Inclusive Questioning

Last week I subbed in the Grade 7 Math class. While I was going through a few problems, I made the mistake of asking a question of the entire class. 

Why was it a mistake?

Callahan, Samantha. preschoollearning1.jpg. 2013. Pics4Learning. 2 Jun 2025

When I was asking the students the questions, one student kept answering them. He was answering correctly, which was impressive, but what were the other 24 students doing while this was happening?

After this lesson, I started thinking back about how I used to handle this kind of situation when I was in the classroom full time. 

I thought that grouping students and having them talk within their groups would be good. Then I could call on a group and they would tell the class what they answered. Another way could be to pair students up and have them "turn and talk", but the issue here is time. 

What are the other students doing while a few are active?

Then today on my way home I heard this podcast that talked about how to make discussions better. Give it a listen.

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[Math Chat] 149: Common Mistakes That Shut Down Math Discussions (And What to Do Instead) #mathChat
https://podcastaddict.com/math-chat/episode/199233095 via @PodcastAddict

The Beginning of a Blog Post from 10 Years Ago

Many people say learning is messy. While I do not disagree with that statement, I do disagree with its wording. "Messy" is too simplistic. Rather, I believe learning is complex. Looking at the surface does not always reveal the undercurrents of thoughts.

It is the same reason why "popping into" a classroom can lead to a false conclusion.

In my classroom I foster a dynamic community to f learners who are able to learn from each other through the connections they make to their experiences.

I believe connections to prior knowledge to be essential to learning and take a constructivist approach to the way learning experiences are constructed in my classroom.

Student learning does not flow linearly and will often move beyond the teachers expectations so we must be flexible and prepared to move with the flow of understanding.

Teaching a Blended Classroom - Midpoint Reflection

Yesterday I had the opportunity to substitute I in the class for which I made the blended math lessons.

It was only the third lesson I have been involved with during this unit. 

I started going through the anchor problem and one student answered my questions. What I should have done instead was to group the students and have them work out the problems in the group.

I was able to sit with a few students to have them explain how they think through the problems. This included one who didn't have any quizzes completed.

I forgot to record the lesson so I could give them a summary, but the lesson is on video anyway.

I noticed a few things in this lesson: 

• students need to be taught early to allow other students a chance to answer

• teachers need to be intentional about grouping

• I need to update the pacing guide to show pass/try again instead of simply "done".

One other thing to note is that students need to understand that they are taking responsibility for their learning. This means they need to work to really understand what they are learning.

When I was reflecting with the math teacher, she suggested that students should be asked to do all the assignments posted.

I like that idea, but I am not sure that is teaching them to think about what they need for themselves. I wonder if another way would be to do more tests along the way. I would make the tests "redo-able" (maybe this would be less awkward if I wrote "I would allow students to retake tests"). I would like to allow students to try to recognize what they need help with.

AI: Environmental and Humanizing

I wasn't sure how to title this post. Maybe I should do what I used to do when blogging - write the post then titling it. But, Blogger will save the post title as it is and doesn't change it after the title is changed. 

Confused?

We are finally getting started talking about AI at our school. 

Yesterday we were talking about politeness, and I shared two main points. The first was how being polite to AI can actually be harmful to the environment. When we start thinking about being polite to AI, we're humanizing it in ways that might not be helpful. These are two points I think we should at least raise with students when teaching them about AI.

On the environmental side, I didn’t have the exact data with me last night, but I’ve read stories about how much water is used per AI search or prompt. I’ve noticed that I sometimes type “thank you” at the end of a prompt, and then the AI responds with something like, “You’re welcome! Come back if you need anything!” It’s nice—but those extra, polite responses from the AI actually add to its environmental footprint. That politeness might be better embedded within the prompt itself, not tacked on at the end.

The more concerning issue, though, is humanizing AI. I've read about how people are starting to fall into the trap of thinking AI is communicating with them personally. I’m all for teaching students to be polite—it’s good writing practice, and a good habit in general—but if we encourage them to be polite to AI, we need to be very clear why we're doing it. We also need to teach them that AI isn’t alive. Just because a hammer doesn't talk back when you use it properly doesn’t mean it's “happy”—it's just giving feedback based on your action. AI is kind of the same: it responds, but that doesn’t mean it’s feeling anything.

These conversations among teachers are important. The more we talk about these issues, the better prepared we’ll be when they come up with students. Hopefully, students will feel comfortable enough to share how they’re using AI, what they’re using it for, and why. My concern is that they’ll feel the need to hide their usage instead, and that’s when the real risks start—when they’re exploring these tools without guidance.

That’s why it’s so important to bring up these topics. We need to help students understand the various costs of AI—environmental, cognitive, academic, and even social. Every tool has trade-offs. I don’t think we can use AI without some cost. So our job is to help students become aware, to look at the bigger picture, and to consider multiple perspectives.

In a way, it's like playing chess. If you're locked into getting a particular piece or following a single path, you miss the bigger strategy. The same goes for AI—if we're only thinking about the tool in one way, we're not really thinking critically about how it's shaping our thinking and communication.

Here are a few articles related to what I am talking about.

• https://www.greenmatters.com/technology/cost-of-saying-thank-you-to-ai
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/politeness-vs-planet-surprising-cost-thanking-chatgpt-techverx-sjlge/
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-new-discontents/202403/dont-be-fooled-by-ai

Filter Multiple Google Forms to a Single Sheet - Update Main Sheet as "Done"

Part of my goal in this Geometry unit was to collect more data on the students and ease the teacher load at the same time by automating the grading. 

I naturally thought of Google Forms.

We are two weeks into this unit, and (among other issues) I have a progress tracker that should show the teacher where students are and show the students where to pick up from.

I had this sheet with dropdowns that I could select to see where students were at. The problem was that:

• It doesn't show the score,
• It wasn't automatic.

With a little ChatGPT work, I got a formula using the FLATTEN formula. 

=IF(COUNTIF(FLATTEN('Lesson 4 Lesson Snap'!A:AC), A3), "Done", "")

This now gives me something that can automatically mark when students complete a lesson. I still have to go in to see what issues students have and where they need help.

Chat prompt and response