AI Powered Teaching: What's Possible now? | S3E3

Calling AI “the devil” might make for a dramatic headline, but it doesn’t help teachers who are drowning in prep, paperwork, grading, and the daily demands of the classroom. In this episode of the Tools for Success Podcast, Cathy Tooley and educational consultant Jana take the fear head-on and reframe AI in education for what it actually is right now: a tool. Not Terminator. Not Matrix. A fast assistant that can help teachers reduce busywork, generate ideas, and spend more energy where it belongs, with their students.

We walk through practical, classroom-ready ways educators can use AI-powered teaching tools, including lesson planning aligned to specific state standards, generating fresh activity ideas when you feel stuck doing the same routines, and creating entrance tickets, bell ringers, and exit tickets at different reading levels. We also talk about AI as a first-pass grader and feedback helper, especially for writing mechanics, while making one thing clear: the teacher must remain the final editor and decision-maker. AI can’t reason, can’t truly know your students or audience, and can’t replace your professional judgment, but it can save you hours.

The conversation also explores how AI can support parent communication, newsletters, classroom resources, and other repetitive tasks that often eat away at a teacher’s time. The goal is not to replace the educator. It’s to give educators back more time to teach, connect, and build relationships with students.

Then we swing to the part schools often skip: AI policy in schools. One of the biggest risks isn’t teachers using AI thoughtfully. It’s schools and districts adopting it without clear expectations for teachers and students. Cathy and Jana discuss why schools need practical AI guidelines, why AI detection tools can be wildly inaccurate, and how clear policies can reduce confusion and conflict while protecting academic integrity.

The biggest takeaway? AI is a tool, not a teacher. Like email, computers, smart boards, and other technology that once felt unfamiliar, AI becomes more useful when educators understand what it can and cannot do. It can help with lesson planning, differentiation, grading support, communication, and efficiency, but it cannot think like you, reason like you, or most importantly, build relationships with and care for your students the way you can.

If you’re a teacher, principal, instructional coach, superintendent, or school leader looking for practical AI classroom strategies without the hype, this episode is for you. Listen now, share it with a teammate, and subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations about the tools shaping education.

💬 After you listen, tell us: What’s the first task you’d want AI to take off your plate?

Step into growth and purpose! Discover my books and resources designed to help you lead, learn, and live with impact.

✨ Click here: https://t-sml.mtrbio.com/public/smartlink/toolsforsuccess

//About

Cathy Tooley is the Founder & CEO of Tools for Success and a seasoned educator with over 40 years in K–12 classrooms and school leadership. From high school teacher to principal, Cathy has dedicated her life to supporting educators. In 2014, she launched Tools for Success to provide real, in-person instructional coaching—not just “PD in a box.” She’s the author of The Education System Is Broken, a national speaker, and a fierce advocate for teachers. Through this podcast, she’s spotlighting the ripple effect of great teaching.
🔗 Website | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

AI Is A Tool Not A Threat

Cathy Tooley 0:00

Let's address the elephant in the room, which is AI is the devil.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

We're not talking about the Terminator. We're not talking about the Matrix. No.

Cathy Tooley 0:08

We're talking about a tool. I want to spend this podcast rather with what it can be for our teacher. It must be used as a tool.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

And that means you have to get to know it a little bit more.

Cathy Tooley 0:21

It can't think like you, it can't reason like you, and most importantly, it can't love your kids.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

No. Build a relationship with your children.

Cathy Tooley 0:33

Hi everybody, Kathy Thule. Thanks for joining us again on the Tools for Success podcast. So I'm joined with one of my educational consultants, Jana. Doesn't that feel so it does? It feels very important. Feels very important. We know that it really isn't, but but we feel important. So working with me with Tools for Success. So we're going to tackle a topic today that I think is um. It's sometimes a taboo, don't you think? It's sometimes a taboo, and that is ready. We're calling this podcast today AI Power Teaching. What's possible now? So let's address the elephant in the room, which is AI is the devil.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yes. I come in contact with that constantly.

Cathy Tooley 1:18

AI is the devil.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

So I always I always say this is not, we're not talking about the Terminator. We're not talking about the Matrix. No. We're talking about a tool.

Cathy Tooley 1:27

A tool.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

That's it.

Cathy Tooley 1:28

A tool. So for those of you that are gonna watch this right now that are like, she's speaking of the devil. And she's gonna bring it into our schools. I want you to remember that email was once the devil. Yes. That phones. Some might still argue that point, but phones were once the devil. Computers. Computers. Oh my gosh, remember when everybody got computers? Um debit cards, credit cards, and the fact that you didn't pay cash. Like, how can you function a world? Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

I remember my I was a first generation smart board user.

Cathy Tooley 2:09

Oh, I remember so much.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

The very first year. And now so many of our schools, it's just everybody has a Promethean or smart board or Apple TV.

Cathy Tooley 2:17

I remember when when they used to call you if you're, you know, remember you'd be in a classroom and you would hear this Kathy Thule to the main office, please. Kathy Thule to the main office. Where everybody heard that, right? And now they just call the teacher, right? So I I I say all of that, not to be tongue-in-cheek. We know we're gonna talk about AI, but to say everything at some point to someone was new. Yes. And that's what AI is. That's what AI is. Um, we are not gonna spend time in this podcast having a debate as to whether AI should be here or not. Um I always laughingly say it's like people that are petitioning a building that shouldn't be built when the foundation's already been laid.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Right.

Cathy Tooley 3:05

Um AI is here, it is here, and I want to spend this podcast rather with what it can be for our teachers. So so, with all of that premise in mind, um, if you really believe that AI is the devil, I'm gonna encourage you to turn this off. Because I'm not gonna convince you it's not the devil, and you're not gonna convince Jana or I that it is the devil. From someone who runs a very successful company, I use AI every day. Every single day. I am a writer. You can see there are books in front of me. Yet when I'm gonna write that email and I'm thinking, that the tone I wanted, I run it through Chat GPT and get it checked. Now, sometimes they don't change things, or sometimes they think I'm like, oh, that's so much better. But it so I I say all of that to say, if you really want to hear some thoughts of two veteran educators about AI who didn't exist when you started teaching, how about you?

Lesson Plans Faster With AI

Cathy Tooley 4:05

Yes, no. No. Then then stay tuned. And if you don't, then we wish you well and we love you and move on. Okay, so when we talk about an AI-powered teaching, what does that really mean to a real classroom teacher now?

SPEAKER_02 4:18

I think for a real classroom teacher, we're really talking about how am I using this tool to assist me in the class with preparation for my class? What does it look like? It might be preparation in lesson plans, it might be preparation of materials, um, also working with specific state standards or goal objectives. Um, how can I use AI to help me along? So that's how I usually work with teachers when I'm talking AI is how can this help you? And I can give specific exam examples. I have teachers who use AI to write a specific lesson plan for a specific standard. Um, it can even match a template that you might need to have, it can give you ideas. Now, that being said, a teacher may read that lesson plan and not like it. So it's not that you're being required to use it, it's just a simple way to do that. It's never gonna replace you. And I like using lesson planning as a as an example. When I was teaching, which has been quite a few years ago now, um, when I was teaching, I might spend six hours planning for an elementary classroom, a general ed elementary classroom. Remember that writing out the lesson plan books and having all the resources in front of you.

Cathy Tooley 5:32

Oh my gosh. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

And I had all these things. And a lot of times for me, I will say I was not a good, I was not efficient with my time. I'd ended up doing that at home. Now I can take that same information and those ideas, put them into some type of AI filter, and immediately they are going to come back with some lesson plan options. I no longer have to spend the time writing that out. That's it. And I don't have to actually try to think up activities. And I really think that's important when you've been in the profession for a while and you're used to doing the same activities. Sometimes AI can generate something that's a little new and fresh and you're innovative.

Cathy Tooley 6:12

And you're doing the same activities because you simply don't know a different one to do. AI can help you look, this is the activity I'm doing. Um, can you give me some other ideas of what that would look like? I laughingly think about for those of you that are still watching this, cautiously thinking, I don't know if it's there. I remember, do you remember years and years ago uh when you would travel, you would go to AAA and pick up a trip ticks? Yes. And it was those flipped pages, and you flipped the pages. And I promise you, when I got up here today, I just plugged it into my phone and it just brought me here.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yes.

Cathy Tooley 6:42

And it just brought me here. Um it's funny how it's allowed in certain areas of our life because that's convenient. So give me another tip. Give me another tip of another way that a teacher could use AI.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

I think one of the second best ways that I've seen this is that teachers are creating exit tickets, entrance tickets, bell ringers constantly. You do that on a daily basis. And I have teachers who are attempting to differentiate those. Oh, of course. So they know they have students in the room that are able to read at grade level. They know they have students below grade level, they have students above grade level. So they're they're able to take a type of exit ticket or a bell ringer, entrance tickets, which are becoming really popular, and they're able to take that, put it through an AI generator, and it can come up with 20 different examples of that for you, which is really nice. And I like it because when we look at modern curriculum, it may come with exit tickets. Generally, that's a popular thing to be in your curriculum. Not always entrance tickets, right? No, and they might only have like four for a topic that you're gonna teach for two weeks. Correct. You need you need

Different Exit Tickets In Minutes

SPEAKER_02 7:50

more materials. So using it as a way to generate more materials is very, very popular. And to get them differentiated at a gray level that you need them at is very important.

Cathy Tooley 8:00

So why do you think so many people are so scared of AI?

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Because we have science fiction in our head. Yeah, we do. This idea that if I get on Chat GPT, I don't know what's gonna come out of that computer screen at me. Right. And it's and it's going to do all this with you. So one of the biggest things that I, when I'm talking to teachers, is I really talk about AI right now, they are just pattern generators. That's it. They take a lot of patterns, they are compile them, they plug them in there, they compile them and they shoot them back out at you when you ask something. Now, about 90% of the time, they're gonna hit you pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

They do.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Around 10% of the time, not so good. Not so great. So it's just recognizing a pattern. And there are different generators now that there are ones specifically for teachers that are fabulous. And, you know, we have the one we always reference, which is ChatGPT. It works well, but you will get used to the system you practice with, and it's not as scary as you think it is.

Cathy Tooley 9:00

Yeah, so why do you think that aside from the science fiction view, which I really think people believe that well, I think that that science fiction teaches us that AI is gonna take over the world. And these robots, I don't know where they're gonna come from. Um, and they're gonna just, you know, replace teachers, and teachers are just gonna be taught by this AI classrooms, which is the most ludicrous thing. Because every single thing we've talked about is AI as a tool. It's no different than your textbook. Correct. It's just a different tool. Um it's a faster tool than your textbook, but it's not a different tool. And at the end of the day, it's not gonna replace you because you're the one that has to um you look at that tool and you look at the resources that it's providing you. You know, I use ChatGPT as an example of what I use a lot. And so ChatGPT has picked up my tone. It knows my company, right? It knows what I do. But there are some times I put a prompt in and think, that's not the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Because at the end of the day, what ChatGPT can't do is think. Right. It can't reason, it can't rationalize, it can't know my audience like I do. But to ask GPT, give me a great hook for uh I've got to teach Moby and Dick today. Moby Dick today. Give me a great hook to start that lesson. They'll give you hundreds of them that you've never thought of that you're going home and racking your brain about. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Use it to save you time.

Cathy Tooley 11:02

Use it to save your time. That's what it's here for.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Use it to save your time. The third

Why AI Feels So Scary

SPEAKER_02 11:05

thing you kind of that I uh I the third way that I see it being used a lot is it's becoming a grader for a lot of teachers. Oh, tell me about that. So we have some specific teacher AI engines that are designed to take a PDF of a document.

Cathy Tooley 11:21

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

And they can grade it for grammar if you tell them. It can grade it for verbiage, it can grade it for sentence, you know, complex sentence structure, it can give you comments about what types of comments. You can set it to do that. And so instead of, you know, you were talking, I heard you talking to another um consultant earlier, and they were talking about having to grade 190 you know papers in a week. I had to do that when I taught high school English. Um, that's that doesn't exist anymore. You can actually scan the product, put it through the generator. It will generate grades for you. Do you need to check them?

Cathy Tooley 11:59

Of course you do. Yes. Just like it's a tool. Yes. It's a tool. I promise you, I always go back to the simplest, like, you know, by roofer. That roofer doesn't just open a box of nails and assume every one of them are perfect. Right. I've watched people look at boards to make sure that but it's wood. Shouldn't it all be the same? It's not. No, but it's not. You still have to be the final eye of what of what is appropriate and what is accurate, but it's still a tool. Um when when you work with schools, because I know you've started working, a lot of our schools are starting to reach out in regard to needing supports around AI. Because I think it's a um, I don't understand why it's become such a um dilemma around like almost it's we're we're selling ourselves out. That's the feeling I get.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Don't you especially in the writing field. Yes. I think you hear it all the time. We will accept a written copy, but nothing that's AI generated. They don't, they're they're very particular.

Cathy Tooley 12:59

And I'm like almost like you are less of a person if you're willing to accept the AI.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

I always want to respond with if you've put it in AI, you have put yourself in that document. Yeah, it may create whatever it creates, and you will have to go through that document, but it is still based on what you have told it to do. It's it's still a writing tool.

Cathy Tooley 13:22

Right. I I that's the most conflict-centered thing going on right now. It cooks faster than an oven, but it's still just

AI Grading With A Human Final Check

Cathy Tooley 13:30

cooked. Yes. It's the same thing, but a microwave is just quicker. Yes. So I can warm up that baked potato from last night in 30 seconds, or I could put it in my oven for 20 minutes. Right. It's still the same baked potato. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

And that's why there's a conflict fear around that process right now. And I'm not sure where it's going to go. I just I just recognize that it's out there. And I see it with teachers. We have fear of technology at some levels.

Cathy Tooley 14:00

Well, I think by because by nature, we are historically a very conservative field.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

We are.

Cathy Tooley 14:05

We are a very conservative field.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

And we are protective and confidential on certain things. So that always built into it.

Cathy Tooley 14:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

And then I also think there's the unknown factor in technology. Like, I don't understand how computer viruses work. So I assume that anytime I interact on a computer, it's a possibility.

Cathy Tooley 14:21

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

So I think we we kind of process that way.

Cathy Tooley 14:24

Do you remember, for those of you that are as old as as John and I are, the first time you fax something, I remember thinking, oh my God, how did that happen? That this piece of paper and these words went through that little machine and then came out on the other side saying the same thing. Now, I no more question a fax machine than anything. Than anything.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah.

Cathy Tooley 14:48

And I think that's where we would be with AI. Now, let's swing the pendulum the other way. Okay. I think there are cautions that we do have to take as schools and as educators as when it comes to working with AI. What would those be in your mind?

SPEAKER_02 15:02

I think there are it's twofold. And I've had these discussions with schools that have brought me into work with teachers in AI, and mainly they're bringing me in to work as is how is this a tool and how can we use it? Correct. What happens in those conversations over the day or the half day or whatever it happens to be is that we realize we do not have a policy for teachers. There it is. And we do not have a policy for students. There it is. So you have to take a look at it. There it is. One of the most popular teaching AI generators right now also offers a student connection to it. So a teacher can give them connection to the grammar checker. So they can write a paper and then they can put it through the grammar checker through her account. That is something that sounds great and I like to talk about it, but it also really needs to have be backed by a school policy. How are we using AI with our students? What are we allowing them to do? What are our limits? Um and and we're already seeing some movement on that a lot. I've already hearing schools that will not allow

The Ethics Panic Around Writing

SPEAKER_02 16:05

the computers are no longer going home because they're afraid students will AI generate at home on homework. So all like writing papers is happening in the classroom. Instead of something we used to say, you need to get, you know, three more pages tonight. You need to finish this paper. So very important. And how schools want their teachers to use it is extremely important. Do you want them to use it and how?

Cathy Tooley 16:27

That's it. That's it. So I think before we just decide it's the devil, why don't we just decide it's a tool and we're going to define as a school, as a classroom, what that is. What that is and how we're going to use it. Yes. Rather than flipping our hands to, you know, Satan is entering our classrooms through the ethical. That was the word I couldn't come up with earlier. It's become, I don't understand how AI has become so ethical. Um, I listen, again, I'm not going there. I know there are some unethical things happening with AI. We're not talking about that. No. We're talking about your classroom. So I don't think you're creating robots. I just maybe you are, but I mean, who are we to judge? But we're talking about in the modern classroom today, how can AI become a tool that makes your teaching better? When you work with schools, because Jana has become kind of our go-to person when schools reach out and say, you know, we need some supports around AI. We want to look at AI, we want to understand it as a resource. When you go into schools and work with them, what have you found? I want to know, there's kind of a two-pointed question. What have you found to be the biggest misconception when you walk in? And then what have you found

Schools Need Clear AI Policies

Cathy Tooley 17:40

is an absolute gaping hole that they are leaving on the table, not finding time for, because they're so scared of this tool.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

I think for most of the schools that I've worked with, they're so scared of the tool that they haven't really paid attention to what it can do for them. And I always want to say this you know, when you got that first, when we first got email, which is a good example. Yes. We first got smart boards or Prometheum boards, we first got projectors in the rooms. Oh gosh, yes. TVs in the room, remember. Yeah, TVs in the rooms. Those were tools that you actually had to spend time with and play with.

Cathy Tooley 18:12

To figure out how to use it.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

And I say play because I really sat after school for an hour and thought, well, how can I use this? And what does it look like? And I didn't have there wasn't a huge amount of training on that. It was it was really me, I I want to say fiddling with what that product was. And I think I think that's something that schools need to take into account when we're looking at and are not thinking of when we think of AI generators in the in the classroom and in in the school itself. Um so that's kind of an issue that's popping up. Um what was the rest of your question? I'm sorry.

Cathy Tooley 18:46

And then what is one big piece you think they're leaving on the table? They're missing, they're losing because they're so worried about the colour.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

I really think the overall tool aspect is being skipped.

Cathy Tooley 18:55

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

They think it's only a generator for of information, and instead they're not evaluating, oh, there are generators out there just for teachers that can do all these fabulous things. The one I'm uh that's very popular, and every teacher out there right now is probably going, I know what she's talking about. It has over like 90 application functions, and just one or two of them are checking a paper. There's also things that generate parent notes. There's things that generate, you know, they're designed just to do that for you.

Cathy Tooley 19:24

If you are sitting behind a keyboard typing a newsletter, yeah. No. Oh, no, no, not even more. No, not anymore. Yeah. And I think about, we were both principals. Do you remember how much? I know I spent no less than thank God we only put a newsletter out once a month. These people that do it once a week, you're just Jesus. I couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

We did them once a week.

Cathy Tooley 19:45

Oh, we did it once a month. But thank God I had a high school.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

It was at least half a day. Oh, it was at least half a day, if not more. No, no more. To make sure all the general these are the activities you can scan in the PDFs and it'll make the newspaper for you.

Cathy Tooley 19:59

There's no need to do that. Look at the pictures and call it a day. Yes. Um I think of the teachers, you know. I remember as a principal pushing my teachers to send out newsletters to their parents and uh such pushback because it took it. It took so long. It took so long. And now, um, I I have a one of our daughter-in-laws is a teacher, and she just each week kind of writes the things that they did, and then at the end of the week, it just generates it. It just generates it for them.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

For the generators that are being built into products,

The Time Saving Tools Schools Ignore

SPEAKER_02 20:30

like being built into Google, being built into these are all free. Well, if you have a teacher website, oh my god, that generator can now build it for you. Yes. And update it every week. Yes. You don't have to do that. No. So it'll take care of it for you. It is a huge tool that I think we're not utilizing because we're scared of it.

Cathy Tooley 20:49

Because we're scared of it. So uh biggest takeaway you want people to have from this podcast today when it comes to I AI is what?

SPEAKER_02 20:57

I think there's two. One, it is a tool. That's it. It must be used as a tool. And that means you have to get to know it a little bit more. Correct. I think the second one is that you have to have a system at your location, whatever your school is for using it. The other big one that I always put out there is a warning. There are lots of generators that will check writing and tell you how much of it was AI generated. Those don't work and they're wrong almost 100% of the time. And if you want an example, take any scripture in the Bible and put it in a generator checker. And it will tell you. It'll tell you it's 100% AI generated because that pattern is out there everywhere.

Cathy Tooley 21:42

Everywhere replicated, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Yeah. It's been replicated so much that it assumes you're just copy it's just an AI copy. And it's not. So before you accuse a child or a teacher of making it on an AI, think about that's not how that works. So we'll have we'll have real conversations about what is going on there.

Cathy Tooley 22:02

Start with some policies. Gotta start with some policies. Just like anything. When we brought television to our classroom, we brought in e-commerce to our classroom. We brought in um I remember when our phones came on our desks. I mean, there have to be policies. So you have to begin with policies. And I would say the second thing is play, get out there and play, get out there and play. Get out there and play.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Yes. And really, educators, I really encourage you. There are there are specific engines for teachers. For you. Use them. For free. Yeah, they're totally free. For free. And I have, there is not one that I use. I use about five. There is not one that I use for teachers that the free base is enough.

Cathy Tooley 22:38

Is plenty. You don't need the platinum or the whatever.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

You don't have to pay your monthly fees.

Cathy Tooley 22:41

So here's your challenge, teachers that are watching this as we start to wrap this up. I want you to stop for a second, and I want you to

Key Takeaways Plus A Warning

Cathy Tooley 22:51

delete, silenced, ignore all of the science fiction fantasy. Fantasy that AI is. I want you to do what you do best, and that is create a policy and use it as a tool. Where it works, if it doesn't, don't. But if it doesn't, don't. And then the last thing I want you to hear is it's never, ever, ever going to replace you. Right. It can't. It can't think like you, it can't reason like you, and most importantly, it can't love your kids. Right. So thank you for joining us today and for being a part of this podcast. We'll see you next time. Have a great day.