We’ve all heard the hype around artificial intelligence “revolutionizing” education — but for teachers buried in grading, emails and lesson planning, the more relevant question might be, “Can AI give me some of my time back?”

That’s the focus of this episode of our Class-Act Coaching podcast, part of our summer series exploring the four pillars of the Guidance for the Use of AI in the K12 Classroom report.

I’m joined once again by Leslie Eaves, SREB’s project-based learning director, to break down Pillar 2: Automating Educator Tasks to Increase Efficiency.

Free up bandwidth for what really matters: connecting with students, giving feedback and improving instruction.

In the first episode of this series, Leslie and I talked in general terms about the report, what it was and how educators could use it. In that episode, I asked her where a teacher that wanted to start using AI in their classroom should start, and she said Pillar 2 was a great place to jump into the report.

That jumping in point is the focus of today’s post.

This pillar is all about how teachers — not students — can use AI to simplify time-consuming tasks and free up bandwidth for what really matters: connecting with students, giving feedback and improving instruction.

Whether or not you’ve read the full report, this post and episode offer practical, realistic entry points for using AI to lighten your daily workload.

 

Pillar 2: AI as a Workflow Support Tool

Unlike some of the flashier uses of AI, Pillar 2 focuses on the invisible work that keeps classrooms running — lesson prep, resource creation, communication and admin tasks.

AI isn’t replacing your judgment or creativity — it’s speeding up the parts that slow you down.

This is the piece that can really help make teachers’ lives a little easier. It’s not going to replace the critical thinking or the relationships, but it can take some things off your plate.

And that’s the key: AI isn’t replacing your judgment or creativity — it’s speeding up the parts that slow you down.

Sometimes the tools that teachers are given to do their jobs can be just as stressful as anything else. That’s because finding the time to learn a new tool that may or may not be around for long doesn’t actually save you time.

The good thing about AI is that the tool itself does the work for you with the right prompt. Thus, it can actually save you time immediately instead of offering a vague promise to help you once you learn to use it.

While it won’t give you something that you’ll want to use right from the start, it will give you a head start so that you just need to edit and improve, saving you time to work on making your classroom the best it can be for your students without having to sacrifice your own mental health to get there.

 

How Teachers Can Actually Use AI (Right Now)

So, what does that look like in practice?

Leslie and I talked about how teachers are already using AI in small but powerful ways, like drafting content, revising existing materials and brainstorming ideas. It’s not about letting AI do the thinking for you. It’s about giving yourself a jumpstart when you’re stuck or short on time.

One of the most helpful entry points? Communication.

Teachers are also using AI to help rewrite objectives, reword learning targets or differentiate materials for different student needs.

Leslie was clear: the teacher still brings the professional judgment. But AI can help you start and finish faster.

Here are some of the tasks we discussed in the interview that teachers can be doing to make life a little bit easier for themselves:

• Drafting lesson plans or outlines
• Creating rubrics
• Designing a classroom newsletter
• Writing emails or parent updates
• Generating practice questions or examples
• Summarizing articles or readings for different levels
• Basic Grading
• Providing content to get a student who has been absent caught back up quickly

An example of this came from a teacher that Leslie recently interviewed who told her that they have used AI to help bring a student who has been absent for a few days back up to speed. They took all of the materials the student missed in their absence and used AI to create a summation of the missed material and a way to check that the student unpacked and understood the content. If the check shows they got it, then they get credit and move on.

 

The Elephant in the Room: Is It Fair to Use AI for Planning?

Of course, a lot of us have mixed feelings about using AI — especially when we’re also trying to teach students to think for themselves.

So, I asked the question out loud: If we’re telling students not to have AI write their papers, can we really justify using AI to help with lesson planning?

Leslie didn’t dodge the dilemma.

AI is your thought partner, but it isn’t your thought replacement.

Instead, she encouraged teachers to think about how they would want students to use AI: thoughtfully. You wouldn’t want them to just put in a generic prompt and turn in a generic assignment where the student let AI do the thinking for them, so you shouldn’t put in a generic prompt and use a generic lesson plan where you let AI do all of the thinking for you.

Let AI help you start compiling ideas based off a prompt that you thought out and wrote, and then refine it to be something that works for your specific needs. This way, AI is your thought partner, but it isn’t your thought replacement.

You are still the expert. AI is just your assistant in getting your great ideas on the paper. “Always layer everything with your personal expertise,” Leslie said. “Teachers, y’all are wonderful. You’re thoughtful. You’re experts in your content area. You’re experts in your students. You’re experts in pedagogy. Remember that, sink into that, and be mindful of the information that you’re getting from AI. And always layer it with your personal expertise and voice.”

Leslie did say, though, that it’s okay if at first you use AI but don’t let your students use it yet. You are learning how to use it thoughtfully so that you can later teach them to use it in that same thoughtful manner.

 

Let’s Talk About Grading

Of course, we couldn’t have a conversation about AI and teacher tasks without talking about grading. For many teachers, it’s the least favorite part of the job, but it is also one that feels a little bit problematic to get AI’s help with.  

Leslie acknowledged that in some cases — especially with low-stakes, formative assignments —AI can help teachers give quicker, more actionable feedback.

However, we both agreed that, as a general rule, it might be best to keep giving more detailed grading feedback ourselves.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to use AI to assist in the grading process itself, though. Here are three ways AI could still make the grading process smoother for instructors:

1. AI can help you create great grading rubrics that make the grading process easier.
2. AI can help you create more interesting assignments, and the more students are interested in the work, the more interesting their output will be – which gives you more interesting things to grade.
3. AI can help save you time on all of your other low-level tasks (such as the ones mentioned above). That frees up more of your time so you can focus on giving better feedback on assignments.

 

First Steps

Just like I did in episodes 1 and 2, I wanted to end this week’s episode by asking Leslie for one thing that a teacher could do immediately to get started with this pillar.

She suggested finding something on your to-do list that you would consider rote work, something you’d love to hand off to your new AI personal assistant, and then play around with getting your AI tool of choice to do it for you.

Her example was to use AI to translate your syllabus into a newsletter that highlights all the key points for students.

 

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, integrating AI into the classroom isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less — with purpose. AI can’t replace your knowledge, your relationships or your instincts. But it can help you get back some of your time.

That’s what Pillar 2 is really about: efficiency with intention that leaves more time to do the things only a teacher can do.

 

Listen or Watch the Full Episode

This post is just a snapshot of the full conversation. Want to hear Leslie’s examples, advice and takeaways in her own words? You can watch or listen here:

• Listen to the podcast
• Watch the video
• Download the full Guidance for the Use of AI in the K12 Classroom report
• Download our AI Tool Procurement, Implementation and Evaluation Checklist

Finally, keep up with the latest from our Commission on AI in Education by signing up for our newsletter.

Next week we will be back to discuss Pillar 3: Use AI to support personalized learning.