​According to a recent report, state education technology officials are seeing an increase in requests for guidance on using artificial intelligence in education. Even Utah lawmakers have been wrestling with questions about this new technology. Much of the speculation about academic integrity and excitement over personalized learning is focused on student use.  

But some say AI may be the solution for a common educator problem: teacher burnout.  

According to a Gallup poll last year, burnout rate (44%) in K-12 education employees is higher than in any other industry. Among the top five reasons for teacher burnout are unmanageable workload and unreasonable expectations/time pressure. Combine these mounting pressures with compensation concerns in some areas and it makes sense why burnout exists.  

Luckily, some teachers are finding that some AI platforms may reduce the time and prep work of teaching. A free-market innovation may outpace state policies in helping teachers, and that would be a good thing. 

Teacher prep time  

Educators in the traditional classroom are tasked not only with presenting information in front of several classes of students but doing all the preparation beforehand. They must find grade-specific resources, create lesson plans, prepare presentations, grade papers, and keep reliable communication with parents.  

Generative AI tools are starting to assist teachers with these aspects of the workload. For instance, a new AI tool called Fetchy is marketed as a teacher’s own personal secretary. The tool can help teachers craft lesson plans (or generate entire lesson plans) or send emails to parents.  

To create a lesson plan, teachers can offer prompts on features like the topic, grade level, state standard, and other specific prompts. The platform also helps teachers create newsletters to send out to parents or to craft professional email responses. ChatGPT can help with some similar aspects, but the creators of Fetchy designed it to create resources specifically for tasks that teachers face. Used properly, this tool can help build (or rebuild, where necessary) the parent-teacher partnership. 

According to teachers in Utah public schools who have used the platform, they have saved themselves several hours of work each day. It can act like a secretary or assistant on administrative tasks, giving teachers the ability to focus more personal attention on students – something that AI cannot do.  

It’s possible that tools like these might be what transforms the teaching profession in more profound ways than pay or regulatory reform.  

Grading assistance 

Grading is another aspect of teaching that takes up time – sometimes a lot of time. As a former English teacher, I remember the overwhelming task of grading and giving meaningful feedback on essays for several classes, each with 30-40 students.  

An education tool called Enlighten AI was created to help teachers specifically with the task of grading. With the assistance of the tool, one education leader was able to do a monthlong “boot camp” on essay writing, where each week students wrote an essay and got speedy feedback, giving them a chance to improve in a short period of time. As a result of this pace, he said state standardized writing test performance jumped 70% for his students.  

The AI tool still took its cues from the professional educator, however. It graded essays based on input he provided, so it still reflected his grading preferences. It still required a few hours of work, but it reduced the task from what normally would have been a 10- to 15-hour task. 

What matters most is that students are learning. Luckily, some AI tools not only help reduce the burden on teachers but also improve learning outcomes for students as a result. If reducing hours on a task also means increases in student achievement, then an AI tool merits serious consideration.  

Other factors – such as privacy issues and parental concerns – also matter. However, those should not prevent thorough consideration of new tools if those tools prove they can improve both the teaching profession and student learning outcomes. 

Personalization for students  

One of the more difficult aspects of a teacher’s job is personalizing learning to students – a task also known as differentiating instruction. Teachers are responsible for the almost impossible task of doing everything else listed above on top of personalizing for student needs, which can be quite diverse and challenging.  

Luckily, certain AI tools offer personalized tutoring and feedback, which can be helpful for students. In addition, some education leaders are already finding ways to use tools like ChatGPT to help teachers brainstorm ways to differentiate instruction, such as by connecting a topic to a particular student’s hobby or asking for multimodal resources to teach a concept.  

Of course, a good educator will use critical thinking and personal knowledge of a student to adapt or modify whatever an AI platform may offer. That’s the human aspect that cannot easily be replaced. Still, teachers who feel burned out may find that the creative brainstorm capacity of generative AI can reduce the burdens of classroom preparation. 

Conclusion 

As state education policymakers and leaders consider the weighty matters of AI, the potential to help teachers overcome burnout should be part of the deliberation. It’s an option that we should shine a light on, weigh thoughtfully in the balance with other important considerations, and embrace wherever it makes sense. The future of our teaching workforce may depend on it.