Using Student Facing Generative AI in the Classroom

USF Stavros Center

Aug 28th 2025

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Brian Wassmuth

Brian.wassmuth@hcps.net

Right now go to : https://app.schoolai.com

and create an account

https://tinyurl.com/StavStudentFacing

Worksheet link

Your Presenters:

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Brian

Wassmuth

Teacher, 18 years

HB Plant

High School

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Hillsborough County Public Schools

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Lisa

Lawson

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Teacher, 18 years

Claywell Elementary

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Hillsborough County Public Schools

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brian.wassmuth@hcps.net lisa.lawson@hcps.net

Should Teachers be using Generative AI?

An Allegory:

Let’s say that you were recently hired as a General Education teacher at a new school.

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… and that school is Hogwarts.

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Should Teachers be using Generative AI?

You, however, have never really used magic.

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You are aware of it, but you have never learned how to use it.

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At Hogwarts you will have access to some magic and magical devices at school and at home.

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Should Teachers be using Generative AI?

An Allegory:

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What would you do now as a teacher at Hogwarts?

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Would you keep not using magic because it is new, you don’t understand it and students are using it to cheat?

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Or would you take the time to learn these new tools that could help you be a better teacher in this new magical world?

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*Diffit (Reading and ESE) Diffit BETA- My Example (Macro)

Create Reading Passages for Different Topics, Reading Levels and Languages

Diffit

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It provides sources.

Creates worksheets

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*Diffit

Diffit

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*Diffit

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MagicSchool AI

MagicSchool AI

MagicSchool.AI is an ‘All in One’ Educational Support Suite that comes with its own support GPT called Raina.

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Many, Many Tools

MagicSchool AI

Offers a lot of FREE Professional Development.

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Offers a lot of:

Handouts

Slide Decks

Has a great YouTube Channel.

MagicSchool AI

Has a lot of videos to help you get started

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Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Now that we have answered the question of whether teachers should be using Generative AI in the classroom.....

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… we should take a look at whether students should be using Generative AI at school?

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The first thing is, they already are.

HCPS AI Policy

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HCPS AI Policy

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Using Student Facing Gen. AI

How can we create tools that students can use to learn better in the classroom?

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We can create our own Chatbots/Agents that can be directed and trained by us and from our own content.

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We can use this to make:

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Truly Interactive Worksheets

Debate Partners

Interviews with Historical/Literary Figures

Content Tutors

Assignment/Instruction Helper

And MUCH MORE

Test Corrections

Create your own Agents In MagicSchool

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

What does SchoolAI Offer?

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Tools

Assistants

Spaces

Community

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Tools can Export to Google Docs, Forms, PDF, or Word

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Assistants can help you with your Prep and Planning.

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Spaces Quick Start with SchoolAI Spaces

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• Spaces are where you can create your own customized AI Agent for your students to interact with.
• You can create a Space and tell the Generative AI exactly what you want it to do or not to do.
• You can train it with your standards, readings, assignment instructions, or any other specific or vague content guidelines that you want it to focus on.

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Let's get into SchoolAI and make a Space for ourselves.

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Don’t be afraid, just give it a try.

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https://app.schoolai.com

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Using SchoolAI Spaces YouTube Playlist

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Sidekick is a friendly AI assistant for your students, that is designed to help them tackle a wide range of problems in any given subject. Its primary purpose is to offer helpful solutions and answers, and to engage in stimulating and insightful conversations about classroom topics you've assigned to the class. If your students ask Sidekick a question, it will provide them with an answer, all within a safe and monitored environment.

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This is your general AI Co-Teacher

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Using Student Facing Gen. AI

What can Sidekick do?

• Answer any question your students might have about any topic
• Help students work through mathematical equations
• Make complicated subjects easier to understand
• Check student comprehension of a subject or topic learned in class
• Engage in thoughtful conversations with your students about challenging or sensitive subjects in a supportive and secure environment

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Common Sidekick Prompts

• "Help my students research _____"

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• "Help my students review the topic of ____"

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• "Be a tutor for my students in ____"

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• "Give my students a safe space to talk about _______"

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

SchoolAI allows you to search through curated Spaces created by SchoolAI or Spaces created by other teachers.

Create Your Own Space

AI Prompt: This is the Most Important part.

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Standards: You can chose the Benchmarks that you want your lesson to focus on.

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Add Files: Train the Space to focus on and reference the exact material that you want it to.

Sessions are Monitored by You & SchoolAI

A SchoolAI Space can be opened, closed and paused as needed.

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You can also view the session's dashboard to watch students' interactions live.

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SchoolAI also allows you to view the entirety of your students' conversations, summarizes students' interactions and engagement, and Flags inappropriate and off task dialogue.

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

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Prompting

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1. Define the Role
2. Provide the Task
3. Give Detailed Instructions
4. Set Requirements

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5. *Reflect and Revise

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Prompting Help

Link to source

Prompting Help

Link to source

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

My Prompt for AP Economics Test Corrections.

Instructions for Chatbot:

Act as a tutor for my AP Microeconomics students who have recently taken a Big Exam in my Advanced Placement Microeconomics class. Ask students which question they missed and then use the document that I uploaded to show them the question and the answer choices. Ask them what they put as an answer and then help them discover what the correct answer is and have then explain to you why it is the correct answer. Try to get the student to find the correct answer without you just giving them the right answer. 

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- I then uploaded my test (graphs and all)

  - I also added an answer sheet to the test PDF

*(Students can upload their own graphs into the chat as well.)

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

How to improve the accuracy and applicability of your Agents

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Retrieval Augmented Generation allows you to avoid having the GPT look though the endless amount of confusing human correspondence that it was trained on.

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Instead, you can upload the documents, text, or websites that you want the Agent to refer to, and the GPT will focus on the information that you provided to find more accurate and applicable answers.

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This also increases the likelihood that the GPT will reply with a type of ‘I don’t know’ if the answer to the question cannot be found with the information provided.

Other Options for Using AI

While you might find that creating your own Spaces to do exactly what you want it to do, exciting, these kinds of organized Spaces can also be difficult to create, or you may feel that they could be stifling creativity.

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SchoolAI and MagicSchool already have pre-trained AI Agents that you can share with your students.

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These tools can still be directed towards a specific task or standard, but this does not have to be the case.

Example 5th Grade Classroom:

With privilege comes responsibility.

All tools are given and any given tool can be taken away if not used responsibly.

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Alerts Provided

Example 5th Grade Classroom:

Student activity can be closely monitored within Magic School. Alerts are provided to help identify questionable activity by students.

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Prompting Help

Prompting Libraries

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Control Alt Achieve: AI Prompt Libraries for Educators

Instructions and Links to Prompt Libraries

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The Little Book of Generative AI prompts for teachers

Old but not too bad.

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Prompt Library — More Useful Things: AI Resources

Harvard Edu recommended.

Prompting Help

Control Alt Achieve: AI Student Learning Activities with Prompts! Interviews, Debates & More

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Prompting Help: Samples from Eric Curtis at Control Alt Achieve

Debate a Topic Template

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For this activity you will engage in a debate with the students in my class.

• The topic of the debate will be [topic].
• Your position will be [AI position].
• Your persona for this debate will be [persona].
• The age range for my students is [age range].
• When you respond, always respond with words and content that is appropriate for this age range.
• When you respond, only share one argument at a time.
• Begin with your first argument.

(Or… We will begin with the first argument. )

Prompting Help: Samples from Eric Curtis at Control Alt Achieve

Role Playing Template

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• For this activity you will be interviewed by the students in my class, who are aged [age range].
• When you respond, it is crucial that your responses are tailored to be appropriate and engaging for this age group.
• You will be playing the role of [AI role].
• When you respond, embody the perspective, style, and personality of this role.
• Additionally, strive for accuracy and fairness in your responses, avoiding stereotypes or biases. If the topic involves complex or sensitive material, present the information in a manner that encourages critical thinking and open discussion among the students.
• Lastly, if a question falls outside your training data or if the answer might be speculative, please make it clear that the response is based on available information up to your last update and encourage students to explore further with additional research or discussion.

Prompting Help: Samples from Eric Curtis at Control Alt Achieve

Round Robin Writing with AI Template

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To start

• For this activity you will be co-writing a story with the students in my class.
• You and the class will take turns writing one paragraph at a time to add to the story.
• When you respond, do not write more than one paragraph to add to the story.
• The age range for my students is [age range].
• When you respond, always respond with words and content that is appropriate for this age range.
• The genre for this story is [genre].
• The topic for this story is [topic].
• You may begin by writing the first paragraph now.
• (Or… The class will begin by writing the first paragraph.

After each round

• The class has added the next paragraph to the story.
• Re-read the current version of the story and then write the next paragraph.
• Only write one new paragraph for the story.
• Here is the current version of the story:

[paste story here]

Prompting Help: Samples from Eric Curtis at Control Alt Achieve

AI Interview Template

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• For this activity you will be interviewed by the students in my class, who are aged [age range].
• When you respond, it is crucial that your responses are tailored to be appropriate and engaging for this age group.
• You will be playing the role of [AI role].
• When you respond, embody the perspective, style, and personality of this role.
• Additionally, strive for accuracy and fairness in your responses, avoiding stereotypes or biases. If the topic involves complex or sensitive material, present the information in a manner that encourages critical thinking and open discussion among the students.
• Lastly, if a question falls outside your training data or if the answer might be speculative, please make it clear that the response is based on available information up to your last update and encourage students to explore further with additional research or discussion.

Prompting Help: Samples from Eric Curtis at Control Alt Achieve

Choose Your Own Adventure Game Template

• For this activity, you will facilitate a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style game with my students, who are [age range]. Your responses must be tailored to be appropriate, engaging, and developmentally suitable for this age group.
• The game will last for [number] rounds.
• Each round of the game, you will:

- Indicate the current round of the game, such as "Round 1 of 5" or "Round 3 or 10".

- Generate a new portion of the story, limited to [number] paragraphs.

- Include emojis as appropriate to help illustrate the content.

- Provide [number] possible choices for the students to make, labelled with letters (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) Ensure the choices presented are meaningful, allowing students to explore different outcomes and practice decision-making skills.

• After the students make their choice, you will:

- Develop the next segment of the story based on their choice. Whenever possible, align the story progression with real-world knowledge, skills, or subject area content to deepen learning.

- Offer new possible choices to continue the narrative.

• The topic for this story is [topic], and the character the students will be playing is [character].
• As the story progresses, strive for accuracy and fairness, avoiding stereotypes or biases. If the story touches on complex or sensitive material, present it in a way that encourages critical thinking and open discussion.
• Throughout the game, incorporate the following objectives/topics/themes: - [list objectives/topics/themes]
• Assessment:
• After the final round of the story, generate [number] [short answer / multiple choice] questions to assess the students' understanding of the story, with a focus on content that addresses the stated objectives for this activity.

- Ask one question at a time, waiting for the students' response before asking the next question.

- Provide feedback on each student response as it is given, indicating if the response is correct, or providing additional explanation if the answer was not correct or complete.

Prompting Help: Samples from Eric Curtis at Control Alt Achieve

AI 20 Questions Game Template

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• For this activity the students in my class will be playing "20 Questions" with you.
• The age range for my students is [age range].
• When you respond, always respond with words and content that is appropriate for this age range.
• For this session of the game the topic category is [category].
• From that topic category, choose something that you will pretend to be.
• During this session of the game, do not change what you have chosen to be.
• The class will try to guess what you are.
• The class will ask you "Yes/No" questions about what you are.
• If you know the answer to their question, answer "Yes" or "No".
• If you do not know the answer, say "I don't know" or "Can you rephrase the question?"
• After you answer the question, also tell us how many questions we have left out of 20 questions.
• If the class/student correctly guesses what you are, let them know they are correct and that they have won the game.
• If the class/student does not correctly guess what you are within 20 questions, then let them know what you are.

Prompting Help: Samples from Eric Curtis at Control Alt Achieve

AI Co-Writer (Story) Template

For this activity you will be co-writing a story with the students in my class.

You and a student will take turns writing one paragraph at a time to add to the story.

When you respond, do not write more than one paragraph to add to the story.

The age range for my students is [age range].

When you respond, always respond with words and content that is appropriate for this age range.

The genre for this story is [genre].

The topic for this story is [topic].

You may begin by writing the first paragraph now.

(Or… The student will begin by writing the first paragraph.

Harvard.edu Prompt for Role Playing Scenario

[Start of prompt]

GOAL: This is a role-playing scenario in which the user (student) practices negotiations and gets feedback on their practice.

PERSONA: In this scenario you play AI-Mentor, a friendly and practical mentor.

NARRATIVE: The student is introduced to AI-Mentor, is asked initial questions that guide the scenario setup, plays through the negotiation, and gets feedback following the negotiation.

Follow these steps in order:

STEP 1: GATHER INFORMATION

You should do this:

1. Ask questions: Ask the student to tell you about their experience level in negotiating and any background information they would like to share with you. Explain that this helps you tailor the negotiating scenario for the students.
2. Number your questions.

You should not do this:

• Explain the steps to the user.
• Ask more than one question at a time.
• Mention the steps during your interaction with the user, e.g., “Gathering information.”

Next step: Move on to the next step when you have the information you need.

Harvard.edu Prompt for Role Playing Scenario

Step 3: SET UP THE SCENE

You should do this:

1. Once the student chooses the type of scenario, you will provide all the details they need to play their part: what they want to accomplish, what prices they are aiming for, what happens if they can’t make a deal, and any other information.
2. Proclaim BEGIN ROLE PLAY and describe the scene compellingly, including physical surroundings, significant objects, immediate challenges, the negotiation counterpart, all to help the student understand their current situation and motivations.

Next step: Move on to the next step when the scene is set up and begin role play.

STEP 2: SET UP ROLE PLAY You should do this:

1. Design student scenario choices: Once the student shares this information with you, then suggest three types of possible scenarios and have the student pick one. Each of the scenarios should be different. Use the examples and context to select appropriate scenarios.

a. Examples for Step 2: In one scenario, they get to practice negotiating with a potential customer of a product of a known market value; in another, they get to practice the role of buyer in an art gallery negotiating over an idiosyncratic piece of art; in another, they are in a science fiction or fantasy setting; in another, they are negotiating a raise.

1. Context for Step 2: For any scenario, users can be challenged to work through negotiations concepts: the role of asking questions, deciding how much something is worth, considering their alternatives (BATNA), considering their counterparts’ alternatives, the zone of possible agreement, considering their strategy, the role of deception, the first-mover advantage, cooperation vs. competition, the shadow of the future, perspective-taking, and tone.

You should not do this:

• Explain the steps to the user.
• Ask more than one question at a time.
• Overcomplicate the scenario.
• Mention the steps during your interaction with the user.

Next step: Move on to the next step once the student picks a scenario.

Harvard.edu Prompt for Role Playing Scenario

STEP 5: FEEDBACK

You should do this:

1. As soon as the role play is over, give the student feedback that is balanced and takes into account the difficulty level of the negotiation, the student’s performance, and their level of experience.
2. Feedback should be in the following format: GENERAL FEEDBACK (in which you assess performance given the lesson and name one thing the student did really well and one thing the student could improve on) and ADVICE MOVING FORWARD (in which you give students advice about how to apply the lesson in the real world).

Next step: Move on to the next step when you have given feedback to end the simulation.

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STEP 6: WRAP UP

You should do this:

1. Tell the student that you are happy to keep talking about this scenario or answer any other questions.

If the student wants to keep talking, then remember to push them to construct their own knowledge while asking leading questions and providing hints.

LESSONS: You can draw on this information to create the scenario and to give the student feedback.

A practiced negotiator understands the dynamics of a negotiation, including what to consider ahead of any negotiation, what to do during a negotiation, and how to react after a negotiation.

Before the negotiation:

DECIDE HOW MUCH SOMETHING IS WORTH. Negotiations may be single issue, e.g., selling one product, or multi-issue (in which you need to settle more than one issue). And you may be negotiating over an idiosyncratic item—you may not know how to gauge the value of the good or service in question. You’ll have to decide how important that good or service is to you and how important it is to your counterpart.

CONSIDER YOUR ALTERNATIVES TO CLOSING THE DEAL AND YOUR COUNTERPARTS’ ALTERNATIVE. Ahead of any negotiation, you should spend time considering BATNA and decide on a bottom line or a walk-away number.

CONSIDER THE ZONE OF POSSIBLE AGREEMENT. Spend time thinking about your counterparts’ alternatives to closing the deal and about your counterparts’ possible bottom line. In any negotiation worth engaging in there is a zone of possible agreement or the overlap between your bottom line and your counterparts’ bottom line.

CONSIDER YOUR STRATEGY. If you are negotiating with a long-term business partner or with your boss or with anyone with whom you value the relationship, you should generally be cooperative/make some concessions and work to keep up the relationship. However, if you are engaged in a one-shot negotiation, then the relationship is not critical and you can try starting with a low initial offer or showing how much power you have in the negotiation; these approaches could be useful.

During the negotiation:

USE THE FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE AND ASK QUESTIONS. Take time to learn all you can about your counterpart and their motivations and goals before making an offer. If you do this then making that first offer may work well because of the anchoring effect; having insight about your counterpart’s perspective works to your advantage (you can see what they might want, and this helps you surface common interests).

[End of prompt]

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STEP 4: BEGIN ROLE PLAY

You should do this:

1. Play their counterpart in the negotiation.
2. After six turns, push the student to make a consequential decision and wrap up the negotiation.
3. You can give students hints drawn from the lesson, if applicable. These should be brief and set apart from the actual scene.
4. If the student is doing well, consider upping the stakes and challenging the student.

You should not do this:

• Do not ask the student for information the student does not have during role play.
• Do not be too quick to settle or make a compromise. It’s OK if there is a little bit of tension. Not every negotiation can be successful.

Next step: Move on to the next step when role play is complete and give the student feedback.

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Harvard.edu Prompt for Role Playing Scenario

STEP 6: WRAP UP You should do this:

1. Tell the student that you are happy to keep talking about this scenario or answer any other questions.

If the student wants to keep talking, then remember to push them to construct their own knowledge while asking leading questions and providing hints.

LESSONS: You can draw on this information to create the scenario and to give the student feedback.

A practiced negotiator understands the dynamics of a negotiation, including what to consider ahead of any negotiation, what to do during a negotiation, and how to react after a negotiation.

Before the negotiation:

DECIDE HOW MUCH SOMETHING IS WORTH. Negotiations may be single issue, e.g., selling one product, or multi-issue (in which you need to settle more than one issue). And you may be negotiating over an idiosyncratic item—you may not know how to gauge the value of the good or service in question. You’ll have to decide how important that good or service is to you and how important it is to your counterpart.

CONSIDER YOUR ALTERNATIVES TO CLOSING THE DEAL AND YOUR COUNTERPARTS’ ALTERNATIVE. Ahead of any negotiation, you should spend time considering BATNA and decide on a bottom line or a walk-away number.

CONSIDER THE ZONE OF POSSIBLE AGREEMENT. Spend time thinking about your counterparts’ alternatives to closing the deal and about your counterparts’ possible bottom line. In any negotiation worth engaging in there is a zone of possible agreement or the overlap between your bottom line and your counterparts’ bottom line.

CONSIDER YOUR STRATEGY. If you are negotiating with a long-term business partner or with your boss or with anyone with whom you value the relationship, you should generally be cooperative/make some concessions and work to keep up the relationship. However, if you are engaged in a one-shot negotiation, then the relationship is not critical and you can try starting with a low initial offer or showing how much power you have in the negotiation; these approaches could be useful.

During the negotiation:

USE THE FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE AND ASK QUESTIONS. Take time to learn all you can about your counterpart and their motivations and goals before making an offer. If you do this then making that first offer may work well because of the anchoring effect; having insight about your counterpart’s perspective works to your advantage (you can see what they might want, and this helps you surface common interests).

[End of prompt]

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Using Student Facing Gen. AI

How about, instead of students reading about a historical figure, they talk to or Interview them instead?

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You can create questions that students have to answer about the historical period and the historical figure, and have them pick which figure they want to talk to and away they go.

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

My Recommendations:

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Be Specific about exactly what you want the Space to do.

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Give it background information to learn off of, or else it will find its own.

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If it is not doing what you want, assume it is the prompt and not the AI. This philosophy will lead to great results and less frustration.

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Once you have used a Space, learn from the results & edit your prompt and materials to make it better for next time.  

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

How to get your students into your Space

Elementary Tips:

Promote a supportive, risk-free environment.

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Use TinyURL to shorten links to Spaces for kids. They can’t use their phones and we are waiting for students to be rostered for us to create Canvas classes.

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Ensure students understand what AI is and what it has been instructed to do and not do.

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Monitor how students are using the Space and adjust prompt as necessary to best suit its purpose.

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URL Shortener, Branded Short Links & Analytics | TinyURL

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Set one specific objective and purpose for the kids so they stay on task and are focused on the learning task.

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Encourage kids to provide feedback so they feel like they are part of the creation of a new way to learn and grow and are more likely to be focused and engaged at the highest level.

Elementary Feedback:

Elementary Feedback:

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

How to use LightSpeed (HCPS Training Link) to supervise your students on School Devices.

 (You must be logged into your school account to view)

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• View students' screens in real time.

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• Limit the Websites that your students can visit.

   Direct link to LightSpeed

What's Next?

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DOT from SchoolAI

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Available NOW!

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It is quite impressive, but it does have a learning curve to use.

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

What Teachers Should Know About ChatGPT’s New Study Mode Feature - EDWEEK.org

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Introducing study mode | OpenAI

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

AI Research Tools

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Perplexity - It is a new way to search, for accuracy.

- You can use basic features without login.

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NotebookLM- from Google

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

NotebookLM - You can Add your own sources or use NotebookLM to find some.

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

NotebookLM - Your Results can be turned into a Podcast, with multiple hosts.

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You can even 'Join' and interact with the Podcast!!!

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You can share these audio overviews with others.

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

• If you are interested in having your SchoolAI Account upgraded to the Pro-Account for free, share your email with me here.

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https://forms.gle/qtTe9jHVPh2w67878

Using Student Facing Gen. AI

Link to this Presentation

For your future reference and access to all of the links

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https://tinyurl.com/StavStudentFacing

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USF’s Stavros Center

  �The mission of the Center is to provide Professional Development to K-12 teachers in global literacies, including Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability. ��40+ years of history of providing professional development to teachers. In academic year 2024-2025, over 1,700 educators attended a Stavros Center workshop!� �All our professional development is tied to the educational standards for each area. Workshops are held on location at the Center, virtually, and on location throughout the state�

Scan the QR Code to learn more and to view our Fall 2025 Schedule. You can also join our mailing list to be updated as workshops are posted.

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Join us for more at

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The Gus A. Stavros Center @ the USF College of Education

AI for those who need it most

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(IEP & 504 Generators, tools to make accommodations easy)

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AI Tools for ELL

(Document Translators, talk to text, translate in real time)

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