This holiday season, think of your AI tools as the elves in a bustling workshop - cheerfully tinkering, polishing, and prepping ideas behind the scenes. They help you streamline tasks, spark creative twists, and tackle tasks with confidence and ease.Â
Watch this video for a quick overview of Padlet TA and its features
Padlet TA is an AI-powered teaching assistant that helps educators handle planning and prep with ease. Separate from the main Padlet site, it offers tools for creating lesson plans, quizzes, presentations, worksheets, and other personalized learning materials that are easily exportable to Kami, Google Forms, and other formats.
Need a little inspiration for getting started? Check out the fun, festive ideas below!
Flashcards: Create winter-themed flashcards to help elementary students practice long-vowel words, using snowy or cozy illustrations.Â
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Sorting: Generate a sorting activity for integers (positive, negative, zero) using a thermometer-in-winter theme.
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Sequencing: Create a sequencing activity tracing the plot structure of a winter-themed short story (exposition â resolution).
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Reading Passage: Write an explanatory passage on how cities prepare for winter emergencies, with cause-and-effect questions.
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Worksheet: Make a winter-themed subtraction-with-regrouping worksheet for elementary students featuring mittens, sleds, and snowflakes.
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Coloring Sheet: Make a geometric snowflake coloring sheet based on repeating polygon patterns.
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Lesson Plan: Build a lesson plan for 8th-grade science introducing Newtonâs laws through examples like sledding or skating.
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Slide Deck: Create a slide deck teaching elementary students about winter holiday traditions around the world.
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Rubric: Create a rubric for a high-school debate on cold-weather school safety policies.
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Gemini, Googleâs powerful AI chatbot, is bundled into our Google for Education licenses, giving us built-in access to pro-level features. Itâs a cozy winter sidekick for generating fresh ideas, creating original content, and building quick teaching tools.
Need a little inspiration for getting started? Check out these fun, festive ideas:
Create 10 winter-themed sentence starters for 4th-grade writers.
Create winter-themed persuasive prompts like âShould snow days become virtual days?â
Give simple winter science experiment ideas for elementary students, like testing insulation.
Generate symbolic winter themes - darkness, change, endurance, stillness, etc - for high school students to explore in a chosen text.
Create three levels (standard, advanced, simplified) of a passage for 10th graders explaining how extreme winter storms disrupt global supply chains.
Create a set of 10 winter-themed math word problems for 3rd graders using snowballs, mittens, and hot cocoa.
Generate 10 winter adjectives with example sentences students can imitate.
Write a winter science lesson on heat transfer using real-world scenarios.
Create a winter-themed story map template with spaces for characters, setting, problem, and solution.
Create a debate structure called âCold Case Reviewâ for evaluating evidence.
Already using and loving Gemini? Take your experience to the next level by using the elevated tools that are built right into the chat interface:
Notebook LM is Googleâs AI notebook that learns from the sources you upload - like unit plans, textbook chapters, articles, slide decks, handouts, websites, and even videos. Once your sources are in, you can ask Notebook LM questions and it will answer using those materials, complete with clear citations.
Notebook LM can also turn your uploaded sources into helpful teaching tools such as audio overviews, video summaries, study guides, flashcards, reading guides, key-term lists, comparison charts, and student-friendly explanations. Itâs an easy way to save time, simplify complex content, and bring clarity to your planning all winter long.
Never used Notebook LM? Explore a few of their featured public notebooks including:
Did you know Notebook LM can create videos and podcast-style audio overviews about your resources? Â
Audio Overview: AI in NISD
Video Overview: NISD Academic Blueprint (a student intro to the NISD Academic Planning Guide)
Let's start your Notebook LM journey by building a notebook wil help you quickly find clear, citation-based answers about NISD's Grading Guidelines during a busy grading season. Use it to check policies, clarify expectations, and prepare for grading deadlines.
Navigate to notebooklm.google.com and click + Create a New Notebook
Download these sources and add them to your Notebook:Â
Get started - ask a few of the following questions:
How should I handle make-up work when a student has several absences in a row?Â
What is the district policy on late work for students?
How many summative and formative grades are required in each subject this quarter?
What deadlines do I need to be aware of for progress reports and report cards this semester?
A student failed a course last semesterâwhat are the options for credit recovery?
Feeling inspired and ready to unwrap more AI magic this season?
Head over to our districtâs AI website, where youâll find guidance on ethical and responsible use, creative ideas for getting started, and plenty of helpful tips and tricks to keep your classroom sleigh running smoothly. Explore, experiment, and enjoy the winter wonder of learning with AI!
Make sure to check out