Teach with expert insights on AI, curated by your trusty Teacher’s AIde

Hello and welcome back to Teacher's AIed, where we simplify AI tools quicker than a middle schooler can find a loophole in the no-phones policy.

📣New Tool Announcement: GPT Store

We’ve written about GPTs in the past: 

And last week, OpenAI released a store full of custom AI tools created by independent developers. Think of the GPT store as an app store for GPTs. GPT creators include Khan Academy’s Code Tutor. It supports students learning how to write code. The team at our sister newsletter, AutomatED, created a useful GPT, College/University Course Design Wizard, to help college professors design their syllabus, assignments, and AI use case policies.

To access the GPT store, you will need a ChatGPT Plus plan.

One of the most significant benefits of the GPT store is the boon of tools, but this is also its downfall. Who has the time to compare the store's dozens of math tutor GPTs? As we’ll discuss in a moment, teachers report that they certainly don’t have the time to learn and evaluate all the new AI tools.

That’s where we come in. As your Teacher’s AIde, it’s our duty to research the latest GPTs, try them out, and report which ones are the best tools for your students and which will save you time.

Teaching in the Age of AI: Untapped Potential

At Teacher’s AIde, we’ve written quite a bit about how AI tools can help save teachers time. Most recently, we walked you through SWOT frameworks to assess the usefulness of tools to support duties that you would gladly stop doing.

However, a recent EdWeek article reported that 37% of educators have never used AI tools and don’t plan to start using them, and another 29% say they haven’t but plan to start soon. Therefore, 66% of teachers have never used AI!

While these numbers should make the Teacher’s AIde team weep, we’re actually pretty encouraged by them! To us, it means that we have yet to reach 66% of teachers to introduce them to the time and energy-saving benefits of AI tools.

Later in this same EdWeek article, the author, Lauraine Langreo, reports on why teachers aren’t using AI tools in their classrooms. The reasons were not surprising to us:

1. Teachers have more pressing priorities
   At Teacher’s AIde, we frequently write about ways to incorporate AI to streamline or simplify existing priorities, like leveraging AI to simplify small group instruction or plan creative lessons.
   In the coming weeks, we’ll release more specific guidance and tool recommendations to continue to support you in making decisions and earning back your time.

2. Teachers lack the knowledge and support
   We will continue providing knowledge and support to teachers seeking to understand AI tools better. Below, we will introduce a new way we will support teachers in learning about and maximizing AI tools in the classroom.
   Be sure to share our pieces with your teacher, friends, and colleagues to give them access to the latest AI tool reports and news on AI.

3. Teachers are concerned about students learning to think for themselves and do original work
   Last week, we wrote about how to support ‘student struggle’ with AI tools by considering ways to thoughtfully incorporate AI into the learning process and creating and communicating clear AI use policies. We will continue grappling with these big AI-use questions and report to you with insights and useful next steps.

Introducing Our Newest Arrival: Premium Posts

On Monday, we will release our first premium series. The premium posts will give you an in-depth analysis of pressing AI in education topics, like integrating AI into special education and supporting literacy development with AI tools. We will also cover specific tools you can use to streamline your day-to-day tasks as a teacher.
Our initial premium series will focus on an aspect of education near and dear to our founders’ hearts: Special Education.

Integrating AI tools into Special Education will support the nearly 15% of students in the US who have an individualized education plan (IEP). While our recommendations and tool analysis will support this 15% of students and their educators directly, we also believe that a free, appropriate public education is essential to maintaining strong educational and societal systems. If the 15% of students who need differentiated accommodations and modifications receive these supports using a safe, responsive, and AI-leveraged way, then it will make the case that 100% of students can receive personalized and differentiated support with the affordances of AI.

The first piece in the series will be available to all of our subscribers, regardless of premium status, and we cannot wait to share it with you next week.

Class dismissed!

Lewis Poche & Kourtney Bradshaw-Clay