An AI To-Do List for Educators
By Paul Beckermann
Beckermann encourages educators to work with AI in teaching and explains how it can be manageable using these five steps.
- Learn about AI. Set up a free account in one of the chatbots and try it out. Brainstorm ideas by asking the chatbot questions and follow-up questions to help you find something you can use.
- Engage in the conversation. Have conversations in meetings and professional development sessions to discover answers to the following questions:
- What do you need to learn about AI, and how can you gain that knowledge?
- What potential benefits and challenges might AI present to teaching and learning?
- How might you need to modify current practices because of AI?
- How can you leverage AI to improve teaching and learning?
- How can you empower your students for success in an AI world?
- Teach students about it. Beckermann lists three websites that have activities, projects, and challenges for students.
- Help students develop workforce skills. These include analytical and creative thinking, flexibility, motivation, and technological ability through authentic problem solving.
- Engage students in using AI. Give students opportunities to use AI with guidance and limitations. Together with your students, Beckerman predicts that both you and they can work together to learn how to leverage these tools.
NJTESOL/NJBE has so many amazing teachers throughout our state that it would be fitting to highlight some of them. Nominees could be colleagues who are available to answer questions about ELLs or the Bilingual Education code; educators who support students and their families beyond the classroom with projects, college applications, and extracurricular activities; someone who joins committees in support of ELLS or to implement positive change for the community. The nominee must be a member of NJTESOL/NJBE. Use the 
In this article, Klein addresses the issue of students using ChatGPT to cheat. She lists eight possible “AI-proofing assignments.”
