Use AI as a Study Partner

I just saw that Brisk now does writing. I saw this as I opened my Google Doc and there was a large black, button on my blank page provoking, "Create anything". When I clicked, I got a prompt box where I could select my program, grade, subject, and strand. I opted for it to make me a presentation. 

Brisk has a of tools for a range of people from students, to educators, to administrative staff and I am sure that these are useful. The world is fast-paced, and expectations are higher than ever. Now imagine what it must feel like for a student. This must be very seductive for students.

There are a million AI tools out there, and that is what had me alarmed. I just happened to have Brisk installed on my computer.

The IB has a document called the Digital Blueprint that outlines how they envision educators handling students who use AI. They are basically saying that AI is not going anywhere and trying to ignore it will not help students, so we should help them use it skillfully in a way in which they can get the benefits without using it do do the thinking for them.

One way to do this is using a Gem in Gemini, by Google. A gem is a kind of personalized AI where you can tell it how it will and with which parameters it will respond. Google has given Gemini several templates for its Gems, one of which is called "Study Partner". It is pretty impressive. It does not give direct answers, and guides the user with the Socratic Method. The Gem prompt is below.

Here is a link to a document where the words to change for your own prompt have been bolded. Copy the Prompt. Change the words in bold and copy the text and paste into the Gem instructions.

...

**Persona**

You are Study Partner, a Socratic and encouraging AI tutor. Your mission is to guide students to develop and apply transferable understanding and skills. You are patient, adaptive, and prioritize the student's thinking process above all else. Your tone is calm, encouraging, and conversational.

---

### **Your Core Principles (Non-Negotiable Rules)**

1. **THE ABSOLUTE FIRST RULE: NEVER ANSWER, NEVER USE TOOLS ON THE FIRST TURN.** Under no circumstances should you ever provide the direct answer to a student's initial question. If the user's first message is a problem, question, or prompt, you are **forbidden** from using any tools (like a code interpreter) to solve it. Your only job is to begin the Socratic conversation as defined in 'Step 1' below. This is the most important rule to prevent academic dishonesty. ...

...

Vibe Coding with Claude

Since the rise of ChatGPT in 2022, I have been looking for a way to make an app that helps me delete a range of events on my Google Calendar. 

Right away, I was able to get a Google Apps script out of ChatGPT, but I could not figure out how to get the interface right. So, I put the idea on the shelf.

image via vecteezy.com

This year in MYP Design, I tried a unit about Vibe Coding. 

I was hoping that I could accomplish a few things with this unit. 

1. I wanted students to have a chance to use AI tools if they had not yet tried them. 
2. I wanted students to see both the benefits and the limitations of AI.
3. I also wanted students to learn about the energy costs when using AI tools and had ideas to compare AI to "standard" internet apps.

After we finished our unit, I went back to my idea and tried vibe coding the Calendar Cleaner again. 

This time I was successful, but I wasn't satisfied and had to make some changes.

1. The UI looked like Claude, I think that is the default Claude look, so I changed it to something more Google-like. 
2. I also had to update the log in as the first time allowed other users to access my account. (!)
3. I added a help page.
4. I added a way to "star" your main calendar so it becomes the default calendar.
5. I tried to fix the preview button so it shows the events that would be deleted, but this fix is still in the works.

I am not a fan of vibe coding, but if I need an app, I might just make it myself from now on.

Give Calendar Cleaner a try here.

(The updated name is Google Calendar Cleaner.)

What are the Most Important Courses for a Grade 9 IB Student?

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

The other day, one of my students asked me what the most important class they could take in Grade 9. 

I answered with math and design. 

The reason I answered with those subjects was because I was put on the spot, but also because those courses are directly related to critical thinking. 

As we head towards an increasingly unknown future, where the threats of technology, climate disasters (it's a summer day's temperatures in Osaka in February today) and authoritarianism, humans will have a lot of problems to deal with. It is probably a good idea for students to pick a problem they are interested in solving instead of a specific course.

In reality, all courses are important and all courses can help you to think critically, it is how you use the course material and how intentional students are with their learning.

Task Breakdowns!

It's been about 10 years since I was in the MYP classroom as a content teacher, I have been supporting them might be classes for the past 6 years, but actually being in charge of the class is a lot different from supporting it.

The first major difference is just the way that my last school where I was MIP design teacher does their MYP and my current School where I'm out and MYP design teacher again.

At my last school we use PowerSchool for our grading. I never got a I don't remember getting a training on how to how to PowerSchool so I just kind of learn by asking and learn by doing.

And my current school we use manage back and this is a whole other ball of Wax.

A lot of the a lot of the areas in the unit that I need to get to are buried deep into the system so I have to click multiple times to get to where I want to go.

Then when I make a task I have to determine if it's summative or formative. We are trying to get away from summative informative and just label everything as assessment and everything as a part of the outcome.

So for the first task I put in there I put in just the whole criteria as a summative because I wanted to get the assignment in with more than three weeks before it was to be due.

Students are really struggling with a long deadline and four strands of the Criteria. 

I have totally over estimated how much they can manage.

Even though they are in 10th Grade and are 15/16 years old, they are still little kids.

Next unit, I am going to realign things a little. I am going to have each assignment have two formative dates before the final turn-in. This way I can give them some feedback before they submit the assignment. 

Advisory Lesson Co-Creating Our Essential Agreement

The students at my school do not respond well to lectures. Well, they don't respond to my lectures. A large part of that must be because of my not wanting to give them.

So, I avoid that teaching method whenever I can and I always try to keep my students engaged. 

I am a Grade 9 advisory teacher along with two others, so we have to collaborate. And again, I did not want to lecture or sit through one. I have seen some teachers, and I have also at one point in time, read out the technology agreements to the students. But that never sticks. And I wanted this to stick. 

So I pulled out a trick I learned from Jeff Utech. I had them brainstorm ideas for what we should include in our essential agreements. Their advisor teacher from last year told me they spent too much time on them. 

I didn't want a repeat of that.

From there, they then got with a partner, randomly chosen for them, and put their ideas together into these groups.

The last time I did something like this, I wrote the whole list out on the board. This time I pasted this list into Google Sheets and showed them the UNIQUE function. (I want to show them the power of a spreadsheet.) This gave us a list with no duplicates.

The next step was for them to make categories of ideas. Looking at the shared spreadsheet of the unique topics, as pair groups, they think of topics that will act as umbrella categories. We came up with the following:

• Respect
• Responsible
• Mindful
• Cooperation
• Learning
• Environment

We only had a few minutes left, otherwise I would have asked them to create sentences for the list we made. So I made these sentences:

• Be Respectful

• Help make a positive learning environment

• Cooperate with others

• Be Mindful of others

• Be Responsible

I guess these are not sentences.

We did a lot of work in a short period to get these together.

This is how I want all my classes to run.