Christina Nu帽ez, an education technology resource teacher who works with new teachers in the Albuquerque public schools in New Mexico, can鈥檛 provide one-on-one help to all of the 300-plus newbies who join the district every year.
So, she found a way to offer what might be the next best thing: A chatbot that can answer many questions for new teachers and their mentors about topics like classroom management, lesson planning, and differentiating instruction.
Nu帽ez, who created the bot as part of a program for innovative 糖心动漫vlog at Google, started by surveying new teachers on their greatest needs. An AI tool鈥擟hipAI鈥攈elped her group their responses into seven big categories: curriculum, resources, differentiation, time, management, engagement, and relationships.
Nu帽ez wanted to offer new teachers and their mentors information that would go beyond what they鈥檇 get from a basic internet search. In addition to guidance the district created for all mentor teachers, she directed the bot to draw from resources specific to Albuquerque, including the district鈥檚 lesson plan template, curricular materials, and policies.
Developing the bot wasn鈥檛 as easy as Nu帽ez expected. 鈥淚 thought I could build the bot in one weekend with a good prompt and a pile of documents,鈥� Nu帽ez wrote in a visual presentation of her work for ISTE+ASCD鈥檚 annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, this summer. 鈥淪poiler alert: I couldn鈥檛.鈥�
The AI 鈥渉allucinated wildly, misunderstood everything,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淚 had the data. I had the dream. But no idea what I was doing. The more I asked AI to help, the more it led me in circles.鈥�
Nu帽ez鈥檚 program at Google paired her with a technology mentor, who helped fix the bot鈥檚 trouble spots.
Finally, last winter, after months of work, the bot went live to 400 teachers, mostly in her school district, where it is now responding to a range of teachers鈥� queries.
Nu帽ez shared this example of a teacher interacting with the bot:
Teacher: 鈥淗ey, I have a group of boys who continue to get up during class and when I tell them to sit down, they just laugh.鈥�
Chatbot: 鈥淒ealing with students who are not following instructions can be challenging but there are some strategies you can use to address this behavior effectively.鈥�
The bot went on to suggest that the teacher establish clear expectations, use positive reinforcement, and implement restorative practices, with additional information about all those methods.
Chatbot technology is evolving fast and making its way into K-12 schools
Chatbots like Albuquerque鈥檚 need to be developed carefully, said Torrey Trust, a professor of learning technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
鈥淭here鈥檚 really high chance that they make stuff up or have biased results, but if you put the work in behind the scenes to address some of that, I think they can be helpful,鈥� she said.
The chatbot can鈥檛 replace a real-life mentor, Nu帽ez emphasized. But teachers and mentors appear to find it useful. Albuquerque鈥檚 bot has been used nearly 5,000 times since its debut last winter, Nu帽ez said.
She鈥檚 also just rolled out a second bot to help field any teacher鈥檚 questions about curriculum materials. For instance, teachers could share classroom activities they鈥檝e created on their own or materials they got off a site like Teachers Pay Teachers and ask the bot to gauge whether they meet Albuquerque鈥檚 quality standards.
Now, Nu帽ez is working on a bot for instructional coaches. She鈥檚 uploaded some of her favorite coaching resources鈥攊ncluding The Art of Coaching, a book about coaching teachers by Elena Aguilar鈥攁nd is training the bot to offer coaches feedback on their strategies or offer ideas for dealing with difficult situations, such as a teacher who doesn鈥檛 take criticism well.
Changes in popular large language models鈥攍ike the option to create custom GPT鈥檚 in ChatGPT or 鈥済ems鈥� in Google鈥檚 Gemini鈥攈ave made bots easier to develop now than a year ago, when Nu帽ez created the tool aimed at new teachers and their mentors, she said.
