare for the reporting period. There was a gradual peak that would include planning and testing that worked hand in hand to produce student results. The regular cohort of grades that were no surprise to the class teachers, as these results could be seen from the many samples of work given from the term planning. When the flow of this planning becomes the core of our teaching, how then can the troughs appear and the dreaded reporting cloud loom over the school staffrooms yearly?

Is it that these ‘grab and go’ moments are the quick fix that are then generating these trough moments?

Caffeine highs always lead to caffeine lows. The unpreparedness to respond when needed, or delaying work that impacts on our professional role and responsibilities, leads to these lethargic movements. These digital searches keep us running on the curriculum treadmill, feeling under the pump to achieve deadlines, yet the quality offered does not match the quality of care.

How then is the calibre of the lesson delivery for the children in our classrooms?

I’ll GET TO THE TRAY

The Hidden Signs of Lethargy

One just needs to walk into any classroom and often spot the multi-layered selection of trays positioned on teachers’ desks or scattered around the classroom. To the onlooker, a pile of books and papers appear like a mountain of evidence that champions the plight of teachers’ workloads. To the teacher, these trays are the never-ending selection of marking to do, finished marking or the 'I’ll get to that pile and clean it later….'

These 'I’ll get to trays' are often the tell-tale signs of the wavering standards that creep in when we move into the ‘grab and go’ way of teaching. A daily dose of the digital coffee fix at the photocopier leads to a paper trail of reproducible worksheets no different to the piling up of coffee cups on a teacher's desk. Walking into a school photocopier room, there are often sheets printed, left behind in the machine, on the benches or in the staffroom.  What are statements like 'I had a lot on my mind, I didn’t have time, or I forgot where I left my work' masking?

Is it lethargy or professional disengagement?

I have also observed other teachers effortlessly flow into the resource room, photocopy their pre-planned materials and head to their classrooms for the day in contrast to the angst of ‘en masse’ generated printing lining the work table and vying for placement in the growing photocopier queue, churning out the loads to cover the lessons for the day, with the ever looming sound of the school siren ready to blast in the background.

COMPLAINING OR SIMPLY COMPLETING? 

Getting the Work Done!

In the past few years, I have observed a growing increase in hearing colleagues sharing the underlying angst they were feeling when the reporting period would present in schools. The 'too much to do', not 'enough time', and the piled-up trays of marking and grading became the theme of the discussion. It was akin to a blanket of heaviness that filled the staffroom air and a disgruntled moan of having to get the work done; a false sense of camaraderie championing the plight of teachers and the growing pressures of testing and reporting deadlines to address. These conversations surprisingly go hand in hand with grabbing another coffee or the need to have another or longer work break. Ironically, talking (complaining) about getting the work done, rather than completing and getting the work done. 

What happens when we move with simply getting our work done?

I have often had a personal moment of appreciation at how simply attending to all that is required in the day can be met with pockets of collegial support from our peers. For example, being presented with the sudden cancellation of a meeting, leading to more space to finish off marking; a duty swap that is a timely support to assist a student in need or an extra helping hand appears in the classroom via a colleague or student teacher. This seamlessly often extends to home life that may include getting meals cooked early, errands run, or even a moment to sit and deeply rest at the end of the day, confirming the work that had been done.

Are we making the focus of not getting our work done the foundation for the restlessness that leads to lethargy?

Could this ‘grab and go’ quick fix approach that we all know has a short-term effect be no different to the coffee we consume each day? It works a treat to begin, but then follows the constant plight to find the next one.

Could we be offered more space to get the work done when we opt to drop the ‘quick fix’ and instead be in the purposeful movements of letting the work flow?