AI Can Help Your Classroom If You Lead It Well

AI is everywhere in education right now, and the hardest part isn’t finding a tool. It’s knowing how to respond when students use it in ways that undercut learning, and how to redesign instruction so it actually strengthens skills instead of replacing them. We take a clear-eyed look at the positives and negatives of artificial intelligence in the classroom, then focus on what teachers and instructional designers can do next.

I walk through practical, time-saving uses for educators, including AI as a brainstorming buddy when you need an activity fast and coworkers aren’t available. We also dig into one of the biggest “why didn’t we always have this?” wins: using an AI rubric generator to draft criteria and performance levels, then editing as the expert to ensure clarity, rigor, and alignment. Along the way, we keep the most important point front and center: AI can be wrong, and professional judgment still matters.

Then we shift to student learning and curriculum design. We talk about NotebookLM as a way to keep AI grounded in your actual materials, giving students a safe place to ask questions and even generate a podcast-style overview for audio learning. We also explore creative assessment with Canva, like generating character images from text evidence, plus the power of building custom AI assistants that coach revision using the same rubric students will be graded on. We close with the “time and place” question: when AI fits, when it doesn’t, and how age and foundational skills should guide your approach.

Subscribe to the Faithful Teachers Podcast, leave a review, and share this with a fellow educator who’s trying to make sense of AI in education. Want more support elevating instruction for your school or organization? Visit faithfulteachers.com.

Transcript

Why AI Changes Teaching

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Faithful Teachers Podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Regal. I used to work as a high school English teacher, but now I'm an instructional designer at a local university. I've spent years honing my passion and my devotion not only to education and instruction, but also to my Christian faith. And that's what I want to help you do as well. We all know that AI has taken the world by storm in so many ways. Ways that I can't even count. But in the world of education, it has taken on both positive and negative forms. And fortun unfortunately, so many educators focus on the negativity, which I don't I don't discount. I think it's important to take that all into consideration and learn how students are learning it. Or excuse me, and learn on how students are using it. Because if we know how students are using it, then we're understanding maybe their motivations in it and also how we can pivot our instruction to be in a way that will sidestep the negative use, but acknowledge it as well. Because I'm sure students know that we're not stupid. We can see how they're using it and that it's not used in a proper way, but then that's an opportunity for us to educate them on the proper way of using it, and that doing the easy way out is not the best way, and here's why. So I think having those kinds of discussions with students, those kinds of lessons with students is important. However, we should not have those discussions and also do nothing with our curriculum and just hope that students will respect that. I do believe that we as educators and instructional designers need to be very conscious of that, but we also need to be changing how we do our curriculum because the world is changing, so we have to change with it, otherwise, we are doing a disservice to our educators, to our students, to our colleagues, just whomever. So I think it's important that we acknowledge all aspects about AI, how it's used, and then how we can improve education with it. So that way we are best preparing those that we're working with for the future. And we're also making our lives and potentially everyone else's lives, like students and colleagues, easier. So I want to share the different ways that you can approach AI in your curriculum that can help make your job easier and maybe even challenge how you do your curriculum so that way it's in a new way that can really benefit them and help them understand it. Generally

The Real Risk And Opportunity

SPEAKER_00 3:00

speaking, there are a couple of really great ways that us on the instructional side could use AI to help us fast track our instruction. Now, I know that there's a lot of different tools out there that can help you do just that. So like ChatGPT is really great in just the overall kind of just general AI stuff. And there's so many others in that area of well, like Gemini or Claude, or I think like Grock is another one. There's so many that I can't even count them all. But then there's some that get a little bit more specific. Like I think one of the most more popular ones, as far as I know, is Magic School AI. Um, gosh, there's there's gotta be many more, but that's the one that I've dabbled in at least. But with all of them, I feel like they, you know, they do a good job, but they only get you so far. Because, you know what, you still are the expert, believe it or not. Even if it feels like AI has all the answers, you still are the one A asking a question or asking it to help you with something, be you you're you're you're the yes and no in if you're gonna use that tool, or even if that tool is right, because AI can be wrong. It can most certainly be wrong, and you as the expert can make that call. It'll be like, hey, this isn't right. And maybe it was how and how the prompt was given that made it hallucinate in some way, or perhaps it's pulling from inaccurate data or inaccurate information. So you being able to say, hey, that's wrong, will be like, oh crap, yeah, it's on to me. Um, but

AI As Brainstorm Buddy

SPEAKER_00 4:40

anyway, so a few uh quick easy ways that I like to use AI to just help in my instructional endeavors is A, as a brainstorm buddy. I think when I'm stuck or I need to, you know, think of an activity or think of a project or just think of a new instructional style to teach a specific topic, it's a really great brainstorm buddy. Having that quick sounding board is really nice because even if you want to talk to your colleagues, being an educator is usually a pretty solo job because you're usually the only one in the classroom teaching the students, and you might want to talk to your next door neighbor teacher or your instructional coach, but they might be busy in a meeting or they might be teaching a class where your schedules just never line up. So having a sounding board right at your fingertips is really nice, especially if you have like a class that's gonna be taught next period. So I think that is one great way that you can utilize AI to really help with your instructional endeavors and elevate things a little faster.

Rubrics Faster With AI

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Another way that I think many teachers will agree how valuable it is, is a rubric generator. Oh my gosh. So amazing. I love it. That is probably like one of the best ways that AI has helped educators. Because rubrics, they are every teacher's bread and butter. They are just an a really essential part of effective instruction, but they're so, so tedious to create. They take so long because if you're creating an analytical rubric, then you have to have, you know, maybe like five, eight, ten areas of criteria that you're grading on, but then each of those areas will have like five points that they could get. And each of those columns of points should have a description of what a student did or did not do to earn those points. So that way there's no gray area or misunderstanding as to why that student got the point levels. So having a rubric generator in any of these AI places is just so amazing because it streamlines so much time that it would take to actually create it. And I will say that when a rubric is made, you as the educator or instructional designer should always read through it to make sure that all the criteria is accurate and all of the point columns are exactly where you want them to be. So that way there is definitely no challenges that you hit or bumps that you hit down the road. So, you know, there is a little legwork involved, but oh, it just cuts through so much time, it's fantastic. But now that

NotebookLM For Better Learning Options

SPEAKER_00 7:40

you like have these different ways that you can streamline your instruction, what different ways that can you use AI in your classroom that really help elevate instruction? And I think there's a few ways that you can do that. So one is offering different forms of your learning. So one great tool for this is Notebook LM. And I think Notebook LM is a really great tool. If you haven't heard of it, you need to check it out. It's a a tool from Google, so you can find it in that little waffle. And when you go into it, what's great about it is you can just drop in the information that you're teaching. It's not going to look into any other forms of the internet, and it's only gonna look at the content that you drop in its box, and that's so amazing, is having it pull only from that, because then it really first cuts through any background noise that might be going on on the internet that might screw up what you're trying to teach students. And what you can do with it is fantastic because once you drop the content that you're teaching in the box, students can do multiple things with it. They can have a conversation with it like they would on any other AI chat bot. So they can kind of like ask it questions and then it will respond based off of the documents or videos or whatever that you dropped in the box section. Or maybe you just want to give students a different way of learning that information. So you could go into the side panel and you could create a podcast based off of that information. And it will create, I think, like a 15-minute podcast just kind of giving an overview of that topic. And the podcast is great because it doesn't sound like a robot spot speaking, it sounds like it's two people actually having a conversation on the topic, and it's so easy to listen to. So maybe a student does not like to read, but they can do an audio recording. So maybe on their way to like the basketball game that night on the bus, they can listen to it, and then hey, they just got a lesson on the topic that you're teaching in a way that they can easily absorb it. And that in itself is so amazing. So I think utilizing tools in that type of way is just so great. It's it's simple and it's straightforward and it accommodates students, it meets students where they're at. And I think that's just such the beautiful thing about at least that form of AI for sure. But I think there's a lot of different ways that you can also utilize AI in your instruction that will help elevate your instruction and not shy away from it. Uh, one

Canva Creations As Assessment

SPEAKER_00 10:20

way is that you could have some type of creation come from the topic that you're teaching. For example, if you go into Canva, there are different tools that you can use to help create something. Fortunately, for education in the primary and secondary areas, you would be able to have a free account of Canva. And within Canva, you can create AI-generated images with different types of styles, or you can even have it code something so that way maybe students will create a game out of whatever topic that you're teaching that would help them learn and have students like assess each other in it. So let's say, okay, let's put this in an example. Let's say that you're reading a story to Kill Mockingbird, and you want students to create an image of Scout. Now, given the story of To Kill Mockingbird, you would know that Scout is a young girl, but she's very tomboyish because of her brother and her friends, and the fact that she no longer has her mother in her life. So having students create an image based off of the text descriptions that are given in the novel is a really great form of assessment. Because then you can see, A, if they are actually paying attention, because sometimes you might hear some students say that scout's a boy, because it seems like a more of a boy name without knowing the context. And if they are like, oh, it is a girl, then they'll put their assumptions to that. But if they are reading the text, then you know by the picture that they create with it. So that is one example is maybe having a quick formative assessment in the form of an AI-generated photo based off of the prompt that students give, and perhaps even the style that they choose that is like a 1930s reflected style. So you can add as many details to that as well. Or you could even use Canva code to help them really assess their learning on a specific topic. So perhaps you're teaching students um science and you want them to create a little game of a specific animal and a habitat and like interacting in that area. That might be a little intricate for Canva Code. I I played with the Canva Code a little bit, so it does have some really great features, but it it might take some prompting and iterations to get that right. But anyway, you can have students do something like that where, and maybe you give them full creativity of like, hey, create a quiz game for this chapter, and maybe you leave it at that. And then once students create that game, and note that for especially Canva code and even for Canva images, multiple iterations will be necessary. A student could get lucky and get it done on the first try, but it's definitely better if there is multiple iterations of a specific topic. So make sure they know that. And then once they have something created, they could share it with a partner or a group, and then the students can give their feedback on that. And then students are experiencing that topic multiple times over because they're not only creating something, but they're also assessing whether students, other students did well based off of that. So I think there are ways that we can

Build Helpful AI Assistants

SPEAKER_00 13:40

really lean into AI that really fosters creativity and makes learning into a new thing. Um, another way that we can lean into AI is by having it do do your job for you. And what I mean by that is not literally taking your job and you sitting on the curb with a box of your classroom goodies. No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is giving is building something that allows students a quick, fast-track way of doing a specific thing that you would do, but in a way that they can take advantage of. So an example of this would be building an AI assistant in Chat GPT, Claude, Gemini, whatever, and formatting that AI assistant to be able to do a specific skill. And so an example of this could be I created an AI assistant where the AI was like a proofreader for a specific essay that students were writing. So it students would feed in the essay that they've written and and then upload the rubric for that specific essay that they were gonna be graded on. And then the AI and that student had a quick conversation about like, okay, tell me a bit about your essay. What areas are you most worried about? And then it gave its feedback. Having like a proofreading pal was really helpful because then it really got to the heart of the issue and helped students to practice editing skills and revision skills kind of on their own before they would go to the teacher and be able to fast track that for teaching. And there's fun ways that you can do it too. I've also created an AI assistant where it was like a detective and it was building like a syllabus. It was for teachers, so it was a little bit different, but it was it was so much fun because it really fast-tracked uh something that would take forever for a teacher to do. Not forever, but you know what I mean. But I created the AI assistant to be kind of like overly confident, humorous, and it really came through because it he was the AI assistant just felt so incredibly silly, and you almost were kind of like, okay, you can calm down there. And I think that was reflected because the feedback that I got from the educators that were participating in that had had a lot of fun, and I I think that's attributed to how I had set up the AI assistant. So I think there's a lot of different ways that we can have AI help us do our jobs, but not take it away because I am a true believer that the authenticity that we bring to the classroom, that we bring to our work, and by extension, what how the students approach their work, whether that's in the secondary or even post-secondary, where they're going off to those jobs, really comes through and really just speaks to the heart of us as humans. And I think that's important is that, hey, AI is here and we're gonna use it as a tool to help elevate ourselves, but we don't want to lose ourselves in it. So I think that's such an important aspect to really consider as we take on AI in our lives and in our classrooms and in our instructional decisions, and how we ask students to do that as well. Now,

Time, Place, And Student Readiness

SPEAKER_00 17:15

before I close out, I want to give out I want to give my two cents on the whole AI aspects. I think it's here, so we have to embrace it to some degree. Because if we don't embrace it, then we're only making ourselves ignorant of it all, and we're doing a disservice to ourselves and to our colleagues and our students. Now, with that being said, I do believe that it has a time and place. I think that it is important for us in this education field to know when it is appropriate to implement it in the classroom. And while there is definitely debate on this topic, and I'm sure there will be, and there's debate on just all forms of technology in the classroom. I think it's important to, you know, consider the content that is being taught, the skills that are being taught, and the age of the individual. So perhaps there is a time frame that we set aside that we're like, these students will not have any access to technology or AI. They need to learn the skills like as they are. Simple as that. And then maybe there is a phase in their schooling where they start to be exposed to it just little by little. And then there is a phase where they're fully immersed in it. So I think with the time and place aspect in mind, it is so important to know the content and age of the area that you're teaching. I think that is something that we really need to consider. And, you know, it's not a perfect discussion, it's not a perfect rule because, you know, students progress at different times and paces, and they might be ready for technology or AI before another student will. And I think that's maybe important to consider. Granted, I know I've been in a classroom, it's hard to accommodate 20 to 30 different students at a time and be able to give students who are ready for that the tools and skills they need and not give other students that. So it's it's hard to do that when your ratio is like 25 to 1. So I respect that. But I think as a whole in the education field, we just need to have those conversations of knowing the time and place for the students. But on the educator side, I think it's important that we are aware of all things that AI can offer and also the positives and negatives that come with AI. So, what are some negative ways that students might use it? How can we have productive discussions with those students about those uses? Um, how can we evaluate the schools, the schools, the skills and their voice that is taken away because of how they are using it, and then re-educate them on how we can better use it. And then lastly, how we can turn our curriculum on its head to actually use AI in a way that elevates and enhances their voice and that takes their skills and knowledge to a whole new level. So my point is I believe that we need to be considerate and cognizant of when students should be exposed to this, where they're at and their skill development, because they should have those foundational skills in place before they even touch AI, and being aware of how we approach it as educators, how we ask students to approach it, and how we revamp our curriculum to lean into that. Okay, so this discussion will not end. There is gonna be many more about the topic of AI. But if you have any specific directions that you want to take this conversation, please let

What’s Next And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 21:20

me know. I am happy to take on those topics. All right, until next time. Thanks for listening to the Faithful Teachers Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. And please share the love by leaving us a review or even sharing this episode with someone you think will enjoy it. If you want to learn more about how you can elevate your instruction for your school or your organization, check out our website, faithfulteachers.com. Until next time.