The Sage Informer

Teachers at Monticello High School have very meticulous opinions about AI usage in the classroom. These teachers have made up their minds about how AI affects their classroom, others classrooms, and how they will allow its usage in their own classroom. 

Teachers claimed that one of the downsides of students using AI is that it can take away from the teacher’s ability to determine if the students understand the topic at hand. They also stated that using AI to create informal assignments can be unharmful, however, using it to create large important tests or informatives can go extremely wrong. People should proceed with caution when using it in that way.

Mathematics teacher Mr. Bower stated, “I think that everyone should be able to use AI in appropriate ways, however what is appropriate for a teacher is far different than what is appropriate for a student. Everyone has to do their job. A student’s ‘job’ is to learn material and practice skills that a teacher has set out. A teacher’s ‘job’ is to create lessons that facilitate student learning. If either of these ‘jobs’ are circumvented by the use of AI, then the person is using the tool inappropriately.”

English teacher Mrs. Hendrickson added, “The purpose of a student completing a homework assignment, project, essay, etc. is to show that they know the material, understand concepts, and can apply their knowledge and skills in various contexts. If a student uses AI to do those things for them, a teacher (and the student) cannot accurately assess their level of understanding or skill. A teacher using AI to help them create a multiple choice quiz, for example, holds a different context and purpose. The teacher already knows the material; they have education and experience to show they know how assessments work. Using AI as a tool does not change that.”

Hendrickson continued, “I think AI can be a useful tool to help teachers create formative (informal) assessments, rubrics, study materials, and extension activities. Because AI is not always accurate, I would caution teachers against using it for summative (formal) assessments without thorough editing and revisions as the assignments it creates may not align with the actual course material being taught or the primary learning objectives.”

“Just as an example, our project in Algebra 1 was almost entirely written by AI. I came up with the concept of what I wanted to do in class, but the actual writing of the document that students saw was mostly done by AI, as well as many of the project options were generated with AI. I personally consider this fully appropriate use of AI as it created a lesson that was interesting for the students, and demonstrated a lesson in class which can be very useful in the real world. Just because it was written by AI doesn’t mean that I didn’t put significant thought and time into structuring the project exactly as I wanted, and I thought everything turned out excellent,” Bower said.

AI is a continually evolving topic in education. Teachers have very specific feelings on assignments and using AI on it. In the long term, teachers who are cautious about its usage and do it the proper way can positively affect the classroom.

Corinne Gerdes, Staff Writer

gerco29@sages.us