Teachers Themselves

Practical Approaches to AI in the Classroom with Shannon Ahern

• Dublin West Education Centre • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Are you looking for ways to innovate your teaching? Join Ultan Mac Mathúna, as he sits down with the trailblazer in STEM education, Shannon Ahern, a teacher in St Declan's College in Cabra, Dublin, who is transforming the world of Maths and Science with her innovative teaching methods. Discover how Shannon uses an AI tool, ChatGPT, to create personalised learning experiences and pique student curiosity, making the subject not just educational but also enjoyable. 

Tune in to get motivated and informed!

In this episode, Shannon provides her top 3 CPD tips for educators planning for the academic year ahead. You can also listen to her recommendations in a bite-size bonus episode. Shannon’s CPD recommendations for the year ahead, are for AI, Classroom Management and Teaching Methodologies. Luckily for you, we have you covered! You can book CPD this Autumn with dwec.ie   

We are delighted that Shannon will be facilitating CPD for DWEC again this Autumn, some of which includes;
ChatGPT for Teachers - A Beginners Guide
ChatGPT for Maths Teachers - Resource Creation Edition
ChatGPT for Science Teachers - Science Week Edition 

You can follow Shannon on Instagram/Twitter via @craic_matamaitic @craicmatamaitic
And you can find more information on her website, here: www.craicmatamaitic.com
In this episode, Shannon references the Khan Academy and Khan Migo – you can find more information here: https://www.khanacademy.org/ and https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-labs
She also refers to a TED Talk and the 2 Sigma Problem which can be accessed here: www.ted.com 

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If you have any thoughts on our episodes, or suggestions for future topics, email Zita at zrobinson@dwec.ie
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Oh – and don’t forget to book that CPD – dwec.ie

Teachers Themselves is a DWEC original, produced and created by Dublin West Education Centre produced by Zita Robinson.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Welcome to the Teachers Themselves podcast. I'm your host, . This podcast is brought to you by Dublin West Education Centre. We're located in the grounds of TUD Tallaght, serving and supporting the school communities of West Dublin and beyond. In this podcast, I'll be speaking with some of the very talented, dedicated people who bring you your CPD Facilitators with a background in passion for education in Ireland. Educators whose commitment to students and colleagues shines through in their delivery of courses for Dublin West Ed Centre.

Shannon Ahern:

But I would ultimately like to see us move in the direction where we're teaching students how to use AI effectively, because ultimately, they're going out into a society where AI is going to dominate and it's going to be, you know, taking a lot of jobs in the not so distant future and they're going to have to work alongside it, and the sooner we can teach them about what it is and how to use it, the better, in my opinion.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

My guest today is Shannon Ahern. Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing have revolutionised the way we interact with technology. One of the most exciting applications of AI at the moment is in the education sector. Teachers can leverage AI tools like ChatGPT to create personalised learning experience for their students.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Shannon Ahern is an enthusiastic and dedicated educator, specialising in mathematics and science at St Declan's College in Cabra. With a passion for STEM education, Shannon is committed to transforming the learning experience for students. Her zeal for mathematics is particularly noteworthy, as she believes in making maths not just educational, but also engaging and enjoyable for both learners and teachers alike. Recognising the power of social media in modern education, Shannon established an Instagram account as a platform to connect with fellow maths teachers. Through this vibrant online community, she shares an array of innovative ideas, practical tips and valuable resources aimed at making mathematics education more dynamic and fun without the added stress for teachers. In November 2022, Shannon's creative journey took an exciting turn when she discovered ChatGPT. She quickly realised that ChatGPT was the ultimate tool she needed to enhance her creativity and develop her engaging resources in even less time. Chatgpt proved to be an invaluable asset in Shannon's toolbox, enabling her to create lessons that not only play to students' interests but peak students' interests and make them curious to learn. Shannon Ahern, how are you?

Shannon Ahern:

Good, thank you very much.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Thanks so much for joining me on our podcast. I just wanted to spend a little while, Shannon, finding out who is Shannon Ahern and how and why you came to teaching and to providing CPD for teachers. Shannon, tell me you were a teacher through a circuitous route. Tell me all about that, please.

Shannon Ahern:

Yeah. So I kind of have, since primary school, I knew that I wanted to go into teaching. Before I left primary school I knew, yeah, i'm gonna be a primary school teacher. I loved school, loved the atmosphere, could never understand why my friends around me would not want to go to school every day and Knew instantly That's what I wanted to do when I went to secondary school. Then I suppose I started working in summer camps as a helper and realized pretty quickly I didn't have the patience for primary school teaching But still very much wanted to be a teacher.

Shannon Ahern:

And it was my own science teachers Seeing how they were in the classroom and what their day-to-day looked like that they inspired me to go down the science teaching route. In talking to career guidance teachers then I was kind of advised well, don't sell yourself to just science teaching straight away. And they encouraged me to do a science degree. But during that journey realized pretty quickly that I loved science because I had amazing teachers around me. I loved learning and I did love the world of science. But it wasn't going to be the scientist life for me. I discovered in university and found pretty quickly that no, i've always wanted to be a teacher And I should have gone into the science teaching route kind of immediately.

Shannon Ahern:

It was in university, though, that I kind of fell in love with maths, and it was there that I discovered hang on, nobody ever mentioned to me that I could have gone and studied maths for a degree or that I could have gone down the maths teaching route. I was doing kind of grinds in university, like a lot of students in in my course were doing at that time, and I just became addicted to the feeling of having students turn around and say I got it. I finally cracked it, i understand, or the eureka moment. That feeling of getting a student there was really exhilarating for me, and I knew I just wanted that in my life all the time.

Shannon Ahern:

So after my science degree then, i kind of set out and did some maths courses with the open university And absolutely adored that, really loved studying maths and the challenge of it and the feeling Of, you know, figuring out a difficult problem. I remember being here some evenings and finally figuring out a question I'd been working on all day and I felt like a soccer player just scored a goal, running around the house, just loved that feeling, and to be able to give that to other people. That's kind of what drives me and keeps me going as a teacher, and eventually then I went to hibernia to do my masters and ended up doing my placement in st Declan's college and have been there ever since.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

So obviously st Declan's took one look at you and said we're keeping her. Yeah, absolutely. And aren't they lucky to have you, shannon? and I mean that sincerely. They are lucky to have a teacher with your energy, passion and professionalism. So although the teachers in your school, in your own school in secondary, said don't go into teaching, you Just loved the feeling of that eureka moment with the kids. It drove you to learn more, It drove you to study more and get those qualifications, and into teaching you went. Do you ever think Maybe I did the wrong thing?

Shannon Ahern:

Some days, when it gets on the, when push comes to shove and there's a difficult student or they're kicking off. You know, being a teenager, you can question it, but really 99% of the time I'm coming home and I feel fulfilled in what I'm doing and I like that. The job is so versatile. No two days are the same and that's completely up to you. You know you could go in and be the teacher that's teaching the same course material day in, day out. But I like to come home and create and innovate and think how could I have taught that better? or that student wasn't quite understanding it today. Could I present it to them differently? I like the excitement and the challenge of that. So, while there's one percent of the time you might have a bit of a doubt of why am I doing this, what's it all? for Most days I'm coming home and feeling really fulfilled in in the role that I have.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

That's fantastic. fair play to you. So you're talking there about the amount of time maybe that you would spend thinking about the lessons, thinking about how you're going to change a lesson to make it more effective or something new you can bring in. And that brings me nicely into where we got together in Dublin West Back in November 2022. A significant person in your life stumbled upon something and brought it to your attention. Can you tell me about that Shannon?

Shannon Ahern:

Yeah, absolutely So. My partner is, He's a lecturer in Trinity and Robotics and he has a PhD in Robotics and he would come home in the evenings and talk to me about it. And one evening in November he came home and he mentioned this thing called ChatGPT And because I had the Instagram page, he said it's something you should really be talking about. Like, everyone's going to be talking about this in a few weeks. You should get on top of it now.

Shannon Ahern:

So I had a play around with ChatGPT and I got a bit of a shock when I interacted with it for the first time, because I really prided myself as someone who was creative and innovative and thinking of things that nobody else was. And when I sat down with ChatGPT and asked it to create a forensics and maths resource, it did it in a matter of seconds And I got a bit of a fright and I had a bit of an existential crisis, like, if this machine can do what I do, what am I here for now? I thought that was my purpose and what made me special, and it took me a while to kind of get out of that crisis and come around to see it for what it is And eventually come around to talking about it. So it took me a few weeks about two weeks to really settle with the idea, and it was really in doing my own research and reading into what it was that I was able to calm myself down and bring myself to a place of understanding that really all that it is is it's another tool in my toolbox. It's not this creative machine that can think of anything. That's still me. I'm still the one that's doing the thinking and the creating and the innovating.

Shannon Ahern:

All that it's doing is taking my idea, my prompt, and it's doing the research that I would normally do by just googling or reading books. It's doing that part for me and the formatting, it's typing it up for me. So instead of me having kind of two stages to the process that would take a couple of hours at a time, it's sourcing those two things and putting it together in one tool. But it won't have that ability unless I come to it with the idea. And ultimately that's where I landed. And why I wanted to talk about it in the end is because not just anybody's going to come up and be able to do what I do. You have to already be that kind of creative and thinking person.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Funny. You should mention that, Shannon, because I was at a meeting Today, We're celebrating 50 years of education centres in Ireland this year And somebody mentioned back in the 70s there was a huge investment in education centres. It brought them to the next level because technology was coming into education And schools were getting a computer And they said we better get on to this. And you know what? Teaching hasn't changed. Just like you're saying there, without the teacher, these are just tools, that's all they are. Without the teacher, they're not going to do anything. And it's funny, here we are with the newest iteration of what's available in technology And you were saying the same thing that the people who were slightly ahead of the curve back in the 70s were saying it's just a tool. That's very interesting to see all those years on. You mentioned there your Instagram account. Can you tell me a little bit about your Instagram account, why you have the Instagram account and the advantages you've seen because of it?

Shannon Ahern:

Yeah, so it was in July of 2022. I had previously been following loads of other teachers on Instagram across a range of subjects, not just maths and science, And I just found it so positive interacting with them and seeing the positive side of teaching, Because in the media sometimes it can be painted as quite a negative thing to be a teacher and that all of us are out for June, July, August and that's all that we're for, And I felt quite isolated by that at times. I also found that, as a newly qualified teacher with loads of energy, sometimes I was a bit much for my own staff room And I wanted to share those ideas and get the energy out somewhere. So I set up the Instagram for that reason to kind of bring a bit of positivity myself, share it with other people, And ultimately I felt that it was something I was really passionate about making maths fun for my own students And the idea that I could extend that to classrooms across the country by sharing those ideas. I was really motivated by that. So, on it, I share what I do, any ideas I have, any websites I find that are interesting or useful, or coming up to special days, maths days of the year, like Fibonacci day or Pi day, I'll share fun videos or links that teachers can use in their class And just to bring that energy to other teachers and share with them what I'm doing.

Shannon Ahern:

Yeah, so it's been a hugely positive thing for me in terms of it's created a whole community around me of teachers who are inspiring and innovative and looking to do new things with maths, And it's kind of spurred me on in a way, you know, motivated me to keep going and keep pushing myself to do new things and creative things and keep up to date with technology.

Shannon Ahern:

I think it really pushed me to keep up to date with what was happening with chat GPT And I think that for a lot of teachers they found it beneficial. It's an informal CPD. Then you just log in in the evening and they've seen what I've done and they run oh what is this chat GPT? And they look it up themselves and be playing around with it. Or I might share look, this is something that I did today that really helped a student You know I use this method and they might never have seen it before. Or I'll share a book that I'm reading and teachers will kind of say, oh, I bought the book and I read it And it really kind of gave me loads of ideas.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

So it's an instantly accessible push or prod towards developing that CPD for teachers And it's actually it's a space that Dublin West Education Centre is in and all education centres are in right now is the Instagram space, because it's how we drive an awful lot of traffic into the centre, both virtually and even face to face, is through people like yourself, shannon, and her own Instagram channel, and it just works. People find it very accessible, it's interactive, it's attractive And you know what. It's, on the whole, very positive. I think Instagram tends to be a positive online space. There's lots of really good stuff there. Like I know you've over 1500 followers, i think, and you know to think that there are 1500 teachers that I want to hear what Shannon and her and has to say, but they don't have to go anywhere other than their pocket And there they get whatever Shannon and her and has to say.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

But Shannon Ahern, who's kind of ahead of the curve on AI, who has the benefit of a robotics lecturer from Trinity College, i'd say dinner time in your place is fantastic. What I'd like to explore more, which is that whole thing about AI that your first message was before Christmas. Just for a week before Christmas, your first message about AI And you know, a few months later it is everywhere And we're already talking about you, know the ethics and using AI ethically, and I know Daisy Christodolo in England, who writes some great stuff about education, said look at AI is a positive thing. If we are setting tasks for our students that a robot can do well, then you know, maybe we should have a look at what kind of tasks we're setting, which is a great piece of advice from a really. So how are you managing the ethics around AI, Shannon, even in your own classroom and in your own teaching?

Shannon Ahern:

So in my own classroom I've been open with students about it because I think that they're going to be using it anyway. It's all over Instagram. It's all over TikTok, youtube. You'll find loads of people showing you how to use it And, whether we want to think about it or not, students are using it. So I think it's better that it does come from us.

Shannon Ahern:

So as soon as I started talking about it on Instagram, come back after Christmas, i started talking to my students about it and I showed them live demonstrations of it And I taught them about what I understood about it, so that it's a language model. It's not a maths model, it's not a search engine And teaching them that if you give it a maths question, it's not actually doing any maths thinking. In fact, even if you give it an English essay question, it's not doing any critical thinking around the question that you've given it. It's just producing words based on probability. And once they had that understanding, they went away and they could use it a little bit more responsibly. I have encouraged them to use it for their studies. I've said well, did you ask ChatGPT to even explain what concepts are in the question So they come to their homework normally what happens in higher level maths is a student can't do the question And they'll come in the next day and say well, i didn't do any homework for you because I didn't even know where to start, and that's just no good for me and it's no good for them And I completely understand their frustration, but there's no progress made. So now the rule is you're allowed to go to ChatGPT or whatever other AI bots you want to use and ask them for help with your homework. You can record what they said.

Shannon Ahern:

I always encourage the students to check with me that what the AI produced was correct, so they know that it could be wrong, rather than them going off on their own and assuming that it's all right and all knowing. And I ask them then to turn around and ask the AI can you give me three more questions like this to practice? And it's completely transformed the homework discussion in my classroom from one of arguments and bickering about I didn't do it because, blah, blah, blah. They're coming in now and they've got an example, a worked example from an AI bot and they've got three more questions to try. And it's just completely changed how they're studying at home and they've become much more kind of self-sufficient, which is a skill that they're going to need when they leave me in a year or two is time to go to university and independent. You know they're able to go and find these things on their own and they're becoming much more confident as a result. They're not feeling that frustration at home anymore. They're able to make some progress with it And look, i'm not an English teacher, but I told them as well, you can use it for that, but know that it's not producing the best quality work.

Shannon Ahern:

You're going to do that because it's you and your thoughts that we want to see in the in on the English paper that you're producing. It's you and your ideas that are more valuable than what a machine is producing. So I think, going back to students and telling them what's the purpose of this homework you know you're writing an essay on Romeo and Juliet, but why are you writing it? I know what's in the play Romeo and Juliet. Everybody in the room knows what's in the play. I want your critical thinking on it. What do you think the themes are and why? And going back to the root of the why for homework, that's really helped kind of overcome the hurdles that I've seen with chat gpt usage in schools.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

In a way, Shannon, you've used AI as a tool to put the responsibility for completing homework or being successful at homework back onto the student. That is that. This is how you use this tool. There's no reason why you can't figure it out using the tool. Don't come into me and say I don't know how to do it. It's right there in front of your computer. What's the difference between that, say, and the myriad YouTube lessons around that that are available already?

Shannon Ahern:

Yeah, so I suppose when they go to watch a YouTube video, it's not directly related to their homework question. You know it's kind of adjacent to the homework or sometimes you'll see it done. They do things differently in America. You know they use different words for slope, they'll say gradient and things like that, whereas chat GPT you can continue to fine tune and tweak it to get exactly the tutor that you want out of it. And there are companies now, like Khan Academy, who started as a YouTube channel himself, actually has a whole website now, but they've invented something called Khan Migo, which is a version of chat GPT built into their website. It's only available in the States at the moment, but basically what it is is it's chat GPT, fine tuned to be a tutor for students, and I think that's definitely the way forward.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Yeah, that's it Okay.

Shannon Ahern:

And I think that's the way forward for us and the way we should be doing it in. He has a brilliant TED talk that's worth watching around AI and how it can change education for the better, and he talks about something called the two sigma problem, which is that students who receive private tutoring the impact that that has on them is so great that nothing that you do in the classroom can overcome that. You know you can do your best to be the best teacher in the world in the classroom, but the student who has the private tutoring at home the grinds as there is in Ireland a massive grinds culture that has such a significant impact on their learning And students who don't have that are kind of left behind and the statistics have shown that. So they basically have tried to give access to all students in their homes a private tutor in the form of an AI boss.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

So it's a way of levelling the playing field for motivated students. in a desk school, we'll say to say look at guys, you might be able to forge your grinds. Look at this, You can just go to your laptop and get specific help for you at the click of a button.

Shannon Ahern:

Absolutely Yeah.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Brilliant, Shannon. That sounds like a real positive change for education. So then, to bring us back a small bit and forward a small bit, you said, right, people need to hear about this. You said I'm going to give CPD ago so I can tell others about this, and Dublin West and yourself, Zita Robinson had seen you, Our Zita in Dublin West had seen you on Insta. She said, look, this is something we probably should get on now, straight away. The connection was made and you provided both post primary and primary teachers with help, and I actually attended the primary one myself. It was fantastic. What motivated you to do that?

Shannon Ahern:

Yeah, i suppose at heart I'm through and through, i'm a teacher and an educator, and this was something that I had learned about myself and had been using as an educator, and I think that really annoys me the most is when somebody from outside the classroom tries to come in and tell me how to do things as a teacher. So I think that if anybody was going to start talking about AI use and education and how to use it as a teacher, it should come from a teacher, so I jumped at that opportunity immediately and a practicing teacher, so you're not only talking the talk, but every day you're walking the walk in a classroom.

Shannon Ahern:

Exactly, yeah, and I was finding different uses for it in different ways, and that's only through me bringing it to the classroom or bringing it to my planning and prep sessions and saying, ok, what can I get it to do today, and I felt that that was worth sharing. I was sharing bits of it on Instagram anyway, but a webinar would be a much more kind of structured way of sharing that information that people could come to and get from start to finish. What does it look like? What's the, the interface, what's the website? I have to go on to all the way through to how do I get it to produce worksheets for a documentary that we're watching that day. And it was a really nice way for me to communicate all of those ideas to teachers who were interested and wanted to kind of level up their technology skills.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

And it's amazing, the interest, the uptake was through the roof for us for those sessions, because there is a huge interest out there And I think by being ahead of the curve, making the message positive, keeping people informed, will improve not only the success of teachers but ultimately the success of students, which is what we're all about, And thank you very much for that. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions now that are in the realm of the imaginative. If you were in possession of a magic wand and you could make one change to Irish education any change at all you're the boss. One change, what is it?

Shannon Ahern:

Thought about this for a while and it's something that has come in and out of my head over the last few years that I've been teaching and it's not going to be a popular one with teachers, but it's the structure of the school year for me.

Shannon Ahern:

I find that June, july, august is really really long and my school days are really really long, and then I have to come home and correct in the evening or plan for the next day, or sometimes I have to stay late after school to prepare the lab, and I would love to see the school day become shorter and the summer just we take the school year into the summer a little bit to make up for that time.

Shannon Ahern:

I think that would be my dream where I could finish still finish at four o'clock, but say from one o'clock to four o'clock I can do my teacher prep stuff, be finished at four o'clock, walk home and really enjoy my home time and then have the really long summer that we all find long We do. many of my teacher friends ends up doing other bits during the summer to keep busy, and I know it's the same with students. they'd rather be seeing their friends during the summer as well. So I think that. yeah, the structure of the school year is something that's always bothered me a little bit, but I'm working so late, four o'clock, and then have to do all the extra bits. If I could finish that one, do all the extra bits to four and shorten the summer a little bit, i think that I'd be a lot happier for during the school year anyway and much less tired.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Yeah you do think outside the box. With the same magic wand. if you could make one change to the practice of teachers, what would it be?

Shannon Ahern:

I think I would like to see teachers for their own sake as well as the students, become less exam focused and focus on the holistic development of students and remember for me, what I'm constantly reminded of is that, look, our job is to prepare them not just for an exam here, but for their role in society and the world when they leave school, and I would really like to see teacher attitudes change away from that. Obviously, we all want our students to succeed academically, but our job is so much more than that and I think, especially in secondary school, we forget that at times and I think if some way I could change teacher attitudes and the discussion around teachers away from exam results all the time towards well, did your students leave happy after school that day, or did they leave with a new skill or a new passion for something that they hadn't had before? If that's how we could value ourselves and the career and measure the success of students that's. I'd love to see that happen.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Yeah, i actually heard a colleague describe that as the importance of preparation for life internally, that they would realise there are certain skills will make you content in life that have nothing to do with the academics as such, even though it's through the academics we can learn them. But you know controlling the things you can control and letting go of the things you can't. You know all those important parts of stoicism or spirituality that prepare us for a more content and fulfilled life. But I suppose the problem in Ireland is the leaving search hangs over everything and we often get visitors into the centre from other countries teachers, inspectors, principals, education officials from other countries and you try to impress on them how big a thing the leaving search is and how it overshadows our entire system Right down to primary. You know the leaving sort of affects how we do things in primary. You know, make no mistake about it. But yeah, i would agree with you totally, Shannon, absolutely. One last one with the magic wand Now, if you could change one thing about education centres, what would you change?

Shannon Ahern:

I rather like how it is at the moment. I do like the online aspect of it, but I actually would like more in person workshops. I really loved that whenever I'd go to a teacher in person CPD days. You know you might have a great CPD session in front of you, but it's the connection with other teachers that I loved the most and the chats in between the talks. I found that so valuable. Or even if the CPD session itself brings up some ideas and you turn to the teacher beside you and you say, oh, do you know it'd be great. And then it kind of you know it spirals off into its whole own idea. So that's bringing back more of those now. I'd love that myself.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Music to my ears, Shannon. Music to my ears. If you put the thinking cap on again now. What advice would you give to educators who are listening about the ever-evolving world of AI? so you know, i'm a teacher now. I've heard about AI. I know this chat Gpt exists. The kids are talking about it. I have a funny feeling. Some of the stuff they sent me in might have been, you know, ai generated. Where am I going to go? what am I going to do? what advice do you have for me, shannon?

Shannon Ahern:

There is AI checkers online, but what's coming out in the research now is actually that when you feed things into an AI checker, yes, it'll identify AI written text for you or produced work, but what it's also flagging as AI is, say, a student who English isn't their first language and they're producing a piece of work for you, so now theirs is flagging up as all computer generated. Or a student that maybe doesn't have the same reading level as the rest of the group, that would come up as flagged as AI. So we have to be mindful of those students as well when we're checking for AI generated texts. But I think it has to be preventative the discussion around the use of AI. Be open with your students about it. This tool exists. You're allowed to use it for this. You're not allowed to use it for that And keep hammering home. If I give you homework, it's for this purpose.

Shannon Ahern:

You can use AI checkers, but I think at that point it's too late, and even at that now, with things like chat tbt for which is the next level of chat tbt, it bypasses a lot of those.

Shannon Ahern:

The way that it's writing and generating text is not being picked up by the AI detectors, and so I think we have to be very careful with that, and my kind of philosophy on it would be it should be a preventative discussion before they ever get to kind of the stage where they're considering using it for homework, and I think that it should be a discussion within schools around what is appropriate use and what's not appropriate. I think we're going to see a lot of schools come up with AI policies now or a section of it within their technology policies. It's going to have to happen, but I would ultimately like to see us move in the direction where we're teaching students how to use AI effectively, because ultimately, they're going out into a society where AI is going to dominate and it's going to be taking a lot of jobs in the not so distant future And they're going to have to work alongside it, and the sooner we can teach them about what it is and how to use it, the better, in my opinion.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

OK, so this autumn you're doing some CPD for us in Dublin West. Can you tell us a little about what you're doing? What's an offer? Will there be resources? Will it come away with tools that I can put into operation straight away?

Shannon Ahern:

So there's my introduction into chat gpt and AI, which would give kind of a foundational understanding of what it is, how it works, how it's doing what it's doing And a few tips around getting it to do different things, from word searches to worksheets to getting it to write poetry, all the kind of basics of chat GPT and what it can do. Then I've got some webinars coming up on maths specifically, so how I've been using it in the maths classroom to generate resources, how I've got it to make exams for me assessments, how to get it to make creative questions. So in maths now there's lots of questions around real world maths And what I like doing is giving chat GBT the real world maths question. That's a little bit dry, a little bit boring and asking it can you make this about the Barbie movie? Because that's going to be all the chat for the next while.

Shannon Ahern:

And then I'll have an exam question that students can try, but it's about something they're excited and talking about anyway, coming into class or Oppenheimer, another one that they could come in and have an exam paper question on, because then they're straight away kind of you've grabbed their interest, what's this about? I was just talking about it And now you've got an exam paper question on it. Some other features, then, is I've been getting it to code games for me. I've asked it to write the HTML code to do a maths game on my website. Most recently, i've got it to write the SVG code to create a picture and image for me, which I didn't even know was possible. So I'm constantly finding out new ways to use it And just it's simply coming from a place of I wonder if, and then asking it to write a piece of code for me and seeing where that.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

I'll definitely be tuning in, because most of what you said went right over my head And I'll definitely be tuning in. But I know for a fact that I will leave with a much better understanding of what I need to do to keep on top of this and keep keep that understanding, because if it's one thing we'd be sure of in teaching is you have to move the times. You forget on what's going on because you'll be left behind And you know what You'll be frustrated if you don't, whereas if you're ahead, that actually makes you happier in the long run because you know what's going on and you're not frustrated. So thank you so much for that. Before we finish up, i've a couple of little zingers for you, just quick ones. If you don't mind, start off with tea or coffee at break time, shannon.

Shannon Ahern:

Coffee all the way, definitely.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Strong or weak?

Shannon Ahern:

Strong.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Easter holidays or Christmas holidays.

Shannon Ahern:

I think I like Christmas. I do like Christmas and getting to see family and friends. And it's a little bit more involved Easter. You kind of go home and everyone goes their separate ways, but Christmas is a nice one for sure.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Blackboard or interactive whiteboard.

Shannon Ahern:

I don't have an interactive whiteboard, but I do have a little sketch tablet or an iPad that kind of connects to my laptop. That's my choice all the way every day, because I get to sit down facing the students, which is a huge plus, so there's no turning my back and having noises or things thrown facing the students all the time. That's the way forward for me, for sure.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

So before we finish up, Shannon, could you please give me three top tips for CPD? I'm a teacher I need to upscale. Can you tell me three things on which I should upscale?

Shannon Ahern:

So obviously I would be going down the AI route and looking at just even to see, is it something that interests you, is it something that you can add to your toolbox that will make your life a little bit easier? I think that everyone's going to be talking about it anyway. Just see, is it something for you? And if it is, then there's plenty of CPD courses on offer with Dublin West over the next few weeks. I also see some CPD around classroom management, which I think is something that we're, you know, having to retrain in really since COVID.

Shannon Ahern:

That was our first full year without any COVID restrictions in school and things going back to normal, as it were, but we're having to relearn all the skills that we got from our PME. The classroom management behaviour there's lots of positive ones there around helping students manage emotions. That piqued my interest And I suppose always a good idea is to look at teaching methodologies, because you do get stuck in kind of the same methods over and over again and you kind of get stuck in a rut. So just even going to a chat about that from another subject just to see how they do it, you might become inspired by an English teacher to bring something into the maths classroom, so I think it's never a bad idea to go to one

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

So AI, classroom management and teaching methodologies three very, very good ones. So, Shannon Ahern , it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you. As usual, i'm leaving your company feeling a bit more informed, definitely more positive, and looking forward to the next time I'm going to be listening to you. Shannon, go raibh mile maith agat.

Shannon Ahern:

Thank you very much.

Ultan Mac Mathúna:

Don't forget to like and subscribe, leave us a review and share it with colleagues and friends. Your feedback informs the show. You can follow us across our social media channels Instagram, twitter and Instagram. You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. If you have any thoughts on today's episode or suggestions for future topics, email Zita here at zrobinson@ dwec. ie. Oh, and don't forget to book that CPD dwec. ie. Thanks again. Have a great week. Slán Tamail.

Shannon Ahern:

Thank you.

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Ultan Mac Mathúna

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