Our final Teacher Spotlight of 2023/24 is Becky Fenton-Ree! Becky is a part-time Language and Communications teacher working with Deaf teenagers whose preferred method of communication is British Sign Language. She’s also a part-time interpreter and she’s been a TeachMateAI member for 8 months.
How long have you been teaching and what’s your favourite part about being a teacher?
I’ve been teaching for about 25 years in various roles including a substitute teacher in LA, a senior lecturer at university and now I am teaching at a SEND school. This has to be my favourite teaching role because my students make me laugh every day. They are so witty and have a great sense of humour. Deaf culture and humour is very unique and it’s a real privilege to be part of their community.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve found about using AI in your teaching?
It allows me to think outside of the box for resource-making. I have a Master’s degree in materials development for language teaching and it can be very easy to get stuck into the “same old same old”. AI gives me a different perspective on activities and resources that can be used to aid my teaching.
Were you apprehensive about using AI in your teaching?
Yes – my main thought was that it wasn’t going to generate anything useful because we work with such a bespoke and specialist set of learners. I thought I would spend £6, use it for one month and then cancel the subscription – but I’ve been using it for 8 months now! It’s £6 a month, basically the price of a posh coffee so what’s not to like?
What challenges have you faced so far with using AI in your teaching?
The main challenge has been trying to find the right tools that align with the functional skills criteria. Another is trying to match my Deaf teenagers’ literacy levels to the right year group. As AI resources are very text-heavy, I have to spend time modifying the outputs and making them more visual.
What’s your favourite tool (or tools!) and why?
I love the YouTube Ingest tool. We’ve been developing their world knowledge especially as we have a lot of international students. I chose to the ‘History of Cadbury’s’ and ‘Why is the London skyline so unusual?’. I translate the clip into BSL (so they have it in their first/preferred language) and then I can utilise the transcript option so the student can read it in their second language (English) and this helps to bridge their learning. Then, I can modify the text (e.g. add Widgits) and/or generate a set of questions based on the video. It’s saved me a lot of time.
I also love Concept Explainer. Often students ask me questions and I use it to help me answer them. For example, I recently explained the use of insulin at Year 5 level to year Y11s. I also love Comprehension Question Generator. I like how it asks whether I want inference or retrieval etc so I can support the gaps in students’ learning.
If technology had no limits, what AI teaching tool would you design and why?
When you do a model text generator, I would love for it to be able to not only generate text but generate a letter, or a poster or an advert. Within our functional skills curriculum, our students have to read and get information from adverts so this would be incredibly useful.