THE NEW JUMPER
VT No 279
Getting through 2024 has been an AMAZING FEAT - a year marked by breathtaking strides & creativity. Each step in AI has felt monumental, paving the way for an even brighter future.
As we step into 2025, I believe it will be even more AMAZING. Here’s why:
The future of education is brighter than ever, thanks to so many AMAZING people working together, innovating and shaping what's possible. The momentum is increasing, and MANY PEOPLE, are not just embracing change - THEY are driving it. Here’s some people I trust WHO ARE DRIVING AI and also balancing AI safety with Innovation for both teachers and students.
Al Kingsley MBE, Darren Coxon, Alexiei Dingli, Nick Potkalitsky, Christopher Saliba
Al Kingsley MBE, Chris Goodall, Ethan Mollock, Russell John Cailey , Ben Whitaker,
Alex Gray
SO here’s to another year of progress and collaboration! looking forward to a fabulous 2025 with more amazing adventures to come.
This is is my first newsletter using Substack, a bit of a change. I love it! What do you think?
Check out Virtualteacher.com.au, a one-stop destination for quick creative ideas in the world of AI & Education. Use the Videos directly in your class, and learn along with your students.
Enough of the chat, check out the Amazing Tools & Absolutely Splendid ideas I have to share with you today, in the spirit of
EASIER, MORE PRODUCTIVE, & A WHOLE LOT
MORE FUN!
PS
Virtual Teacher is.......... FREE FOREVER
Here's What's on the MENU Today
The New Jumper! : My Experiment with AI Storytelling & with a consistent character.
ALPHA School uses AI as Personal Tutors: Bloom’s Problem Solved
Everything about the MOON - Fabulous interactive site.
FREE FIREWORKS: A Great Brain Break
2025: It’s going to be a pretty unique year
AI in Education: A Plot Twist You Didn’t See Coming!
Vengeance MOST Fowl: Get into Stop Motion Animation
Meet Super Thinker: Your Thinking Sidekick!
VT YouTube: Super Maths transforms
Let's create a ripple effect of learning, sharing, and growing together. Pass any good ideas on to colleagues, and encourage them to subscribe to VirtualTeacher for more.
My Experiment with AI Storytelling
That little story, born from classroom creativity, stayed with me. Over the years, I’ve often reflected on its charm and the joy it brought to my students. So, I decided to reimagine it for a new generation of readers—this time, with the help of cutting-edge AI tools. Today, A New Jumper is not just a book but also a video, designed to engage young learners in a dynamic, modern way.
Explore the book here: A New Jumper PDF
Watch the video here: A New Jumper on YouTube
How Technology Shaped the New Version
Over the break, I decided to explore narrative AI video creation, using this story. Consistent characters and narrative story telling are the Holey Grail of AI video at the moment. My goal was to create a visually rich and engaging companion to the book.
Using #klingai for its lip-syncing capabilities, I encountered challenges—character consistency and wardrobe changes required extra effort. To refine the visuals and align them with the story’s tone, I blended several tools:
#affinityphoto: For outfit adjustments and image enhancements.
#davinciresolve: For editing, background removal, typography, and music.
#affinitypublisher: To design the companion book using screen captures from the video.
The process wasn’t without hurdles, but overcoming these offered a unique opportunity to explore the intriguing possibilities of AI in storytelling. While the technology shows promise, refining animations for narrative-based work demands a creative touch and persistence.
How A New Jumper Benefits Early Readers
Repetition and Predictability
The story’s repeated phrasing, such as "I need a jumper that’s not TOO old, or TOO big," is a cornerstone of early literacy instruction. Predictability helps young readers anticipate and recognize words, building their confidence and fluency. It also encourages rereading, a proven practice for reinforcing foundational skills.
Contextual Vocabulary Learning
The use of "TOO" in various contexts ("TOO small," "TOO tight") introduces nuanced vocabulary in a meaningful way. This approach helps children understand how words shift meaning depending on context, fostering deeper comprehension and semantic awareness.
Humour and Engagement
Humour is a powerful teaching tool, and this story delivers. The growing list of unsuitable jumpers ("TOO stripy," "TOO checked") keeps children entertained while teaching sequencing and problem-solving. The video companion amplifies this humour, adding another layer of engagement.
Dynamic Visuals for Support
AI-generated visuals, refined with Affinity Photo and DaVinci Resolve, bring the story to life. They provide contextual clues to help children decode words and follow the narrative, while the video format enhances the experience for visual and auditory learners.
How You Can Use A New Jumper
Classroom Read-Alouds: The humour and repetition make it perfect for group reading sessions.
Guided Reading: Use the book to explore vocabulary and sentence structure with small groups.
Independent Practice: Its predictability and engaging visuals encourage children to revisit the story on their own.
Video Integration: Pair the book with the video for a multimedia approach that reinforces literacy skills.
Final Thoughts
A New Jumper is more than a teaching tool—it’s a bridge between tradition and innovation. By combining time-tested literacy strategies with modern AI technology, this project demonstrates how we can reimagine classroom resources to inspire and engage our students. While the process wasn’t without challenges, it was a rewarding exploration of what’s possible when creativity meets technology.
It’s my hope that A New Jumper inspires young readers and brings a little joy to your classroom.
Explore the story, share it with your students, and experience firsthand how it can bring foundational reading skills to life.
Discover the book here: PDF Link
Watch the video here: YouTube Link
ALPHA School uses AI as Personal Tutors
Hundreds of students in Arizona will soon be enrolling in a virtual school powered by artificial intelligence. Unbound Academy creates learning plans that are personalised for each student utilising AI. According to Alpha School. Solving Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem with an AI personalised tutor for every student.
SO YOU ARE WONDERING how teacher’s will fit into this Model?
WILL YOU LOOSE YOUR JOB?
NOPE!
You will just be able to do the most important part of your job better. Working with individual students on the social, emotional and motivational aspects of education.
LEARN: Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the MOON
by Bartosz Cienchanowski
This is a fantastic sight for K-12, great interactives, for demos as well challenges for ASTROPHILES. I had a bunch of these ASTROPHILES in my class. I challenged them to explain the interactives on this site to me, I didn’t understand them.
A lot of them were very tricky, but it was fun to play, and they loved getting deep into the mysteries of the moon.
Take a look at the Moon as seen from space in all its sunlit glory. You can drag it around to change your point of view, and you can also use the slider to control the date and time on the first one. Go further with the interactives as you scroll down. Incredible!
Check it out on the VT ASTROPHYSICS & ASTRONOMY Page It starts with a BANG!
Great brain break and fun. We used it to make 15 fireworks, when we were onto teen numbers, to add 2 numbers of fireworks together. To pick a number & screen record that many fireworks, take into iMovie and add an audio track of counting. See what you can come up with. Maybe just to celebrate. Check it out FREE FIREWORKS
It’s going to be a pretty unique year—mathematically speaking. 2025 is the rare perfect square year, meaning it’s the square of an integer: 45. Soak it in, because this will be the last perfect square year you will likely experience: The last time it happened was 1936 (the square of 44) and the next time will be in 2116 (46 squared).
AI in Education: A Plot Twist You Didn’t See Coming!
Picture this: AI as the ultimate classroom assistant, but not in the way you’d expect. If you thought AI was all about cookie-cutter lessons, think again! This article reveals why “personalized” learning isn’t about perfection but about empowering students to take charge of their education. With AI as a creative tool, the possibilities are endless. Ready to see it in a whole new light? Check it out!
Vengeance MOST Fowl
You must watch this! Inspire your kids to do some Stop Motion.
The trailer is great and the Behind the scenes of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is fabulous, lots of insights in to how this animation is done.
Use the STOP MOTION app, the free version is just fine and has everything you need. Let you kids create their own. Use lego, paper, shells, play dough, plastoscene in fact anything you like. Check out some of the VT YouTube Stop Motion Ideas
Meet Super Thinker: Your Thinking Sidekick!
Super Thinker is here to make thinking fun, exciting, and a little bit genius. Dive into critical thinking challenges, unlock creative breakthroughs, or get logical like never before. From tackling tricky ideas to dreaming big, explore fresh perspectives with skills like Critical Thinking and De Bono’s Lateral Thinking, Super Thinker is the ultimate thinking companion. Ready to explore a world of ideas? Discover all the Super Assistants
FREE, SECURE, NO Login, NO DATA COLLECTION and ready to inspire!
Me: hey students, here is a custom AI Assistant to help with your thinking, called Super Thinker. Copy and paste the chat into a google doc and send me a link.
Students Referencing AI chats in their evaluations and work flow, is, exactly what should be happening, you can get an AI Assistant to evaluate the chat as well, at the end. My favourite at the moment is - Super Thinker, you can try it out,
FREE, NO LOGIN, NO DATA COLLECTION
Don’t forget to ask for a Chat evaluation.
VT YOUTUBE
Super Maths transforms math learning, it allows students to take charge and choose how and what they want to learn about in Maths. Based on K-12 NSW Maths Syllabus. FREE, No login required, no data collected.
Check out all the Videos on the VT YouTube Channel & subscribe. There’s over 200. videos.
THANKS FOR READING
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The opinions expressed here are purely those of the editor, Cathy Brown. All other small print clauses apply. Such as: Use at your own risk. Nothing in life is guaranteed.
If it doesn't work for you, me send an email and I'll try to figure it out.
Editor: Cathy Brown cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
Before we go I have a question for you:
Would you be interested in learning more about AI and how to integrate into your teaching? Would you like more information about inservice and training?
No need to decide just yet, just email me if you'd like to start the ball rolling. cathy@virtualteacher.com.au or check out the VT AI Consultancy Page.