This is the last post in a series on AI and teaching.

I purposely left the topic of teaching writing for last, because while working on this series of videos and posts, I very consciously looked for ways that AI could help me save time and effort.

In this last segment, my hope was to be able to share a few tips based on my own experience writing and making videos about this topic.

First the good news: there were ways that AI helped me save time and effort.

But also… this series on AI and teaching has taken more time and more work on my part than almost any other topic I’ve ever covered.

That tension, it turns out, makes a pretty good jumping-off point for talking about how to teach writing in the age of AI.

There’s a lot of uncertainty right now about teaching in the age of AI — a lot of stuff we don’t know.

But there is one AI tool that I can say, in an uncomplicated way, has made my life better.

And it’s both a writing trick and a time saver for teachers.

My very favorite thing that AI has brought into my life in recent years is that is provides a whole new way to both capture ideas in writing and to review written work.

I’m going to give you an example of both — plus my biggest tip for how to do voice-to-text in a way that is most usable when you go back to read it.

Knowing how to do your own research is one of the most important takeaways from a good education.

It’s something I emphasized in my high school language arts classes, and something I value in my own life.

It’s also become kind of a joke.

That’s because these days, when someone says they “do their own research,” they’re often about to describe their journey down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, or their hours spent in an algorithm-based mental roll cage that reinforces everything they already believe.

But here’s the thing: doing your own research still is an important skill.

So how can you make sure that your students are doing research in the good, ongoing self-education way — and not in the conspiracy theory, rabbit-holey, terrible first date way?

This is a weird time to be a teacher for many reasons — but one big one is this:

You’re supposed to be teaching students to think critically. And yet, more and more, it seems like we can all ask computers to do something that looks a lot like thinking.

In this post, I’m going to share the framework I currently use with teachers for how to make sure you’re still teaching students to think critically in the age of AI.

But first, it probably makes sense to back up and ask: what exactly do we mean by critical thinking?

We often think of the role of a teacher as preparing students for the future.

Which is scary, because now, more than ever, we don’t know what the future holds.

We just don’t know what AI is going to look like in any area of our lives in five years — or even one year from now.

And it’s easy to wonder what students even need from teachers in a world where knowledge seems completely flipped on its head.

This post is about what approach you can take to teaching in this era of uncertainty — but also why you can go into school tomorrow feeling like you still have much to offer your students.