Use this Mindset Shift to Confidently Teach with AI
Overcoming Fears and Finding Success
I am walking into my assistant principal’s office to discuss tomorrow’s PD session, and I see in her face and her body language that she is nervous. I sit down across from her, and the first question is, “How are you going to talk about AI because I think the topic scares a lot of people.”
I pause for a second because from the moment I saw AI in action, I have been hooked and using it daily to help me create more engaging lesson plans, but I quickly realize that most people don’t have this reaction.
I assure her that my presentation is an overview of how teachers can use AI to make their lives easier and their lessons more exciting. I see her body immediately relax, and as we went through the presentation slide by slide, her tone changed from fear to excitement. She sees that approaching AI as a tool to make teaching easier and more enjoyable is the way for teachers to take baby steps toward using it.
Confronting the Fears Surrounding AI
Have you been scared by media reports of people losing their jobs to AI?
Have you been curious about using AI in your classroom but are unsure of where to start?
Have your professional development sessions on AI been confusing and overwhelming?
These questions were at the heart of why my AP feared my presentation.
She and the teachers on our staff are fed scary media reports about how AI will make teachers obsolete.
When facing change without understanding how that change can benefit you, fear is the natural and logical response.
The great news is that AI will not replace teachers. Remote learning during the pandemic proved that face-to-face interactions with teachers are essential to the learning process.
Even better news, AI will not replace you, but it can make the job of being a teacher so much easier. Its ability to help with lesson planning, administrative tasks, and student engagement saves time and opens new opportunities to create lessons that were too time-consuming and overwhelming in the past.
AI can let you breathe and breathe life back into your classroom, but you must be willing to take baby steps out of your comfort zone to experiment with new tools.
Channeling the Fear Into Curiosity
AI empowers teachers to make their lives easier and their teaching even more effective.
A quote I found in Forbes magazine illustrates the point well. It claims, “Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t going to replace people — but people who use AI are going to replace people who don’t.”
We need to prepare ourselves and our students for a future where AI is an essential tool in virtually every field. We cannot let our fear stand in the way.
Turning the Fear Into Excitement
How do you turn fear into excitement? You need hope!
Psychologist Shane Lopez argues, “Hope is created moment to moment through our deliberate choices. It happens when we use our thoughts and feelings to temper our aversion to loss and actively pursue what is possible. When we choose hope, we define what matters to us most.”
The key element is hope, and it can be learned!
Lopez explains that there are three steps to building hope: goals, agency, and pathways.
You can set a goal to learn AI to help you save time with lesson planning and administrative tasks.
When you break that goal into small, achievable steps, you have agency, which is the ability to learn new things to achieve your goals. Start small by using AI to help you with one lesson plan that needs improvement, and then build from there.
There are multiple pathways to help you learn how to use AI, including YouTube, blogs, podcasts, and other teachers in your school who are already using AI. Find the easiest and most enjoyable pathway for you, and then take a baby step down that path.
Final Thoughts
Follow Shane Lopez’s three steps of hope as you learn AI.
Set a goal to learn one AI tool this week (I recommend ChatGPT).
Use your agency to set aside a 15–30 minute block of time to learn about the tool.
Follow an easy pathway by watching a YouTube video on using ChatGPT for lesson planning, and try to use one of the suggestions in your classes this week.
Remember, baby steps are still steps forward, and you will build confidence as you take small steps out of your comfort zone.
You can beat your fear surrounding AI if you take action.
Start today!
