Latest news with #classroom
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Pupils set to use old train carriage as classroom
Students will be welcomed aboard a new classroom that used to be a train carriage in a former life. The decommissioned carriage was moved to a playground at Upshire Primary Foundation School in Waltham Abbey, Essex, and was being renovated. Pupils were given a sneak peek at the revamp of the first-class section ahead of its official opening at the end of July. Head teacher Ross Jones, 44, said it was originally going to be turned into a library but was instead transformed into a classroom that could also be used as a community hub around lessons. The train carriage was donated to the school just before the pandemic and has undergone extensive renovation. Some chairs were ripped out to make it an open learning space, and a kitchen and toilet were also added. Mr Jones said pupils were accustomed to learning outside, and he hoped to also turn the carriage into a quiet area for students during breaks. He said students and staff are "absolutely desperate to get on there" and added: "It's taken quite a long time and a lot of dedicated hard work. "It just looks amazing. One of the things for me was that it needs to still look like a train." A student from the school, Amy said: "It's really nice to have somewhere to learn in because it's a nice open space. George said: "I feel very thankful to the people who did this. "I really like this train, and I think it was a good choice to get it. Olly said: "I think it is really good because it is really different to our normal classrooms." The headteacher said he would not be able to give the exact amount the work cost, but he said the figure was around tens of thousands of pounds. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Train carriage classroom marks 300th anniversary Train carriage converted into new school library 'Run-down' train carriage becomes classroom
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Khan Academy CEO predicts AI in the classroom will be like 5 'amazing graduate students' assisting teachers
Khan Academy founder Sal Khan predicts AI in the classroom will be like "four or five" helpful grad students. Khan said in a BBC interview that AI agents will act as teachers' assistants, not as their substitutes. Social skills will soon become more important than ever, he added, and students will still go to school to learn them. AI agents grading papers, monitoring student performance, learning their interests, and making suggestions to the teacher. That's what the classroom of the future could look like, according to Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan, a learning environment where AI will act as a powerful aide for teachers, not their replacement. "Imagine if your child's school district just discovered a billion dollars and they decided to hire some amazing graduate students to hang out in the classroom," Khan said in an interview with BBC. "And so, every classroom is going to get four or five of these graduate students. These graduate students are going to be on call for the teacher of the classroom — to help grade papers, to help bounce ideas, think of really creative lesson plans." The US is suffering from a teaching shortage, with instructors leaving the classroom in droves over the past few years. A combination of conditions — including heavy workloads and minimal pay — is driving away many veteran teachers, while also de-incentivizing new blood from joining the profession. For those choosing to work in the classroom, Khan said that AI assistants could help alleviate the strain while also improving student engagement. The AI teaching assistants, he said, will be able to monitor the classroom along with the actual teacher. They'll be able to help children when needed and "report back to the teacher." For example, he added, AI could determine a student's personal interests and suggest relevant adjustments to the lesson plan to increase the odds that the student would engage with the material. "'Hey, I noticed Catty is not as engaged as she was yesterday,'" Khan said. "Or, 'Look, Sal is really engaged today, why don't you go praise him on this thing that he did last night you might have not noticed?' or 'Did you know that he's really into baseball? Let's make the next example about that, just for Sal.'" "And then they're able to distill all of that and communicate to the parents, so it's not even once a term, it's almost real-time," he added. The AI agents could then debrief with the teacher at the end of class to make a game plan for tomorrow, including identifying students who may be in need of some additional one-on-one time. "I think that would be everyone's dream: the students would love it, the teachers would love it, and the parents would love it — and that's essentially what's going to happen with AI," Khan said. AI has become an increasing presence in the lives of both students and teachers, and its role in the classroom has been widely debated. Proponents of its use in the classroom, including some educators and business leaders such as Bill Gates, say it could help alleviate understaffed schools and "enhance" education. Critics of AI in classrooms point to concerns of academic dishonesty and skill atrophy. A scenario like Khan is describing, where agents learn deeply about students' personalities and skills, also opens up privacy and security concerns. Though parents may have "legitimate fears" that children could outsource their learning to AI, Khan said that even if the tech rapidly develops into a highly capable presence in the classroom, he doesn't believe it could fully take over for human educators. As AI continues to advance, social skills will become more important than ever, he said — and so will the teachers that help impart them. "It's honestly the main reason why a lot of parents, including myself, feel the need to send their kids to a physical school with other kids, with a social environment, etc.," he said. As the "human being in the room," teachers will take on responsibilities that AI just can't — like holding students accountable and developing "person-to-person" connections, he added. "What happens in school, we often focus a lot on just the standards: Can kids factor a polynomial? Can they grammatically correct a sentence?" he said. "Those skills matter, but to some degree, the more important skills are: Can you deal with conflict? Can you be held accountable? Can you communicate? Can you know how to navigate social pressures?" Read the original article on Business Insider
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
GRAHAM GRANT: 'See me after class'? No, Jenny Gilruth should be expelled from the cabinet for her failures over the scourge of school bullies
There was a shudder of fear and apprehension last week when Jenny Gilruth unveiled her new discipline crackdown. But the Education Secretary's plan for taming classroom thugs is unlikely to have inspired dread among the troublemakers.
BBC News
16-06-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Donated train 'valuable resource' to Blyth SEN school
A project involving a repurposed Pacer train to use as a classroom for children with specialist needs is nearing completion. Volunteers from Northern's Heaton TrainCare Centre fixed leaks in the train's roof and its power supply after the train was donated to the Dales School in Blyth by company Porterbrook in second part of the initiative involved engineers repairing the wipers, headlights, signal buzzer and fan in the driver's cab which has recently been finished. The volunteers also restored the train's public address system, which the school's therapists said would be a "valuable resource" for pupils to make announcements and develop their speech and language skills. The engineers and apprentices also installed a walkway over a section of track, which was donated by Network Rail. The school, near the new Northumberland Line at Blyth, said the new driver's cab would give children opportunities to learn about rail safety and the hazards of trespassing. The project was featured on George Clark's Channel 4 show Amazing Spaces in 2023 and it also received last year's Love Northumberland award. Pupil Leo said: "I love the train as I'm going to be a train driver when I grow up and I get to practice on the train controls and tell everyone where the train is going."Meanwhile Lennie said: "My favourite time of the week is when we go on the train, I like the train driving simulator, it's like I'm driving a real train." James Groundwater, outdoor learning teacher at the school, said the volunteers had "made the train come to life" and now it was watertight for future use. Heaton TrainCare Centre's manager, Garry Roseby, said he was "extremely proud" of the engineers who spent their weekends and holidays restoring the train. "It has also given the apprentices an opportunity to work on the legacy fleet which has served the North East so well over the years, allowing them to develop their skills on a different electrical and mechanical system," he engineers said they would return in July to fit guttering to the train roof. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
South China Morning Post
15-06-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
A Chinese teacher's clever trick helps introverted boy shine in class
A primary school teacher in China has been praised online for a clever way of helping an introverted pupil interact with his classmates. The teacher organised a lucky draw for her second-grade students to decide whether they would play outside for the rest of the class or stay inside and continue the lesson. The teacher intentionally chose a shy boy to represent the class. The boy appeared to be in a daze for a few seconds before standing up from his seat and walking towards the front of the classroom. He seemed nervous at first but became more relaxed as his classmates encouraged him. The child drew a blank piece of paper, indicating that they could play. When the teacher asked him to display the result to his classmates, the whole room erupted with delight, happy they could go outside. But the teacher had actually guaranteed that the boy would pick a blank piece by making sure all the papers were blank.
