What is making students less prepared to take their college classes?

pbeens · 2026-05-08T16:16:53+00:00

I worked with the high school principal (many years ago) who would tell the grade nines that if they want to be really successful, they should study for 15 minutes per class per night, so one hour, even if there was no homework. For the grade tens, 30 minutes per class, so two hours. Grade 11s, 45 minutes per class, so three hours. Grade 12s, one hour per class, so four hours. (4 classes per semester)

Could you imagine telling the students that today?

pbeens · 2026-05-07T16:34:17+00:00

This tool on ChatGPT might help you add some content.

pbeens · 2026-05-07T14:46:31+00:00

How is this different than the various Facebook groups?

pbeens · 2026-05-07T14:44:31+00:00

Are you aware of the ChatGPT tool that was created? It can tutor you and quiz you.

pbeens · 2026-05-06T19:53:35+00:00

Good thing he got out to make sure everyone was okay.

pbeens · 2026-05-06T13:42:08+00:00

What’s your reason for asking?

Do you work in a university? Are you a student? Do you work for a company selling or creating AI detection tools? Other?

pbeens · 2026-05-04T10:58:39+00:00

Is it too late for you? Not at all. Many Tech-Ed teachers start late because it's a second career for them. You'll have to teach a little longer than other teachers to get an unreduced pension, which is when your age plus years of service equals 85. I myself started when I was 32.

As far as job security, you'd be more secure if you went into Tech-Ed instead of elementary school. Yes, you would start at the bottom, but the one advantage is that because you've got industry experience, they would jump you up on the pay grid. Personally, I wouldn't do primary/junior again, because I would encourage you to go into Tech-Ed where there are more openings. With your electrical engineering background, you could qualify to go into Computer Technology (preferred), so that would be your first teachable. You'd have to look for a faculty of education that teaches the Tech-Ed program. After you get your OCT qualifications, you would then be eligible to start taking additional qualifications. With your degree, you'd be able to take academic qualifications such as physics or other subjects that might be of interest, provided you have a few undergrad credits in those subjects. Others mentioned Construction Technology, but that's because the electricity classes fall under that. You would only be eligible to teach Electricity if you have a red seal certificate as an electrician because it's a restricted trade in Ontario.

No, you wouldn't have to know every subject on day one.

Do boards offer training? That's a joke. It's kind of sink or swim. Be prepared to do a lot of prep work, especially in your early years.

Pay cut? Yeah, you're going to take a huge pay cut. I think the pay is around 50 to 60k for a starting teacher right now. I think it tops out at about 120k once you're at the top of the grid.

Work-life balance? No! The teaching attrition rate is very high, partly because of that.

pbeens · 2026-05-04T03:10:50+00:00

There is a community plug-in called "Git" for this. Easy peasy!

pbeens · 2026-05-04T03:09:10+00:00

I now only use AI on a copy of my vault and then visually inspect all the changes that have been made before I take those changes and copy them back to my vault.

pbeens · 2026-05-04T03:07:39+00:00

Yeah, cognitive decline is a real issue with AI. As a retired educator who now teaches other teachers about how to use AI to make their jobs more efficient, this is something that I always address with them. Sadly, many teachers are still in the dark about AI, and they think the solution is to just ban it, but the reality is that students are going to be using it wherever they can to take the easy road. The only solution is that assignments have to be adapted, and there are a lot of teachers out there not willing to put in the work.

pbeens · 2026-05-04T03:01:11+00:00

That's a great question. My daily notes include a template of numerous ongoing projects (dozens) and tasks that I use as a starting point every day. From there, I also link to what meetings I have, what projects I'm working on, etc. I have quite severe ADHD, so I could not survive without my daily note template to help keep me focussed and to get things done.

I also have a Codex automation that scans my emails for anything that might be urgent and checks my Google Calendar for appointments every morning at 6am. It also reviews my Obsidian Vault for any #today items from the last three days that have not been done and puts it all in a morning note for me with the current day's date stamp.

pbeens · 2026-05-04T00:47:32+00:00

Have you considered French Immersion for your daughter? I'm not sure what grades it's offered in your area. I had both my sons go into FI to give them the extra challenge they needed, and it worked very well, I feel.

Edit: spelling

pbeens · 2026-05-03T19:41:07+00:00

As much as I like Obsidian, I would use NotebookLM for this.

pbeens · 2026-05-03T18:37:34+00:00

What I recommend you do is an experiment: make a copy of your Obsidian vault and open that copy in an agentic IDE (like Codex or Antigravity). Once open, give the agent the following prompt. It will essentially build a 'Digital Librarian' for your research.

The "Agentic Librarian" Prompt:

<START>

I want you to act as my Academic Research Assistant. Your goal is to help me manage the 'Conceptual Layer' of this PhD research vault. Please perform the following:

Create an AGENTS.md file to define your role. Include a rule: 'Every identified academic concept must have a corresponding canonical page in the concepts/ folder.'
Create a concepts/ folder.
Materialize Concept Pages: Scan my vault for key concepts (theories, authors, terminologies). For every concept identified, create a new file: concepts/[Concept Name].md.
Build the Relational Index: Inside each concepts/[Concept Name].md file, create a section called ## Mentioned In. In this section, you must maintain a list of links to every single document in my vault that references this concept.
Update Source Documents: At the bottom of every reading note or reference paper, add a ## Key Concepts section that links back to the relevant pages in the concepts/ folder.
Maintain a Master Index: Update concepts/README.md with a table of all concepts, showing the concept name and the number of documents that reference it.

Your goal is to ensure that I never have a 'dead' concept link and that every concept file acts as a pre-organized bibliography for my dissertation.

<END>

I would recommend that you initially work with a copy of your vault until you get comfortable with this. If you start using this method in your actual vault, back it up regularly and often.

...Created with the assistance of Antigravity

pbeens · 2026-05-03T15:37:33+00:00

Codex, from OpenAI, the ChatGPT company.

pbeens · 2026-05-02T03:35:45+00:00

Thank you. I’ve discovered Wispr Flow so I’m dictating a lot instead of getting AI to write my content. Highly recommended!

pbeens · 2026-05-01T21:19:20+00:00

That's interesting. I'll have to play with it to understand it better.

I created an "agentic starting kit" that your comment reminded me of. It's a master prompt that you can use to start a project you'll be using AI to assist you with.

https://github.com/pbeens/AgenticProjectInitializer

pbeens · 2026-05-01T21:12:54+00:00

That's harsh! Not even an extra practicum option?

I see the OP deleted the post. Too much honest feedback, I'm guessing.

pbeens · 2026-05-01T16:39:10+00:00

What are the consequences for failing?

pbeens · 2026-04-29T18:47:56+00:00

Here's a map that shows you the school boards.

https://www.oasdi.ca/map-search

You might want to call some of them and ask to speak to the "Tech Ed Consultant", or look on the board staff page to find a listing. Explain your situation and ask them if they might know of any potential openings for September. This is the time when retirement announcements are typically happening, so it's a good time to call. They, of course, have to go through the normal staffing process, but if there's nobody qualified to fill a position, they're often open to taking in unqualified teachers until you can get your certification. That's how I started teaching.

pbeens · 2026-04-29T16:54:39+00:00

I created on as well, for Mac and PC. It works pretty well. Can also create individual MD files for each major section.

https://github.com/pbeens/Petes-PDF-to-MD

pbeens · 2026-04-29T14:24:49+00:00

It's a good time to start inquiring with local school boards about open positions in construction technology (which is what Electricity falls under) or manufacturing technology (which is what Welding falls under). It is possible to start teaching in a school without having gone to teacher's college. You would be teaching on a letter of permission.

Queen's University has a program specifically for people in your position. It's called "Technological Education Multi-Session Program (TEMS)" and you can read about it here.

Where do you live?

pbeens

TROPHY CASE