When it comes to integrating technology in our classrooms, I am steadfast in one core belief: digital tools should enhance, not replace, teaching. As we’ve explored in this column, there are four guiding questions that can help us evaluate our use of technology:
- Does it minimize complexity?
- Does it maximize individual power and potential?
- Does it reimagine learning?
- Does it preserve or enhance human connection?
If we are going to implement AI in education, we must ensure these questions receive a resounding “yes.” By focusing on making teachers’ work more efficient and effective—and in turn, their professional lives more sustainable—we can meet all four criteria. Let me illustrate with an example.
I coach teachers in curriculum development, humanizing assessment practices, and sustainable instruction. When one of my partner schools wanted to create concept-based units, I saw an opportunity. While teachers had great ideas, developing a year-long scope and sequence was going to be time-consuming. To make the process more efficient, I turned to AI.
Here’s the prompt I used with Google Gemini:
I am a 3rd grade teacher in Minnesota. I want to create concept-based units of instruction that incorporate inquiry. I also need to be structured with my assessment, ensuring that I am capturing valid and reliable data against reading, writing, and math skills, specifically. Here are the standards. [Attach standards.] Can you group these into 4–6 concept-based units of inquiry that are interdisciplinary?
Within seconds of sharing the standards, Gemini created templates for four interdisciplinary units. Take the “Light and Sound” unit, with its enduring concept, “Energy can be transferred and transformed.” AI integrated reading standards through biographies of scientists who studied light and sound, writing standards through experimental procedures, and math standards through data collection and graphing.
Used wisely, AI can enhance human connection so teachers can focus on meaningful, collaborative learning experiences for their students.
AI provided a framework for organizing standards into cohesive units, saving valuable planning time. Most importantly, in this case, AI enhanced human connection—teachers could focus their energy on creating meaningful, collaborative learning experiences for their students. To be clear, AI did not do the planning for me. Instead, it took on one of the most time-intensive parts of planning a scope and sequence—categorizing the units and synthesizing them into a unit of instruction. Teachers still had to do the important and mindful work of aligning activities to learning targets, though it stands to reason that AI could, in fact, support this part of the process. The key is to make sure that AI doesn’t take from teachers’ most important work: thinking about their instruction.
This is just one example of how AI can help make teachers’ (and coaches’) work more sustainable. Here are a few others.
Idea 1: Create “crash courses” for new teachers.
New teachers often need quick guidance on topics they’re struggling with, but principals, coaches, and peers aren’t always available to provide it. AI can help synthesize essential information.
Try this prompt:
I am an 8th grade teacher struggling with classroom management. I want to learn more about restorative practices that give kids agency while still expressing clear boundaries to students. I want ways to be a confident, authoritative teacher that still gives students voice, helping them feel heard and validated. Can you provide 8–10 activities that I can try with my students, along with some research around restorative classroom management?
Note the prompt’s specificity—AI works best when we’re intentional about our requests. It can gather and organize information quickly, leaving us to focus on what matters: our professional expertise and judgment.
Idea 2: Generate newsletters for families on how they can support learning at home.
Consider this very relevant need: many parents are looking for guidance on how they can support their children’s reading at home. There are often misconceptions about what will get kids reading more, and as teachers, it is our collective responsibility to educate parents on best practices for building reading skills at home.
Try this prompt:
I am a high school teacher, and many of my students need extra support with reading. Many parents are asking me how they can support their children at home, and I need some simple solutions that parents can access with minimal resources, such as a public library or free sources for books. Please write me a newsletter that provides high school parents with 3–5 practical tips, backed by research, that will increase reading fluency and comprehension.
Gemini responded with accessible advice, backed by research from the likes of Nell Duke and the National Reading Panel, both of which are vetted resources in literacy academia. It emphasized choice, making reading enjoyable, and matching books to children’s interests and reading levels.
Idea 3: Generate custom texts for specific decoding skills and vocabulary.
Finding books tailored to students’ reading needs can be challenging. I can personally attest to spending countless hours sifting through the school library or online book collections to find that perfect text that meets all my students’ needs. While AI isn’t a substitute for libraries or real physical books, it can provide supplemental texts to address a specific skill.
Try this prompt:
I am a 1st grade teacher, and I have a group of students who are still struggling with decoding words with -at, -am, -an, and -ap. Will you write me a decodable text that uses high-frequency words related to our unit of study on frogs? It should be around 50 words.
Gemini created this text in seconds.
Focus on What Matters
Technology should simplify our work, not complicate it. The time saved using AI can be redirected to what truly impacts student learning—whether that’s assessing student work to adjust instruction or making positive phone calls to parents.
If you’re curious about what AI can do for you, try these prompts or adapt them to your needs.
Editor’s note: Claude, an AI tool, was used for editing assistance with this article.
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