Skills AI Can't Teach: Why Human Skills Matter More Than Ever Episode 303

Skills AI Can't Teach may be the most important skills our students need for the future. In this episode, we're exploring creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, community, and curiosity—and why human skills matter more than ever.

Technology is changing fast, but the most meaningful parts of teaching have never been about information alone.

They're about people.

In this episode, we'll explore the 5 Cs:

✨ Creativity

✨ Collaboration

✨ Critical Thinking

✨ Community

✨ Curiosity

We'll discuss why AI can generate answers but can't replace human judgment, empathy, relationships, a sense of belonging, or the curiosity that drives real learning.

You'll also hear how STEM challenges, storybooks, and meaningful classroom conversations help students practice the very skills technology cannot teach.

If you've been wondering what role teachers play in an increasingly AI-driven world, this episode is a hopeful reminder:

The future doesn't need fewer humans.

It needs more humanity.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

STEM Bell Ringers

AI Vocabulary K-5

Free Device Free Activity

Transcript

Technology Is Moving Too Fast

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Technology is changing fast, faster than most of us ever even imagined. Welcome to One Tire Teacher. I'm Trina Debory. And today we are talking about skills AI can't teach, why human skills matter more than ever. Let's get started. So if you've been listening to this podcast, which is now also a YouTube show, so welcome if you're seeing me for the first time. But if you've listened for any length of time, you know that I'm not afraid of technology. I've spent most of my career exploring how technology can support learning as a teacher, as a student support specialist, as a media specialist. I even got a master's degree in educational technology. It's definitely one of the best gifts I've ever given myself. I've even created resources that teach children about AI or artificial intelligence. And I genuinely believe AI is here to stay. Although I really do hope we figure out how to not harm our planet with its existence. But today I want to talk about something that has been sitting in the back of my mind ever since I recorded last week's episode.

Teaching Is About People

SPEAKER_00 1:21

So if you'd missed 302, check it out. Because the more I think about AI, the more I realize the most important things we teach has never been about the information. Anyone can share information. You don't even need a special to share information. The most important part of teaching is and has always been the people. And people are wonderfully messy. Which brings me to something I like to call the five C's creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, community, and communication. And as a bonus, curiosity. These are the skills I believe matter more than they ever have. They've always been important, but I think they're even more important now. In fact, I would argue that as technology gets smarter, these skills become even more valuable.

Creativity As Connection Making

SPEAKER_00 2:18

So let's start with creativity. AI can generate ideas, lots of ideas, and very quickly, sometimes hundreds of ideas in seconds. But creativity isn't just producing something. Creativity is making connections. It's seeing possibilities. It's imagining something that doesn't exist yet. It's looking at a problem and asking, what if we try this instead? That's deeply human. And it's something children need opportunities to practice. I even have a 5C stem bell ringer bundle that captures 10 storybook titles for each C. So it's like 50 books. For example, in the creativity bucket, you might choose the following books. And I'm going to share some of them today because I think it's they're really cool. I know I'm not going to show show you all 50 books, but I am going to show you a few examples from the different C's. So, first of all, we're going to look at creativity. And one of the ones that I really love is called Noticing by Kobe Yamata, which is a beautiful story about noticing the things in the world, and it's like tapping into that creative side. We also have another great one for creativity, and it's I'm not just a scribble. So this is another fun one to get kids thinking about creativity. A third one on creativity is art and max. I mean, look at the cover, just the cover to start with, the conversations you could have about creativity from just this cover alone. All right, so each of those books, they have a STEM challenge based on the problem in the story. Kids get to practice these skills while also solving problems. You can grab it in my shop on TPT. I'll link to it below. And if you hear anything that you like in this video, be sure to hit the like button and share it with a friend. So let's move on to collaboration.

Collaboration Through Real Disagreement

SPEAKER_00 4:26

AI can work with you as a collaborative partner, but it can't teach a child how to work through a disagreement with a teammate. It can't teach compromising. It can't teach listening. It can't teach the moment when two students finally figure out how to solve a problem together. Those skills happen in relationship, and relationships are where learning lives. Some of my favorite titles inside my STEM collaboration bundle are Haywall by Susan Verde. Such a good one, especially when people are coming together for a purpose. Another one is Click Clack Moo, which is all about working together in order to overcome a problem that the cows are having with the farmer. Another one I love about collaboration is stone soup. This is such a great folk tale that you can use in the classroom to show how just one small act of kindness can inspire a whole entire village. So those are just a few in the category. Critical

Critical Thinking Against AI Errors

SPEAKER_00 5:36

thinking might be the one we hear about the most, especially right now. Because here's the thing AI can generate answers. If you've noticed in Google, now when you ask a question, it's not giving you resources to find the answer, it's telling you the answer. So we have to be 100% sure that it's giving us the right answer because AI makes mistakes. It hallucinates. That's what it's called, hallucinating. And so we have to make sure it's accurate. We can't just take it as fact, as gospel, because that's not what it is. So thinking critically about the answers is an important step that we need to be able to take. It doesn't automatically generate the best judgment. Kids need to learn to ask questions like, is this accurate? Does this make sense? Who created this? What's missing? What perspective am I hearing? Those are critical thinking skills. And honestly, some adults, me included, could probably use a little bit more practice with those skills too. My critical thinking stem storybooks bundle inside of the stem bell ringers focuses on three of my favorite titles. One of them was called The Unbudgeon Budgeable Cromudgeon, which is such a fun book, and kids love it. Takes critical thinking to get this curmudgeon to budge. So it's very fun. Another one that takes a lot of critical thinking is Dr. DeSoto by William Stag. This poor fox, he's got a toothache, and he goes to the mice to actually fix the tooth. Now, Dr. DeSoto, he knows that something might be brewing and that the fox might actually decide to eat him. And he's got to think fast. How is he going to help the fox, but also not allow the fox to eat him? So that's the question. Those are really fun ones to do for critical thinking. Another one that I love, which is a simple one for younger kids, is Can I Play Two by Mo Willems. And this is a very sweet book. And some of the solutions kids can come up with for the problem in this story are really incredible. So that's a very fun thing to do. Remember, there are 10 titles focused on each of the C's inside of this resource. And I'm just showing you a few of them.

Community And Communication For Belonging

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Next, we have community. And this one feels especially important to me. You can either look at it as community or communication, which are a little bit different, but also have a lot of similarities. Because sometimes I worry that we're becoming more connected digitally while feeling less connected as human beings. I talked last week about what I called an empathy recession. And I still think that's true. Children need places where they can feel seen, known, valued. They need opportunities to belong. That doesn't happen because of a program. It happens because of the people. It happens because of teachers who create classrooms where students feel safe enough to learn. One of my favorite community or communication books is The Day the Crayons Quit. I love all the ways that they have to communicate and all the ways that they work together within their community. And

Curiosity Beats Compliance

SPEAKER_00 9:02

finally, curiosity. This might be my favorite one because curiosity is where learning begins. Not compliance, not worksheets, not test prep, curiosity. Curiosity is the spark that makes a child ask a question. It's the reason they want to learn more. It's what turns learning from something we make children do into something they genuinely want to do. And when kids want to do it, it changes everything. And curiosity is something we have to protect, especially in a world where answers are becoming easier and easier to find. Because learning has never really been about collecting answers, it's about asking better questions, which is why I love the books that I chose for the curiosity bundle. A few of my favorite titles are Questions, Questions. Such a good one. The looking book, this is really fun and a fun thing to do with this, is an activity where you create glasses, the looking glasses, out of pipe cleaners. Let kids create glasses and then go discover the playground and the outside world in a whole new way. It feels like they have a superpower on. It's very fun. Another great one for curiosity is Ask Me. And then my final favorite one for Curiosity is the Curious Garden. I mean, just the title. You know, you know you're gonna be talking about Curiosity. I could honestly share all of them because I loved the Curiosity books so much. I created

Soft Starts Instead Of Morning Work

SPEAKER_00 10:43

these stem bell ringers as an alternative to traditional morning work. I wanted to focus on the 21st century skills with soft openers right at the start of the day. I also noticed when I recommended soft starts to teachers when I was in the role of student sports specialist, it really helped with some of those kids that had a lot of anxiety in the morning, and that's when they would act up. When they knew that they were coming into a soft start, like a STEM story station, it changed everything. Soft starts are another conversation for another day. But you can tune in to an older podcast episode, episode number 48. I talked about this on episode 48, and this is currently 303. So it's an oldie, but it's a goody. And it's called How to Avoid Behavior Issues with a Soft Opener for more information on soft starts.

AI Literacy Alongside Human Skills

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Now, one of the reasons I created my AI vocabulary resource that I talked about last week was because I wanted children to have language for understanding the world they're growing up in. I think AI literacy matters. I think digital literacy matters. I think technology literacy matters. And not in the way schools have done it, not for programs on Chromebooks, but for real true technology integration. Integration that matters, not just something that's babysitting our students. But I don't think those things replace human skills. I think they sit alongside them. In other words, children need to understand artificial intelligence, but they also need to understand empathy, creativity, collaboration, community, communication, and curiosity. And the good news is that teachers teach those things every single day. Sometimes without even realizing it. Every time you facilitate a discussion, every time you work together, every time you encourage a child to keep trying, every time you celebrate a creative idea, every time you create a space where students feel like they belong, you're teaching skills that technology cannot replace. And that's why I remain hopeful, because the future doesn't need fewer humans.

Free Resources And Final Reminder

SPEAKER_00 13:04

If you're interested in helping students think about technology and human connection, I do have a free, device-free digital citizenship lesson, and you can use it if it fits. You can find it at Trina Davry Teachingandlearning.com forward slash digital dash citizenship. And if you're curious about introducing AI concepts in an age-appropriate way, I'll also link to my AI vocabulary resource as well as my STEM bell ringers that focus on the five C's. But before you go, remember this the most important things we teach are often the hardest things to measure. And they may be the very things our students need the most. Next week we're going to take a look at what good teachers know that data can't measure. It's going to be a good one. Follow along to make sure you don't miss it. And if you like this episode, I would love for you to tell me in the comments. I would love for you to share books that you have used for any of those soft skills or 21st century skills. And until next time, sweet dreams and sleep tight.