Where Do I Start with AI as a Teacher?

One class, one lesson, one step at a time

If you are a teacher trying to make sense of artificial intelligence, it can feel as though you are already behind before you have even begun.

There is a constant stream of new tools, updated versions, recommended apps, training sessions, prompt collections and claims about the latest development that will transform education. Trying to keep up with all of it can quickly become another task on an already overflowing list.

The good news is that you do not need to keep up with everything. You do not need to test every app, master every platform or collect hundreds of prompts. You simply need somewhere sensible to begin.

Start small and build expertise

For me, that starting point is very small: one class, one lesson and one part of the specification.

Choose something you already teach and understand well. Rather than asking, What can this new app do?, ask, What am I trying to improve?

Is there a concept pupils regularly find difficult? Does a resource need updating? Do you have a lesson that works brilliantly with one class but that you already know will not work in the same way with another?

These are useful places to start because you already have the professional knowledge needed to judge the response. Expertise grows through trying an idea, evaluating the result and improving it. Those small steps build confidence, and the ideas begin to flow.

What might this look like in practice?

You might use AI to:

·       differentiate an existing activity while retaining the same core learning

·       adapt instructions or scaffold pupils with special educational needs without simply reducing the level of challenge

·       adjust the pace, examples or structure of a successful lesson for a different class

·       upgrade an older PowerPoint by improving explanations and adding opportunities for retrieval and participation

·       suggest formative assessment activities, such as hinge questions, exit tickets or misconception checks

·       refine learning intentions, success criteria or a lesson plan

·       brainstorm ways to support literacy or numeracy in a lesson

·       review a Key Stage 3 scheme of work in response to TransformED developments in Northern Ireland

Where formative assessment is a focus for school development, AI could also suggest ways to make pupils’ thinking more visible and provide better evidence of what they actually know.

AI does not know your pupils, however. The teacher’s knowledge of the individual remains essential, and sensitive or identifiable pupil information should not be entered into a public AI tool.

A platform for innovation, not simply a shortcut

There is nothing wrong with using AI to save time. Teacher workload matters, and anything that can reduce some of the pressure involved in planning and resource creation may be valuable.

However, if we view AI only as a shortcut for producing worksheets, presentations or lesson plans more quickly, we miss much of its potential.

AI can also be a platform for innovation.

It can help us reconsider a familiar lesson, explore an alternative explanation, anticipate misconceptions or imagine a better task altogether. Innovation does not have to mean redesigning an entire scheme of work. It might begin with one clearer explanation, one carefully chosen question or one better way of supporting a particular class.

The output is not always oven-ready

One of the most important things I have learned is that an AI response can sound confident and polished while still being inaccurate, generic or unsuitable for the pupils sitting in front of you.

The first output should usually be treated as a draft, not a finished resource. It needs to be checked against the specification, the intended learning, the age and ability of the pupils and the correct terminology for the subject.

Sometimes it needs a quick tweak. Sometimes it requires more substantial repair and maintenance. On other occasions, the best professional decision is to reject it and try another approach.

Checking and refining are part of using AI responsibly. It can act as a useful thinking partner, but the teacher provides the expertise and professional judgement that make its suggestions genuinely useful.

With repeated use, you also become better at giving clear instructions and recognising more quickly whether an output is worth developing.

Sharing the journey

In future posts, I will share some of the ways I have used AI in my own classroom. I will not just share the finished resources, but how I went about creating and refining them.

I will explain the problem I was trying to solve, what worked, what did not and what needed to be checked, repaired or completely reconsidered.

This has been a journey of experimentation, with successes as well as setbacks. I hope that sharing the process, rather than simply presenting a polished outcome, will help other teachers identify small and realistic ways to explore AI in their own classrooms.

You do not need to become an AI expert before you begin. Expertise is something you build because you begin.

Start with one class. One lesson. One step at a time.

If that sounds useful, subscribe below to follow future posts, see what is inside my AI toolkit and read about the practical classroom experiences, successes and repairs along the way.