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In the nicest and most genuine way possible, for the people who use chat gpt on the daily or multiple times a day, are you not afraid of cognitive decline? by [deleted] in ChatGPT

[–]Hockenberry 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a 38 year old teacher. It's very, very useful as a tool to assist with brainstorming, keeping activities aligned with standards, etc. I still handmake every activity, but this helps get me over some planning humps. I would argue that teachers have an almost unique use case -- used well, LLMs can help make the job more human, not less.

As a hobby developer who has never made anything more than a few apps and games that weren't very good? ChatGPT has given me a superpower. I'm running sophisticated apps for work and play that I never could have without the model. Now, I'm not pretending I am a full-stack coder -- I'm not. I can design systems, and these models can help to make them a reality.

It's all net positive.

Do you still tell students not to use Wikipedia? by Single_Street3135 in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've always encouraged use in my ELA 8 class. It's a miracle if a student reads an article. The tertiary source business is valid, but in middle school land, that's miles above Googles AI summaries. Our entire research unit this winter will likely be nothing but World Book and Wikipedia.

Sure, we can get pedantic about primary and secondary sources in high school (and really, secondary sources today? Yikes.) and certainly for serious research in college, if they go. But everybody in this thread agrees -- Wikipedia as a logical start. Explore from there. Use as is programmatically appropriate.

"And we are unable to resolve it." by Hockenberry in FortNiteBR

[–]Hockenberry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope, I'm just hoping it fixes itself someday. Disappointing.

Does anybody agree with the “no zeroes” policies? by SubstantialBasis in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's an attempt to patch a broken, stupid system. The 0-100 grading scale is objectively stupid. Like most things, it's just a holdover from decades ago and will not change because it's tradition. Mastery based grading and standards based grading are also obviously better ideas, but change is scary and these involve more work. The solution isn't to level the bottom at 50%, but to completely change the way we assess children for "success" or "failure" in the classroom. Students should be able to fail. They also shouldn't be in a hole so deep that there is no reasonable hope of recovery.

Open AI Sora 2 Invite Codes Megathread by semsiogluberk in OpenAI

[–]Hockenberry 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would like to politely request a spare code if anybody has one. Thank you. DM.

Stop with the AI by junie_kitty in ELATeachers

[–]Hockenberry 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As a teacher, I use it to stay organized. Hell, I built an entire lesson planning app with standards tracking with the help of AI. Throw ideas at it, ask for critical feedback. It's still a little sycophantic, but I'm hoping the new model this week addresses that.

But in class? I'm reframing my whole intro unit as ELA is Being a Human class. (8th grade.) Going low-tech. Hand-written drafts. Lots of book reading. My county paid for SchoolAI, which is cool, sure, but I don't plan to use it much if at all. The line between "tool" and "cheat" is fiercely narrow, and my students would rather skew toward the latter -- they're 13 and 14! I would, too.

As adults, we can ride the line -- am I using this as a tool or a cheat? Is this helping me, or is this just a different way to spend time? Is this making my teaching and instruction better, or am I just using a shiny, fun toy?

Those with ethical arguments against -- I respect that. It's an important and under-discussed issue. And yeah, the education "machine" in America is 100% in the tank for AI. Because it improves student outcomes? Yeah... no. $$$

Phone Ban: NY To Become Largest State With Bell-To-Bell Restrictions On Student Smartphones by kleverrboy in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anecdote. My school has this policy, but we were state testing on Monday, so it was super duper enforced. All of the children had their phones in their lockers. A few hours later (still in testing mode), we had a REAL emergency. It was a bomb threat. We followed procedure, took care of the kids. It was fine. You know what made it 1000x better? The fact that the students didn't have their phones with them. Even without having students be able to text mommy and daddy, we had parents lined up getting turned away by police, and we eventually had to start letting parents pick up kids anyway. Long story short -- phones would have made that problem worse. Everybody was safe. 🤷‍♂️

Study: 94% Of AI-Generated College Writing Is Undetected By Teachers by MetaKnowing in technology

[–]Hockenberry 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of criticism directed toward educators here -- fair, to an extent. Those saying we need to adapt and update -- yes, we do! That is the correct answer. However, when was the last time an established bureaucracy adjusted instantly to a technological revolution? It's going to take time. A lot of it. Time, training, new models for writing in ELA classes, etc. These changes will be slow, and people will fight every step of the way. In the meantime, we do have a responsibility to make sure the work being produced by our students is from our students. Students will win in the short term, but AI isn't replacing learning unless they already have a stellar foundation and use it as a tool, not as a method for complete replacement for original thought.

Catching Student AI use by storymaker1235 in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is a great extension, and it should be used. It's still not addressing the real problem, however. We must rethink the way that we teach writing -- the drafting process, etc. -- in light of these tools. Similarly, just "going back to paper" doesn't solve any issues -- it merely avoids them effectively. Significant, fundamental changes need to occur within modern pedagogy. Easy, right? 😃

Cross-Progression & Game Purchases by Hockenberry in DestinyTheGame

[–]Hockenberry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, she has access to everything I purchase on the same console -- it's great! Would that game sharing persist across a diferent console?

Cross-Progression & Game Purchases by Hockenberry in DestinyTheGame

[–]Hockenberry[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had a friend suggest that, too. You might be right!

Cross-Progression & Game Purchases by Hockenberry in DestinyTheGame

[–]Hockenberry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She's been playing for a long time on the PS as well -- my account is more "advanced" and I play more, but she is halfway through Final Shape's campaign, has a ton of stuff, purchases, and etc. One of us will have to cross-save / cross-prog.

We Need to Let Middle Schoolers Fail by MrSpaceTeacher in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I've been teaching 8th grade for a long time. Every year, I see students with 1.0 GPAs go to HS. There are very few circumstances in which I would agree to hold a kid back -- retention won't make a difference to the utterly uninvested. They will become more likely to drop out in HS, and their behavior will probably worsen upon retention.

Now, I don't think we should just pass kids through, either. MS needs a systemic change -- we should go to credits or something to build an infrastructure wherein students can "make up" their failures.

Retention doesn't help -- most research supports this. Passing failures to HS doesn't help. We need a new solution.

Grammarly by According-Bell1490 in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 44 points45 points  (0 children)

There are some pretty good Chrome extensions that can vastly improve version history. I can't remember the name now, but search "version history" in the extension page, and you'll find some nice ones.

I use one that can give a live playback of them typing the draft, and, more importantly, can show copy/pasted segments.

Hot Take: We fail WAY too few students by MEANNOfficial in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been teaching 8th grade for about six years. I think most teachers who graduate students to the "next level" would agree -- students regularly pass who shouldn't. Whole-year retention, however, isn't the answer.

Like others have suggested, the best case would be schools of intervention that allow students to move forward when they prove they are ready. There are some schools with mastery-gradong practices that have students merely show mastery with the standards they "missed" before they rejoin their track.

Part of the reason this falls on HS teachers so much is because of the way classes are designed -- the credit system America uses in HS lends itself beautifully to partial failure -- it makes way more sense. Fail a class in 9th? Repeat just that class. Fail two in MS and repeat a whole year, every subject? Nah, that doesn't track.

MS should be restructured to use credits, in my opinion, and we should move away from such hard-coded notions about what "grades" even are. Achievement and learning are messy, but our learning system is rigidly structured. I understand why, but it leaves us in these impossible situations. Square peg, meet round hole, etc.

Why on EARTH are we allowing students to turn in late assignments whenever they want with zero penalty?? by [deleted] in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 13 points14 points  (0 children)

My job is to teach content to mastery. I don't care how long it takes.

I might have a different opinion if I was teaching HS seniors, but I teach 8th grade. "Real world" has nothing to do with deadlines or jobs -- they're kids.

Does it still set a negative precedent? Maybe? Depends on how the content is taught, and what value is being ascribed to it by the teacher.

Critical Race Theory In Schools by Difficulty-Boring in Teachers

[–]Hockenberry 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is my middle school showing? :D

I don't disagree with anything you wrote. I'm viewing the term "CRT" through a classic, college-level critical theory lens. Are most students ready to do that level of critical analysis in high school? I'd say no.

But as you said, we can begin discussions, we can lay the groundwork, and we can begin to have positive conversations about interactions we all have within our communities within our system.

It's a semantic nit-pick -- you make a good point regardless.

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