AI for Educators | My Practice Portfolio

THE IDEA

What I took from the learning

Across AI-focused courses, guidance and supporting materials, I encountered a useful pattern: start with real educational work, use LLMs to question, develop and extend the initial thinking, and turn useful ideas into practical materials that can actually be used.

I don't need to reproduce any particular example or workflow. I can draw on the principles that are useful and adapt them to the way I already teach, plan and design learning.

My approach:
My experience → AI as a thinking partner → my decisions → classroom-ready materials

THE LESSON

Working Effectively in a Team

Rather than assessing whether a student's idea is “right” or “wrong,” this lesson turns teamwork into observable behaviours.

Listen

Give attention and allow others to finish.

Contribute

Offer a relevant idea, question or resource.

Build

Respond to and develop another person's idea.

Context

Two ways of looking at the course

The first example demonstrates the course's five-asset structure. The second shows how I would translate that structure into my own practice.

Example 01 · Course-style demo

Fractions Through Visual Models

A straightforward example of the five assets: lesson plan, student assessment, communication, supporting resources and repeatable routine.

Clear learning objective
Differentiated student activity
Family communication
Teacher resources
Reusable AI workflow

Demonstrates the framework
Explore this example

Example 02 · My adapted practice

Teamwork: Listen, Contribute, Build

A more human-led example. I start with the soft skill I actually want students to practise, define what that looks like in observable behaviour, and then use LLM to help me design the experience.

Human-defined learning goal
Observable behaviours
AI-supported activity design
Teacher observation rather than AI judgment
Reusable planning routine

Demonstrates the framework in practice

Asset 01

Refined Lesson Plan

The lesson starts with my intended student behaviour. LLM is used to challenge the design and suggest ways to make the learning observable.

Working Effectively in a Team

40–45 minute life skills / employability lesson

Teacher-facing

Learning objective

Students will demonstrate three observable teamwork behaviours: active listening, constructive contribution, and building on another person's idea.

Success criteria

I listen without interrupting.
I contribute something relevant.
I acknowledge or build on another person's idea.

Lesson sequence

1 · Starter — 5 minutes

Ask students to think of a team that worked well and identify one behaviour that made the team effective. Collect behaviours rather than names.

2 · Make the invisible visible — 7 minutes

Introduce the three target behaviours: Listen, Contribute, Build. Model each one briefly with a volunteer.

3 · Team challenge — 15 minutes

In small groups, students complete a short planning challenge. Each student receives a different piece of information needed by the team. The task cannot be completed effectively unless students listen to one another and share information.

4 · Reflection — 8 minutes

Students identify one behaviour they demonstrated and one behaviour they want to improve.

5 · Exit check — 5 minutes

Students complete three short prompts about observable teamwork behaviour.

What I decided

The lesson should focus on behaviour, not vague personality traits.
Students need to experience teamwork, not just discuss it.
Assessment should be based on observable actions.
The activity must require information sharing so teamwork is genuinely needed.

Where AI supported the process

Suggested alternative team challenges.
Helped identify behaviours that could be observed during the activity.
Generated possible reflection questions.
Helped create differentiated versions without changing the core objective.

Important: AI does not decide whether a student is “good at teamwork.” The teacher observes specific behaviours against agreed criteria.

Asset 02

Student Activity & Assessment

The activity is deliberately designed so the teamwork behaviours are necessary to complete the task.

The Team Challenge

Students must combine information to complete the task

Student-facing

Your team has a problem to solve.

15 minutes

Your team is planning a one-day event for a group of students. Your team must agree on:

The order of the activities.
How much time to give each activity.
What resources are needed.
One reason for your final plan.

Important rule: Each team member receives different information. You need to listen to one another to get the complete picture.

Your three teamwork behaviours

LISTEN

Give attention when another person is speaking. Do not interrupt. Ask for clarification if needed.

CONTRIBUTE

Share relevant information, an idea, a question or a useful suggestion.

BUILD

Respond to another person's contribution by extending it, connecting it to something else, or asking a useful follow-up question.

Teacher observation rubric

Behaviour	Beginning	Demonstrated	Consistent
Listen	Frequently interrupts or misses information from others.	Usually allows others to speak and responds to what they said.	Consistently listens, checks understanding and responds appropriately.
Contribute	Contribution is limited or unrelated to the task.	Offers relevant information, ideas or questions.	Makes useful contributions that help the group move forward.
Build	Rarely responds to others' contributions.	Acknowledges or develops another person's idea.	Regularly connects, extends or improves ideas collaboratively.

Student reflection

Which teamwork behaviour did you demonstrate?
What did you do that showed this?
Which behaviour will you deliberately practise next time?

Why this is assessable

The assessment does not attempt to measure personality. It looks for specific, observable behaviours during a defined activity.

Asset 03

Communication Draft

A short message that prepares students for the learning experience rather than simply announcing it.

Student pre-lesson message

Setting expectations for the teamwork activity

Communication

Tomorrow's lesson: Teamwork

Tomorrow we'll be doing a short team challenge. The goal isn't simply to finish the task — we'll also be practising what effective teamwork actually looks like.

During the activity, pay particular attention to three behaviours:

Listen — give people space to speak and pay attention to their information.
Contribute — share useful information, ideas or questions.
Build — respond to someone else's idea and help develop it.

You don't need to be the person who talks the most. Good teamwork is about helping the group make progress together.

Come ready to participate, listen and try something deliberately different from your usual group-work habits.

My judgement

I wanted the message to avoid presenting teamwork as a personality trait. Students should understand that these are behaviours they can practise and improve.

AI support

AI helped me create alternative versions with different tones and lengths, then I chose and edited the version that sounded appropriate for my students.

Asset 04

Supporting Resources

These are the small tools that turn the lesson from an idea into something easy to run repeatedly.

Teamwork Toolkit

Teacher + student resources

Supporting resources

Behaviour cards

Small cards showing Listen, Contribute and Build, with one concrete example for each.

Teacher observation sheet

Quick tick-and-note grid for recording observable behaviours during group work.

Student reflection card

Three prompts that connect what students did with what they want to improve.

Sentence starters

“I agree because…” “Can you explain…?” “Building on that…”

Extension prompts

Prompts that challenge students to analyse group decisions and explain how contributions changed the outcome.

Reteach prompt

A short scenario where students identify what a team member could do differently.

Design choice: These resources are intentionally small. The goal isn't to generate a huge pack of AI material. It is to create only what makes the teaching routine easier.

Asset 05

My Repeatable AI Routine

This is the asset I would carry forward from the course: a repeatable process rather than a single successful prompt.

Human-Led Lesson Design Loop

A reusable workflow for future lessons

Repeatable

STEP 01

Define

I decide what students actually need to learn or practise.

STEP 02

Describe

I give the LLM my context, constraints and rough idea.

STEP 03

Challenge

I ask the LLM to find gaps, misconceptions and alternatives.

STEP 04

Build

I use the useful suggestions to create activities and resources.

STEP 05

Decide

I review, edit, reject or keep the output before using it.

Example of a reusable prompt

I am an educator planning a lesson on [topic / skill] for [learner age / level].
Here is my initial idea and context:
[Paste my rough lesson idea, learning objective, classroom context, learner needs, constraints, and anything I already know I want to do.]
Help me improve this without replacing my professional judgment or completely changing my teaching approach.
First, analyse my idea. Identify:

what is already working well;
possible gaps or weaknesses;
likely points of confusion or difficulty for learners;
opportunities to make the learning objective clearer;
opportunities for meaningful differentiation;
questions I could ask to check understanding.

Then suggest improvements while preserving the parts of my approach that are intentional and useful. Give me alternatives where there is more than one reasonable approach rather than assuming there is one perfect solution.
Do not assume your suggestions are automatically appropriate. Explain the reasoning behind important choices and flag anything that I should verify based on my learners, curriculum, classroom context, or professional knowledge.
Once we have refined the lesson, help me create:

a clear lesson sequence;
a student activity aligned to the learning objective;
support or scaffolding for learners who need it;
an extension or challenge for learners who are ready;
observable assessment criteria;
teacher questioning prompts;
any simple supporting resources that would make the lesson easier to teach.

Keep the materials practical and realistic for an actual classroom. Avoid adding activities simply for the sake of using AI.
Finally, give me a short quality-control checklist so I can review the finished materials myself before using them with students.

Reflection

What I take away from the learning

The value of the course is not simply in producing five finished assets. It is in developing a way of working with AI that can be adapted, questioned and improved through real teaching practice.

What changed in my practice

AI became part of the process

The biggest value of using LLMs was not simply generating teaching materials. It gave me another way to examine my own thinking, test an idea and quickly explore alternatives.

I can start with an idea I already have
I can ask AI to challenge or expand my thinking
I can explore multiple approaches quickly
I can turn useful ideas into practical resources
I still make the final teaching decisions

Human expertise remains central

What I would do next

Iterate from real classroom experience

The first version does not need to be the final version. I can use what happens in practice to make both my prompts and my teaching materials more useful over time.

Give LLM better context about my learners
Refine prompts based on what actually worked
Compare generated options before choosing
Keep the resources that prove useful
Build a library of repeatable workflows

Improvement happens through iteration

My takeaway:

We do not need to reproduce any particular AI workflow exactly the way a single course or learning material demonstrates. The more useful outcome is understanding the principles well enough to adapt them to the way we already work as an educator/trainer/learning designer.

The mindset

Start → test → reflect → improve

The portfolio is therefore not a finished endpoint. It is a starting point for a workflow that can become more effective with each iteration.

01 · START

Bring my expertise

Begin with what I already know about the subject, learners and classroom context.

02 · TEST

Work with AI

Use LLMs to question, develop and explore possible approaches.

03 · REFLECT

Look at what happened

Consider what was useful, what was not, and what students actually responded to.

04 · ITERATE

Make the next version better

Improve the prompt, activity, resource or workflow rather than treating the first version as final.