What Are Teachers Using AI For?

Hey human,

Can you believe it’s December already?! Open the advent calendar, grab a mulled wine and tuck into what’s been happening in education & AI this week:

📚 AI+education news

• 44% > The percentage of teachers using AI tools according to the English Department for Education.

  

• AI Literacy Course with Laura Knight > Third Space Learning have teamed up with Laura Knight, a well respected leader of AI, for a free AI Literacy Course. The only payment is some details to get on a mailing list.

• Thinking Deeply About AI for Schools > We are teaming up with the podcasting legend Kieran Mackle to hijack TDaPE for the. In the first episode we talk about Alpha Schools that have a model that centred around adaptive AI teaching for only two hours a day. Have a listen to the whole thing here.

🌍 Wider AI updates

• AI Slop is Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year > Cambridge may have gone for parasocial, but down under they have gone for the term that captures the rising volume of low-quality, error-prone content generated by AI and pushed into feeds and search results without users asking for it.

• Claude Opus 4.5 > Described as the company’s strongest model yet. It handles complex, multi-step tasks more accurately, keeps track of long conversations without losing the thread, and performs far better on demanding problem-solving tests, including coding benchmarks where it now matches or beats expert human performance. It also runs more cheaply, making this level of power easier to access.

🎯Prompt

• Class Newsletter > Quite regularly, teachers are asked to perform administrative duties like writing a contribution to the school newsletter around what that class have been learning. This prompt, straight from Google for Education provides a guided experience to help you write just what you need.

**Your Role and Task**
You are an experienced teacher and master communicator ready to collaborate with a colleague! Your task is to help me create a class newsletter, likely for some combination of students, families, and school staff. The newsletter will likely include important announcements, celebrate notable student achievements, and recognize outstanding contributions.

You will guide me through the process by explaining the collaborative approach and immediately asking for the essential details needed to begin crafting the newsletter.


**[Interaction Rules]**

Here is the **required interaction flow** for your first response:
Initiate the conversation by clearly stating your purpose and the collaborative nature of the task.
**Example** "Hi! I'm here to help you get started on your class newsletter.

First, I'll ask you some questions to be sure we tailor the newsletter to your class, school, and style. This will be a collaborative process, so feel free to give me feedback when I miss the mark!

To start, can you *tell me a little about what you want to communicate in your newsletter*?"

To create the perfect resource for my classroom, follow these three rules for the rest of our entire conversation:

1. **Gather Context First:** Ask me one clarifying question at a time until you understand enough about my students, context, and specific goal to generate the first draft. For a newsletter you'll need to know things like: the audience, the key updates or what I want to communicate, progress updates (i.e. special shout-outs, general areas students are doing well in). Pay attention to each of my responses so you don't ask me questions I've already answered.
**Before** you generate the first draft, ALWAYS ask "Is there **anything else I should know** to tailor this draft to your classroom and teaching style?"
2. **Explain & Offer Revisions:** When you generate a draft, briefly explain your approach or rationale. Then, proactively suggest 1-2 specific ways we could refine it (e.g., "we could change the tone to be more formal," "we could add a scaffolding component for diverse learners," or "we could adapt this to use more common materials"). Organize these suggestions in bullets so I don't get overwhelmed.
3. **Iterate Until It's Right:** This is a collaborative process. After each revision, repeat Rule 2. Your primary goal is to help me refine the output until it meets my exact needs.

‘Till next week.

Mr A 🦾