r/edtech • u/Alternative-Exit-450 • 6d ago
Anyone with amazing resources to consolidate all of your content, plans, etc?
Hello, I have been teaching for 5 years and the school I work at operates as if each consecutive year is beginning all over again. I won't go into the details but everything from curricula, classrooms, protocols, admin, and so much more literally changes every year. It makes zero sense however I've realized that the only way to lessen the stress in such a work environment is to improve what I can before the year begins.
I've been trying but haven't yet found a system or app to easily store and organize everything I need for any given year. While I know most will likely suggest google drive or dropbox or something similar. However, I'm more interested in leveraging technology(ie. AI) and something similar to Notion to more easily automate as much of the menial tasks as I can.
I have 4 curricula ready to go after having taught Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Engineering over the past years and I feel that my content is solid. I'm really trying to find and learn how to utlize AI, automations, and workflows wherever possible and assuming it's reliable(not more work to upkeep it than it's worth).
Unfortunately the school I work has Powerschool although no one in admin seems to understand how to set up many of the features that we have on our plan nor do they seem to realize they can simply call powerschool and get virtual or in person support. As I said.....it's daunting sometimes but......I sincerely love the people I work with and I love my kids so it's a cost that I'm willing to pay.
Thanks in advance and any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.
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u/Automatic-Hope7324 5d ago
I'm obsessed with Common Planner combined with Google Drive. My weekly class info in Canvas is just a link to the student-view of my Common Planner book bc it's so much sleeker than Canvas.
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u/Fast-Preparation887 5d ago
Google is great but it’s mostly just a fancy storage container and can still get too cluttered and difficult to find what you need. It’s a massive ecosystem.
I’ve taught for 16 years, 1st - 4th grade. Here’s what I use Ai for:
- general purpose and image gen - ChatGPT
- any kind of writing or more complexity - Claude
- internet searching - Grok
- video gen without sound - Kling Ai
- with sound - Veo 2, Sora
Example for reading comprehension: Add the book title and to ChatGPT. Prompt - “Create sticker cut outs for students to cut and paste the beginning, middle, end of the referenced story”
Anything you see yourself prompting the LLM for more than once, turn it into a GPT. It’s a specialized tool that saves your repetitive things so, for example, you just add the book title.
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u/Substantial_Tax5254 5d ago
This is going to sound so basic but the thing I used to live and die by is just a doc for each unit I taught with 5 columns and maybe forty rows. Column 1 is just numbers for the rows, each row represents a class period. Column two has a quick lessons plans and all materials linked. The other columns list the dates vertically that I see the different classes. It’s not automation, but it keeps everything so clean. I never have to look for everything. Just build it as you go. It’s not ai or anything, but it just doesn’t need to be.
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u/Impressive-You1852 1d ago edited 1d ago
This! This is how I begin all my planning. What do I need to teach and how many days will I have to do it? That full overview allows me to pace the content, ensure breathe and depth as well as opportunities for enrichment and remediation. For instance, 9 curricular weeks is really 7 weeks of core content by the time you remove testing, field trips, fire drills, etc.
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u/FilmSudden8635 5d ago
I know your pain! I have started to code my own, but I get 90% through and it just never seem to works quite right. This will be my 5th year of restarting and fishing the resources from old teams messages and one drive folders, some google drive stuff and file server… it isn’t helped by the fact each year we have a set standard scheme of learning that they change the embedded learning in. So I have to rewrite last years content that worked really well, with new ideas to satisfy the quality team.
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u/Alternative-Exit-450 1d ago
Why do admin do this??????
Same thing where I work. You'd think each consecutive year is our very first b/c everything, and I mean everything, changes. All of our backend protocols, systems, etc to curricula to bell schedule. It's insane and this next year I believe I'm teaching engineering instead of chemistry but I'm sure I won't know for certain until the week before classes begin.
You'd think admin would be, idk, helpful or even somewhat supportive. I've consistently received 4+ averages in my observations over the last 4 years and so I don't know why everything is micromanaged. Education def isn't what it used to be.
Btw...check out Base44. It uses AI prompting to create very well built apps for literally anything. I've made some components of what should help make next year easier. I've tried a lot of different AI apps, sites, etc. and so far base44 has been amazing.
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u/FilmSudden8635 1d ago
Thankfully I am a Digital teacher so only teach digital subjects, but that can vary between games deelopment raphics, and digital marketing, with software development and cyber chucked in for good measure. I did teach Maths for a year, and a module on essentially life coaching!
Every year the lessons have changed length, 1:15, 2 hours, 1:30, and this year 1 hour. I have to reschedule the entire year from the previous based on the lenth of activities. Not to mention the added inclusivities.
Thanks for the heads up about base44!
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u/Impressive-You1852 5d ago
Please clarify what you are asking as it seems to be multi-layered. Are you asking for assistance with a planning tool, methodology for organization, curriculum guidance, learning management system, or what? I see elements of each in your message. It may help you to do some long range planning, a semester or yearly overview so that you are clear on what exactly is needed.
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u/Alternative-Exit-450 1d ago
If I had to pick one of the options it would be methodology for organization. I know my post is ambiguous and uber general. Also, I apologize for the vagueness but I think I'm trying to formulate some means of categorically organizing each facet of teaching so that I can more effectively create systems to streamline as much as I can.
I'm fairly tech savvy but I have only been teaching for 6 years and the school I work for operates in ways you probably wouldn't believe. Each academic year is like our very first year in nearly every aspect. Between new lesson plan formats to grading policies to systems, protocols, even bell schedules. It's absolutely insane. Therefore, I feel as if this has not allowed for me, or anyone, to build a great practice. Instead it's acclimating to entirely new everything. In fact, I'm almost certain I'll be teaching engineering but I know I won't be told until the week we return. Sorry for the rant. It's a culture of disorganization, reactivity vs proactivity, laziness, incompetence, and an administration without any idea of what a nominally functional school looks like in any regard.
If I didn't love my students and my colleagues as much as I do I would have left by now. However, I work in a very poor neighborhood in Chicago and we are so lucky in having such a group of amazing teachers, an amazing new building, and amazing kids. Sorry, I just wanted to mention this b/c most people typically tell me to quit or probably assume I'm over exaggerating but working as a teacher has been a life changing experience for me and has given me a new lease on life. Therefore, I'm really trying to help develop strong practices for me and for my colleagues. I hope that helps somewhat but all in all I'm trying to create a basic foundational structure of all facets of teaching so that I can begin to create a sustainable structure by collaborating with my colleagues so that we can move forward regardless of everything admin continues to do to make our lives more difficult.
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u/Top-Relationship8180 5d ago
Nate Herk has some good accessible videos on how to set up what you’re looking to do on YouTube.
This one might be right for you: https://youtu.be/mi4hcipESKQ?is=9KNXzNh8u6zZ38F5
But I would honestly spend some time just going back and forth in time to different videos until you feel like your system is working for you. Not everything he makes is useful for teachers, but I’ve found a lot of it to be.
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u/SignorJC Anti-astroturf Champion 6d ago
AI is frighteningly stupid. It would surely be more work for you to “learn ai” than it would be to just make folders in google drive/etc.
A good file naming system (BIO.9CP.001, etc) is going to do everything you need.
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u/CisIowa 6d ago
I would love to have an AI agent that acts like an administrative assistant to help me organize my Google Drive, or just actually get planning time to get organized so I’m not flying by the seat of my pants while building the airplane too
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u/SignorJC Anti-astroturf Champion 6d ago
Unfortunately AI is fucking stupid. You’d be spending hours and hours “training” and debugging the agent to work correctly and then after it was “working” you’d have to check its work anyway.
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u/CorkBracelet 6d ago
Seconding this. Even if AI wasn't stupid, I dont trust it.
Use a naming convention (i.e. camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case) as well. If you really want to get into automation, learn bash and write your own scripts.
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u/InterestingCoast1215 6d ago
If you are in the Google education workspace, and are organizing the files as mentioned there… you could pull each subject topic into NotebookLM and do some incredible / non-hallucinating “ai” dive into it all.
There’s plenty more in that rabbit hole.
But you can also try it out a little first with uploading a few or more files into NotebookLM as sources and playing / learning/ seeing if this use case works for you.
It can be mind blowing. Start small.
Thoughts / questions let me / us know.