3 Ways AI Helps Teachers
Have you fallen out of love with teaching?
Do you struggle to reclaim the passion you had early in your career?
I’ve spoken to hundreds of teachers about complex topics like burnout, passion, and self-care.
During our discussions, I’ve noticed that there are three things educators do to burn bright without burning out. Perhaps AI can help you with some of these - perhaps MyTeacherAide can assist, or maybe there are other levers you can pull. Here are three things to consider:
Tame Your Workload
I remember the first time I felt overwhelmed by my workload.
It was a deluge of marking, reports, and meetings. I didn’t come up for air for weeks; honestly, it was one of my least favourite periods as a teacher.
No one thrives when they feel overwhelmed by their work.
This is where I’ve found artificial intelligence to be a huge help. Think of AI like having an army of assistants.
You might tell one, “Give me 10 suggestions for how to launch this unit,” and to another, “Draft a parent letter for the excursion to the pool.”
The only difference is that, instead of taking an assistant a few hours, it takes AI a few seconds.
The ‘AI as assistant’ is my dominant paradigm for understanding these tools, and it’s the reason we named our AI software ‘MyTeacherAide’.
For some people, getting in control of the work won’t be as simple as fast-tracking administrative work with AI. There will be more complex factors at play. AI isn’t the solution to every problem, but I have found it to be the solution to many common workload issues I faced. Tame your wild workload and you’ll be well on your way to loving teaching again.
Improve Creativity
I’m a big believer that all humans are creative.
I would even go so far as to say we were designed to be creative.
It’s this creative nature that gets neglected when we rinse and repeat the same lessons, units, and assessments year after year. And I say that as someone who has rinsed and repeated more than his fair share of material!
In early 2023 I was faced with a decision. I had half an hour before I launched an assignment with my class, and I gave myself that time to see if I could come up with anything more engaging than the research report I used the year before.
In 30 minutes I had:
Brainstormed assessment ideas
Chosen one I thought would work
Drawn up two task sheets for that assignment
Realised I didn’t like the idea after all, put it in the bin
Chosen a new idea and created a new task sheet
Created a simplified version of that assessment for some of my learners
Created a new rubric, and uploaded both assessments and the rubric to our Learning Management System.
I have to tell you, that 30 minutes of intense, focused creativity was incredibly rewarding.
AI helps you flex your creative muscles by speeding up the brainstorming and first draft phase. More creativity, more job satisfaction!
Have a Bigger Impact
I consider myself a hard worker, but not all work is created equal. I can work big hours when I feel like I’m making a big impact.
But there have been times where I have felt ineffective as an educator. During these times, I’ve found my love for the profession has dwindled.
I was talking to a teacher who had 19 students on complex learning plans in her class of 32. She felt like she had to choose between student care and self-care. Because she wasn’t willing to stay up until midnight every weekday, she wasn’t able to fulfill all the requirements of the learning plans. She felt ineffective.
Because she felt ineffective, she felt guilty and frustrated.
Thankfully, many of these adjustments were things that now take moments, not hours.
In just 15 minutes a day, she could:
Differentiate text
Create vocab lists
Chunk instructions
Write sentence starters
Create adjusted assignments
Provide dot-point summaries
She could care for her students without sacrificing self-care.
She was able to improve her impact, and feeling like she was truly making a difference for her students made all the difference for her.
Conclusion
AI isn’t the solution to every problem. But, it is part of the solution for many problems.
If any of the examples I’ve shared resonate with you, why not let me know? I’d be more than happy to talk with you about how AI might help you tame your workload, embrace your creativity, and make an impact on your learners.
Until next week,
Happy Teaching!
Paul Matthews
