Jaymes Dec

Constructionist learner and teacher. @FabLearn Fellow, @NYCMakery, @ITP_NYU alum. Teaching @FranklinHS1872 @TeachersCollege

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

@Superfection Hey Charley! That would be great. HMU!

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

Over the past few months I've been building an agentic teacher's assistant that handles a significant amount of my day-to-day tasks.

This tool connects to my school's learning management system and acts as a chatbot loaded with 83 atomic tools and skills: planning and posting lessons, assignments, assessments, rubrics. It can create, read, and update any content on Canvas, Google Docs, or Slides.

It can grade student work and provide feedback that is more helpful and comprehensive than what I can consistently produce by myself.

I have a pedagogical council of AI advisors that help me plan lessons, projects, and assessments. The council is made up of three voices patterned after Seymour Papert, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori. Papert pushes me toward constructionism and learning by making. Dewey keeps me honest about experience and inquiry. Montessori watches for student agency and the prepared environment. I give them a draft lesson, and the council reads it, argues with it, and hands back a revised version.

It knows Franklin's core philosophy and organizes learning around nine Transdisciplinary Competencies: skills that cut across every subject and define what it means to be a Franklin graduate.

The Serendipity Generator skill looks across all my colleagues' curricula and identifies transdisciplinary project opportunities aligned to student interests.

All of this happens in one chat. No copying or pasting. Once I approve a draft, I push it to Canvas. It cannot publish and that's a design choice. I want a final check before anything becomes viewable by students. Student names and identifiers are replaced with anonymous IDs before anything hits the model.

Because I built this as an AI Agent with small tools plus access to our LMS, it can combine them to express emergent capabilities it was not designed for.

When one of our science teachers unexpectedly had to leave mid-year, I generated a transition report for administration and the substitute: where each class was, what had been taught, what hadn't, and how each student was doing.

When the grade level deans needed a daily report on students who got D's or F's, I spun it up with a few prompts and a Slack bot that now automates it.

Department Leads used to spend hours each week checking every Canvas page for compliance with Franklin guidelines. I asked my tool to automate it. Now they get a Google Doc each Friday flagging any issues.

To see how a student is doing on their nine Transdisciplinary Competencies, I can pull every assignment and assessment they've ever done and curate a portfolio that demonstrates those skills.

I love building with AI and for AI Agents. In January, I started with a few small tools that could accomplish specific tasks. I linked them together and learned about Agent Native Architecture. Thanks, @danshipper and @every!

I realized that I was growing software rather than building it.

I am planting seeds and wondering: what will this become?

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

In the #FabEducatorsSummit learning about the definitive history of blocks based programming languages from one of the inventors of Scratch (and Blockly, and App Inventor, and MicroBlocks!) John Maloney!

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

One of my students made a drone that he can control with a glove. Check out his documentation video. https://t.co/XpvqdHUtOz

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

@tariqjmalik @SPACEdotcom I remember I was an intern there when you started!

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

@scientiffic @BarnardCollege @Columbia Congratulations, Tiffany! Welcome back!

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

@GBOttawa @TDOttawa @garystager I'll add this to my listening queue! Stefania is an old friend. Always love her work! Thanks, Glenn!

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

@IDEOU I paid for insights for innovation because you advertised that it came with a workshop on generative ai. I was told that workshop would be recorded but now I hear it is unavailable. I feel ripped off.

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

@IDEOU Signed up for insights 4 innovation and paid out of pocket since it was advertised as coming with a bonus workshop using generativeAI in design process. I was told that the workshop video would be available. But now it's not. What's with the switcheroo? I feel ripped off.

[Sandy Roberts 🧪🛠💡 @KaleidoscopeSci]

Hands-on AI workshop @jaymesdec at the @make Education Forum. Learning to code chatbots is SO much fun! I can see lots of ways students could use this to learn computer science and more. #STEM #STEAM #MakerEd #coding https://t.co/cuU7qVRSaE

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

Recently organized a weekend hackathon for 31 teams from 7 schools around the world. We worked with The Ocean Concervancy on challenges related to plastic pollution. I'm super proud that the two teams from Franklin won first and second place! https://t.co/FULcyfHiE0

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

@garystager My lips are sealed.

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

Try to guess which ones were my ideas! Can't wait to support teacher makers at this workshop this summer!

[Gary Stager - New Invent To Learn Book! @garystager]

Thank you @smartinez, @jaymesdec, @joshburker, & Thomas Edison for contributing to this experiment in project-based learning. https://t.co/0kl6lofyMx #pbl #kinderchat @makeymakey @microbit_edu @birdbraintech @csteachersorg @MakerEdOrg @MakerEDau @rehana_makes @ThomasEdisonNHP

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

Just submitted four conference proposals in three days. 💪

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

Seeking teachers experimenting w/ LLM APIs for automating teaching, learning, or admin tasks. Organizing an online sharing / workshop event. Fill out this form if you might help or interested in participating. https://t.co/tHCCOhhIUD #edchat #edutwitter #aiclassroom

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

My favorite week of the year, Constructing Modern Knowledge, is back with a BANG this year! Guests include @stockers1001, @CRosenMusic, and @DrHowardGardner!! July 11 - 14, 2023 in Manchester, NH. And this year I'm bringing my family! https://t.co/LzuEQRkngC

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

Come work with me! Franklin School is hiring Art, Design, and Technology teachers for next year. Jersey City, NJ https://t.co/KnYwiNrODM Great work environment. Awesome students!

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

What a variety of projects happening today in the @franklinschooljc Fab Lab! Cutting out furniture, making robots, sewing clothing, laser cutting coasters, and using math and code to design jewelery. https://t.co/sVvZa0GZnJ

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

After two years of zoom teaching and one year of teaching kids in acrylic cages, it feels amazing to be back working with students in a brand new maker space!

[Jaymes Dec @jaymesdec]

Makerspace PSA. Be careful about how you store batteries. Tossing coin cells on top of exposed 9 volts is a bad idea!