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Almanack – A Powerful AI Teaching Assistant Educational Technology

by Med Kharbach, PhD

Educators Technology

Nov 10, 2024

In Almanack – A Powerful AI Teaching Assistant, Med Kharbach explores how the AI-powered platform Almanack can significantly enhance teaching efficiency by helping educators generate lesson materials, organize resources, and streamline administrative tasks. Almanack offers a robust suite of AI tools to simplify lesson planning, create customized resources, and support differentiated learning, making it a valuable asset for teachers at all grade levels.

At its core, Almanack functions around creating courses and lessons. Educators can start by setting up a course (e.g., History or Science) and adding units and lessons to it. Each lesson contains elements such as lesson plans, learning objectives, and curriculum standards, which can be populated with resources like videos, slides, worksheets, and interactive activities. Teachers can select from a variety of resource types, including curated YouTube videos, PDFs, and slideshows, to enrich the learning experience.

One of Almanack’s standout features is its AI-generated resources. With a few clicks, teachers can create a range of instructional materials tailored to the content of each lesson. For example, teachers can use Almanack to generate quizzes, study guides, flashcards, critical thinking questions, exit tickets, graphic organizers, and games such as Jeopardy. This feature reduces preparation time and ensures that teachers have a well-rounded set of tools to keep students engaged.

Popular AI tools within Almanack include:

• Video Recommendations: Provides relevant educational videos based on lesson topics.
• Slide Decks: Allows educators to generate slide presentations with images aligned to their lesson content.
• Worksheets and Quizzes: Facilitates the creation of customized worksheets and quizzes with various question types.
• Jeopardy Game: Lets teachers create interactive Jeopardy games, which can be a fun way for students to review material.
• Report Card Comments: The platform’s report-writing feature enables teachers to easily draft report card comments and feedback, though this feature is exclusive to premium users.

The platform’s integrations add flexibility, as teachers can export materials to third-party tools such as Google Docs, Google Slides, Quizlet, Kahoot, and Quizizz. This compatibility ensures that teachers can adapt and use their Almanack-generated resources within existing systems and applications, making it easier to incorporate AI resources seamlessly into their teaching workflow.

Almanack also supports personalized learning by enabling teachers to tailor resources to individual student needs. Educators can generate materials that target different skill levels and learning preferences, facilitating a more customized approach to teaching. Additionally, group activity generators allow teachers to set up collaborative learning experiences, enhancing group work and peer interaction.

Almanack’s versatility extends to administrative support, with AI tools for generating rubrics, feedback, and report comments, which can significantly reduce the time teachers spend on grading and reporting.

Kharbach concludes by emphasizing Almanack’s potential to transform the teaching process, providing educators with powerful AI-driven tools to streamline tasks, engage students, and enhance instructional quality. By integrating Almanack, educators can spend less time on preparation and more time on impactful teaching.

Original Article

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com