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With the continuous evolution of AI tools, it has become more critical to incorporate AI into our teaching practices. AI has the transformative power to improve our teaching methods, tailor learning experiences, and increase student engagement.

To give you a taste of our webinar 'Teaching in the age of AI: 7 tips for preparing for an educational evolution'. We'll cover seven tips designed to prepare you for an educational evolution with AI.

1. Choosing your AI path

The first step in integrating AI into your teaching practice is deciding your approach. Are you an AI methodologist who practices based on theory or an AI experimentalist who develops theory based on practice? Both paths are valid, but it's crucial to choose one to avoid inertia. Understanding AI's basics and experimenting with different tools will help you find your footing.

2. Becoming friends with AI

AI should be seen as a thought partner and assistant, not a replacement. Use AI to enhance your creativity and efficiency. For example, if you're stuck on creating a warm-up activity, ask AI for ideas. Treat AI as a helpful assistant to handle tasks you find time-consuming or less enjoyable, allowing you to focus on what you love about teaching.

3. Developing empathy for AI

Understanding AI's capabilities and limitations is essential. AI learns from the data we provide, so it's crucial to feed it accurate and relevant information. Developing empathy for AI means understanding how it processes information and how to give clear instructions to get the best results.

4. Using AI for comprehensive coverage

AI can help cover all aspects of language learning, including:

• Meaning-focused input: Generate reading passages and listening activities.
• Meaning-focused output: Create speaking and writing tasks.
• Language-focused learning: Develop vocabulary lists, grammar exercises, and pronunciation activities.
• Fluency development: Design repetitive practice tasks to build automaticity in language use.

5. Transforming teaching practices

Move beyond simple substitution and augmentation of tasks with AI. Aim for modification and redefinition of your teaching methods. For instance, use AI to create interactive and personalized learning experiences that were previously unimaginable.

6. Adopting AI pedagogy

AI offers new teaching possibilities that break away from traditional constraints. Embrace these opportunities to redefine your pedagogy. Think about what is now possible with AI that wasn't before and how you can leverage these capabilities to enhance learning.

7. Creating formative assessments

Use AI to develop formative assessments that provide continuous feedback. These assessments should help students understand their progress and guide you in improving your teaching strategies. AI can generate rubrics, provide instant feedback, and help track student performance over time.

Practical tips and challenges

To help you integrate AI into your teaching practice, here are some practical tips and challenges:

1. Experiment with AI tools: Find tools for creating text, audio, images, and video. Create activities using these tools to see how they can enhance your lessons.

2. Develop custom AI applications: Create custom GPTs for specific tasks, such as generating rubrics or formative assessments.

3. Engage students with AI: Design activities where students use AI to generate content, evaluate AI-generated work, and reflect on their learning process.

4. Focus on formative feedback: Use AI to provide continuous, formative feedback to students, helping them understand their strengths and areas for improvement.

Embrace AI and its challenges

Integrating AI into your teaching practice is not just about using new tools; it's about transforming your approach to education. By embracing AI, you can create more engaging, personalized, and effective learning experiences for your students. As you embark on this journey, remember that the goal is to enhance your teaching, not replace it. Embrace the challenges, experiment with new ideas, and let AI help you become the best educator you can be.

Watch our webinar

Ready to dive deeper into the world of AI in education? Watch our webinar, 'Teaching in the Age of AI: 7 Tips for Preparing for an Educational Evolution'. Discover how AI can augment teaching, personalize learning, and boost engagement. Delve into the AI-first pedagogy, ethical considerations and practical strategies to make your classroom more effective, engaging, and innovative.

Engaging in conversations, especially in a language that isn't your first, can sometimes be daunting. Whether English isn’t your first language or you’re just looking to improve your conversational skills, having a few handy phrases up your sleeve can make a world of difference. Here are seven essential phrases that can help you navigate conversations in English with greater ease and confidence.

Planning grammar lessons with the GSE Teacher Toolkit

Grammar is one of the core areas of language teaching. Often, new teachers are nervous about teaching it, but sooner or later, all English teachers will have to get to grips with it. Whether you love or hate teaching grammar to your students, the makes planning a successful grammar lesson easier than ever.Ìý

When it comes to planning a grammar-focused lesson, there are two main strategies to choose from: a communicative approach or a focus-on-form approach. The communicative approach is more commonly used.Ìý

So, let’s have a look at how the GSE Teacher Toolkit can help you plan a communicative grammar lesson that is effective and engaging for your students.Ìý

Teaching communicative grammar

When you’re planning a grammar lesson, you want to be sure there is a reason for students to use the grammar point that you’re going to teach. That way, your students will be more motivated to learn the form and practise using it correctly.Ìý

Using and applying grammar generally requires producing something. That’s why grammar, as an enabling skill, is often aligned to speaking and writing, the productive skills. When you want your students to use or produce a particular grammar form, you can begin by looking for the associated skills in speaking and writing.Ìý

Choosing a skill to teach

Imagine that you have a class that is learning at an A2 level (35 - 40 on the GSE range). You’ll want to help them work towards A2+/B1. So, it’s a good idea to plan lessons around skills that are in your target GSE range to push their progress.Ìý

In order to plan an A2+ range speaking class, you can filter the GSE Teacher Toolkit to look in your target learning range for specific skills to teach:Ìý