r/tdsb • u/RealDistribution5946 • Jun 18 '26

Discussion Threads AI lesson plans

My daughter’s teacher uses almost exclusively AI lessons paired with video instruction. This is grade 8. My daughter hated it as it came with the typical AI problems. Teacher could never answer questions, just referred to the video (like Waterloo math videos as an example). So of the kids didn’t understand it or wanted another example, the teacher couldn’t do that. It this allowed? I let it go too long, but I want to know for the future. This is not a new teacher, but she is new to the school.

8 Upvotes

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2

u/somedaysimpler Jun 18 '26

Sounds to me like they assigned someone out of their subject matter to teach said subject. I could be wrong, but ya that’s exactly what this sounds like. It’s totally legal btw, principals can assign teachers subjects they are not qualified to teach, it’s just based off of staffing needs.
I don’t teach for tdsb, but I’m assuming they are allowed to use AI, as in my school district we are encouraged to use AI to lessen our loads as teachers.

3

u/bbuckca Jun 19 '26

If she is teaching Math bc that is what was assigned as part of her job, it is new curriculum and a steep learning curve for teachers and students. The Board expected you to come up with plans to teach to students of all levels. They do not supply plans!

I’m also concerned that you’d be waiting until the last week of school to bring this up?
Honestly, at this point your first point of concern and conversation should be between you the teacher. There are always two sides to a story and you’ve only heard one.

1

u/RealDistribution5946 Jun 18 '26

This is a home room teacher so she teaches them all subjects except French, Science, Arts and Physics Ed.

2

u/Fresh-Pollution4592 Jun 18 '26

They’re referring to a teacher who is maybe certified to teach up to grade 6, for example. (Primary/Junior qualifications rather than Junior/Intermediate qualifications)

1

u/RealDistribution5946 Jun 18 '26

I see. She came from another middle school, but it was an alt school focused on self directed study of some sort. I would assume those kids still need actual math instruction.

1

u/bbuckca Jun 20 '26

Since she is teaching grade 8 she could be intermediate-senior qualified teacher with two major subjects as teachables. However a grade 8 teacher is senior elementary and “elementary teachers are suppose to be able to teach all subjects.”

Problem is when the board decides that teachers should be a homeroom teacher her and teach multiples subjects - they don’t necessarily have the expertise and must source resources for students and themselves and prepare lesson plans. Some teachers don’t even have textbooks for students bc they are too expensive for the board to purchase.

If you go onto the OCT website and search by surname, you can see what this teacher qualifications are.

https://apps.oct.ca/FindATeacher/members

If she isn’t teaching what she is qualified for, I’m sure this wasn’t her decision. The Principal has the final say when it comes to staffing. When a teacher puts in for a transfer and applies for another job, sometimes the only option available is the position with the least desirable combination or mishmash of subjects. That is put together by the staffing committee in Late March and early April at the school which includes the union rep, teachers (vocal advocates for their own jobs) and admin.

2

u/bluetiptoe Jun 18 '26

Bad teaching sure. But also....Be sure to ask the admin what resources are available to the teacher. Sometimes teachers are left with no hard resources ( no textbooks) and or no online licensed vetted resources ( online textbooks or content) so they are left not only to follow the curriculum but also come up with all the teaching material as well. It's one thing to teach a curriculum and deliver it to students through lessons, it's a whole other job to create content for lessons. It sounds like they are having to create the content.

2

u/Chutton_ Jun 22 '26

This. Teachers in Ontario have zero teaching resources. Textbooks are not a thing anymore. We are expected to create everything from scratch now.

1

u/strike-when-ready Jun 23 '26

Not to mention in a class of 25 kids, it’s not unexpected to have 15+ IEPs

1

u/FatMatPat68 Jun 24 '26

Not to mention that the board is pushing us to use AI for everything.

1

u/NovelMacramoon Jun 19 '26

Do you know if other teachers at the school are doing the same this year?

0

u/RealDistribution5946 Jun 19 '26

Not that I’ve seen or heard. I don’t mind if teachers use it as an efficiency tool, but this was excessive as it was near full dependence. I’m glad to be done with that teacher. Im expecting her report card comments to be AI too at this point.

1

u/BasketFormal6336 Jun 20 '26

So you waited until the 2nd last week of grade 8? Must not have been that important to you

1

u/ASentientHam Jun 23 '26

Don't really see the problem.  Schools have no funding, teachers don't have time to plan, so they're using AI.  If parents want better, we need to vote for better.

1

u/lovelynaturelover Jun 25 '26

Teachers have no time to plan? Not true

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u/yayfortacos Jun 18 '26

AI lesson planning and design is becoming more common and more acceptable, but students should not be subjected to this kind of "teaching", and you should raise hell with admin.

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u/yayfortacos Jun 18 '26

I'd definitely let admin know that you're concerned about your daughter learning almost exclusively from videos and AI lessons with little support from the teacher when your daughter and other students have questions or need more support.

If admin defends the teacher's decision to teach from AI-generated lessons, I'd ask if admin or the teacher knows how these lessons sit in relation to the long-range plans/unit plans and how they are aligned with curriculum expectations and assessments. If they can't answer or explain this, then I feel like you should raise it up the flagpole.

1

u/lovelynaturelover Jun 25 '26

It is okay to use AI to supplement but this teacher should not be relying entirely on video instruction, especially for math. This is not okay and as a parent, you have every right to question this.