Using AI as a teacher doesn't make you lazy or incompetent. It makes you someone using a genuinely useful time-saving tool, the same way earlier generations of teachers adopted whiteboards, overhead projectors, and photocopiers. AI is genuinely good for saving time on tasks like generating questions or draft text, and for kickstarting new unit planning. It's not something to trust blindly. Every output still needs to be checked, because AI does make mistakes.

AI is here, it's part of our world in 2026, and it's something every educator needs to get comfortable with. I want to talk about why, and also address something I came across recently that genuinely frustrated me.

What happened that prompted this?

I was relaxing on a rare day off, scrolling through a Facebook group I'm part of, when I came across a post claiming that any teacher using AI for any purpose is lazy, incompetent, and doesn't deserve to call themselves a teacher.

That genuinely frustrated me. My entire goal is helping educators embrace this technology responsibly, and seeing a sweeping claim like that dismissed the very real, thoughtful reasons a lot of teachers actually have for using AI. What surprised me, in a good way, was how many teachers pushed back in the comments with genuinely valid reasons for why they use it.

It was a reminder that this conversation is still very much alive in staffrooms and online groups everywhere, and that plenty of teachers are quietly using AI well, without necessarily feeling confident enough to say so publicly. Seeing that many people defend the practice, with real, specific reasons, told me the tide has shifted further than a single dismissive comment might suggest.

Is this reluctance toward AI actually new?

Not even slightly. Every significant shift in classroom technology has faced this same resistance. Whiteboards, overhead projectors, photocopiers, all of them would have met similar scepticism when they were first introduced.

Resistance to new tools isn't really about the tools themselves. It's about discomfort with change. AI is simply the current version of that same pattern, and it's not going away.

I don't say that to be dismissive of genuine concerns about AI, because there are legitimate ones worth taking seriously, around accuracy, over-reliance, and academic integrity, among others. But a blanket claim that any AI use makes someone a bad teacher isn't a genuine concern. It's closer to the same instinctive resistance every new classroom tool has faced before it.

What's the actual case for using AI as a teacher?

Time. That's the biggest, most consistent benefit that came up in that comment thread, and it's exactly what I've found in my own experience.

Asking AI to help generate a first draft of text or a set of questions can save genuine time, time that can then go toward other parts of the job that actually need your full attention and judgement.

That's really the trade I'd encourage people to think about. Nobody becomes a better teacher by spending an extra hour manually drafting comprehension questions that AI could produce a reasonable first version of in seconds. The value of your time is better spent on the parts of the job that genuinely require a human: relationships, feedback, differentiation, and the judgement calls only you can make about your specific students.

Should I trust everything AI generates?

No, and this matters more than almost anything else in this conversation. AI makes mistakes, and every output still needs to be manually checked.

I've had AI generate cloze passages and comprehension questions where the details were simply wrong, referencing a character who doesn't even exist in the text. Even though I use AI regularly, I never treat its output as finished. Everything gets read, checked, and adjusted for my particular context before it goes anywhere near a lesson.

That step, the actual checking, is where the real professional skill still sits. Anyone can prompt an AI tool and copy the result straight into a lesson. Knowing whether that result is actually accurate, appropriate, and pitched correctly for your specific students requires the same expertise you already have. AI doesn't replace that judgement. It just gives you a faster starting point to apply it to.

What's the best use case you've found for AI so far?

Kickstarting new unit planning, particularly when there's genuinely nothing else to work from.

My education system recently released a whole suite of new syllabuses, including texts I've never taught before as an English teacher. There's no established bank of existing resources to draw on for something brand new. AI has been genuinely useful for generating initial ideas I can then refine, adapt, and build into something proper with my colleagues.

That's a genuinely common situation right now, not just in my own subject. Whenever a curriculum changes significantly, there's a real gap before quality resources catch up, and teachers are usually left building from scratch in the meantime. AI shortens that gap considerably, even if what it produces still needs real work before it's classroom-ready.

Does this mean everything should be AI-generated?

No, and that's an important line to draw. We still need professional judgement. We're qualified, trained educators, and that expertise doesn't get replaced by a tool, no matter how useful it is.

AI is a time-saver and a genuinely helpful starting point. The level of incorporation is entirely up to you, and using it well still requires your own expertise to check, adapt, and finish the job properly.

Should I feel behind if I haven't started using AI yet?

Not behind, but it's worth getting comfortable with it sooner rather than later. AI is only going to become more embedded across every industry, including education, and starting now, while things are still relatively new, means you won't have as much ground to make up later.

Want practical, guided support getting started with AI in your own classroom? Explore what's inside the Empowered Educator Hub, covering exactly this kind of responsible, practical AI use.

If you want practical support getting comfortable with AI in your own classroom, check out the Empowered Educator Hub. We cover exactly this, responsibly and practically.

Tristan