The Rise of AI in the Classroom… for Teachers
In my work training educators to use AI, I’ve watched something incredible happen: teachers light up when they see how quickly tools like Gemini can generate reading passages, comprehension questions, formative assessments, rubrics, choice boards, and differentiated learning activities. All of this without ever leaving Google Classroom, something they have been using for years.
The reaction is almost always the same... relief.
“I can’t believe how fast that was.”
“This used to take me hours.”
We run through the list of activities we created in 10 minutes and how we could use our teacher teams to maximize our efforts and PLC time to delve into the data these common formative assessments could generate.
And we celebrate that together. Because it is worth celebrating.
AI can free teachers from the time-consuming busywork that too often keeps them from the real heart of the profession: connecting with students and designing meaningful learning experiences.
But Then the Question Appears…
Usually about 15–20 minutes into the training, someone asks it:
“What happens when students start using this?”
(Followed quickly by: “Isn’t that cheating?”)
That moment marks a turning point and a shift from excitement to uncertainty. And I always tell them the same thing:
It is our responsibility to teach students how to learn with these tools.
Efficiency is the easy part of the AI conversation in education. The hard part comes next.
Why Efficiency Isn’t the End Goal
If teachers celebrate AI because it helps them complete tasks efficiently, then we have to be consistent when students use it for the same purpose. If we design assignments that AI can complete instantly, and then get upset when students use AI to complete them… that’s not cheating — that’s a design problem.
The truth is simple:
If efficiency is the goal, AI wins every time.
If learning is the goal, we must design for something deeper.
This first training is only 45 minutes long, and it’s meant to get teachers comfortable with using AI as a professional tool. But it sets the stage for the next conversation, the one that requires transformation.
As for now, we get to know the tool, use it, learn it, play with it, and see what is possible. We have to be comfortable using it before we venture into the realm of using it in our instruction and learning experiences as there is a loss of control when we have students using this. Especially if we are doing things right and students are creating and learning in ways that were not possible before.
