Mary Howard is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and teaches 6th grade ELA and Science in Grand Island, New York. She has found success using digital tools that not only make learning fun for her students, but encourage critical thinking, collaboration, and create a life-long passion for learning. Whether the digital experience is related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics or promotes literacy, Mary believes passionately in the potential that technology has for reaching and engaging ALL learners. In pursuit of this passion, Mary has spent the past 15 years presenting at dozens of technology conferences including NYSCATE, STANYS and, ISTE among others. She has become a globally recognized speaker on the topics of augmented reality and virtual reality and the Next Generation Science Standards and shares her strategies through her blog, yoursmarticles.com. She has published numerous educational technology articles and has provided webinars on Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality, 3D Design, QR codes and digital engagement strategies. Mary’s accolades include recognition as the 2018 International Society for Technology in Education’s Virtual Pioneer of the Year and 3 Silver Presidential Volunteer Service awards. She was a New York State Teacher of the year finalist for 2018 and 2020 and is a New York State Master Teacher. When Mary isn’t elbows deep in her technology initiatives, she is a mother of 3 boys and devotes her free time to refereeing youth hockey and volunteering within the hockey community. She is an avid runner, Adirondack 46er and recently cycled across New York State on the Erie Canal. Mary is a newly published author with her new release, Artificial Intelligence to Streamline Your Teacher Life: The ChatGPT Guide for Educators.
Key Takeaways:
- AI is a tool that will help give teachers more time, reduce burnout, and improve teaching.
- Technology is about amplifying teachers' ability to reach all students.
- Reluctance to integrate technology doesn't come from a place of fear rather a place of this is, "one more thing".
- The more we streamline teachers' everyday tasks, the more we can get them in front of students and spending more quality time facilitating student learning.
- ChatGPT still needs to be checked once the product is finished.
- We need to make sure we follow age and privacy concerns because ChatGPT is collecting data on the users.
- Education still has to focus on thinking rather than retrieval of information. This will help the integration of ChatGPT as a useful tool rather than a tool used to get good grades.
- The perfect classroom still has a teacher who is helping guide rich discussions through the Socratic method and collaboration with AI helping streamline that in the background.
- Leaders need to celebrate every little success individuals have to continually build positivity.
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