In this episode, Scott and Dr. Sabba Quidwai dove into practical ways educators can save time with AI while actually enhancing the learning experience. They show how to create a curriculum generator so students create lessons based on their own interests. They explored how teachers can move beyond simply automating tasks to fundamentally reimagining their workflows for better results based on their methodology. Have a watch!
Don't Automate Unhappiness - Redesign It!
Here's the thing about AI in education: the temptation is to just automate all the stuff you hate doing. Don't like grading? Automate it! Tired of lesson planning? Let AI do it!
But as Dr. Sabba points out, that's actually not the best approach. When you automate bad processes, you're just making the bad stuff happen faster!
Instead, take a step back with your team and ask: "What parts of our work actually matter? What could we stop doing entirely? And what could we do differently?" Only then should you bring in AI to help with the tasks worth keeping.
Think of it like cleaning your house. You wouldn't install an automatic robot to organize clutter you don't need. You'd first decide what to keep and what to throw away. The same goes for your teaching workflow!
Personalized Learning at Scale
One of the coolest demos Scott showed was a simple AI tool that creates personalized lesson plans based on student interests.
Here's how it worked: Using Golden Path Solutions (a career education program) as an example, Scott built an AI tool where students can upload any job description they're interested in. The AI instantly creates a complete 30-minute lesson plan specifically about that career - with vocabulary, activities, and discussion questions all tailored to that student's interests.
Imagine a classroom where instead of everyone learning the same material the same way, each student gets content connected to what they care about. History through the lens of sports for athletic kids. Math applied to fashion design for creative students. Science connected to video game development for gamers.
The best part? This personalization takes seconds instead of hours of teacher prep time. It's not about making the same old lessons faster - it's about making better lessons possible in the first place!
Your Personal Research Assistant 🔍
Ever spent hours searching online for teaching resources, only to end up with dozens of browser tabs and a headache? The "Deep Research" feature in AI tools (like Gemini and ChatGPT) changes the game completely.
As Dr. Sabba showed, you can now say something like: "Create a report on teaching strategies for 9th grade literature" or "Give me 10 best practices for the STAR method for high schoolers," and the AI will do the research for you.
It's like having a research assistant who:
- Searches across the entire internet
- Finds the best resources
- Puts everything together in an organized report
- Adds all the proper citations and links
- Delivers it in about 15 minutes
You can then download this report and use it to build your own custom AI teaching tools. No more digging through endless websites or piecing together information from different sources!
The future of teaching isn't about replacing teachers with robots - it's about giving teachers AI teammates that handle the boring stuff while you focus on what really matters: connecting with students, sparking creativity, and guiding learning journeys. By rethinking your workflow, personalizing learning, and letting AI handle research, you can become a better teacher while actually working less.
