Blog #4 Magic School

I.

This lesson plan from Magic School seems very well aligned with the ISTE standard 1,7b for Global Collaborator: sharing multiple viewpoints through technology. Although my lesson plan did not involve the use of technology, it does involve teams and groups of students discussing multiple viewpoints of the story they have just read, and I hope to select an online tool to help make this meet that ISTE standard, perhaps Imagination Forest will work.  The Oklahoma standard 4.1s2 is met as students discuss their ideas about the story in diverse groups or teams.

The lesson plan is very detailed about how each aspect of the lesson will meet the standards that I typed into the generator feature. It is broken into sections and labeled appropriately. The lesson offers great discussion starters for sharing that leads to critical thinking.  I especially liked the extension lesson of having the students collaboratively write a new ending to the story so they can dig into their own imagination and creativity. It is a nice layout for the lesson that emphasizes the important aspects of guiding the students through a learning experience.

It is a very typical lesson plan and seems to need an upgrade with technology.  However, students of any age, never get tired of a good story. So choosing great stories, the right length, will be important.

II.

I interacted with several tools at Magic School because it was really fun. I use the text to image feature that allows AI to generate a picture of my words. I realized you cannot use feelings in your writing or it does not convey in the image. I was also able to add images to fill in the picture and it looked very cheesy. Overall, I was very disappointed in the quality of the AI pictures. They reminded me of the odd van that used to park on the side of the road an sell neon-velvet pictures of unicorns and fantasy lady warriors–painted black velvet.  I wasted too much time on the syllabus generator to see if it would work. It was meh.  The most impressive tool I used was the song generator. I used the plot line of William Shadespeare’s Loves Labours Lost to be adapted as song lyrics to the tune of Don McLean’s “The Day the music Died.” I should have probably selected a tragedy like Romeo and Juliet instead. It turned out great and I could really see using this with middle school, up to high school students. They could do what I did and set stories to music and share it with their classroom community and the online community. It was very fun. Here it is:

Love's Labour’s Found

A long, long time ago, in a play by Shakespeare,
There was a tale of love and wit, so sincere,
The King of Navarre and his lords made a vow,
To study and fast, no women allowed.

But then they met the Princess and her ladies fair,
Their hearts were captured, love was in the air,
Berowne, Longaville, Dumaine, and Ferdinand,
Fell for Rosaline, Maria, Katherine, and the Princess so grand.

Mistaken identities, letters gone astray,
Hilarious confusion in a comedic way,
The play within a play, full of wit and charm,
Love's labours found, in each other's arms.

But all is not lost, for in the end they see,
Love conquers all, it's meant to be,
The lords and ladies, united at last,
In Shakespeare's comedy, a love story so vast.

So here we sing of Love's Labours Found,
Where hearts are won and true love abounds,
In Shakespeare's play, a timeless delight,
Love's labours found, shining bright tonight.

III.

I would definitely use Magic School again for many things.  I loved the song feature for students and the lesson plan generator for me. I would like to explore it some more. The syllabus feature was essentially exactly what  I typed in so that did not add anything for me. I think this could take a load off the teacher for sure. The first lesson plan I made before the one I included in this paper was for 9th grade about how to write a thesis. It was a fabulous plan and  I would use it in a heartbeat. I did one about commas too.  It was fabulous. I will always use this site.

https://app.magicschool.ai/tools/lesson-plan-generator?share=0f28bb29-e1a7-4274-a209-41201e273e93

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Resources

ISTE Standards for Students (2017). Retrieved from: https://www.iste.org/standards/for-      students 

Oklahoma Academic Standards / Oklahoma State Department of Education. (n.d.).
        Oklahoma State Department of Education.https://sde.ok.gov/oklahoma-academic-standards