To help Marcos, a high school freshman who arrived in the United States a year ago, artificial intelligence became my classroom partner. I turned to YouTube and AI-embedded features on different websites, which read articles to him. For our endangered species project, I used the AI educational platform MagicSchool to design graphic organizers and sentence stems, translating them so he could complete statements like “The tiger is endangered because…” and “The tiger has [physical description]…”
Generative AI surprised me when it first came on the scene in 2022. And while I was hesitant even to type ChatGPT into my browser during those early months, I and the other 60% of teachers who use AI, soon discovered its power to help us brainstorm and create resources that make learning more accessible to students like Marcos, especially my 60 multilingual learners. In addition to the sentence stems, I am using rigorous texts with students to discuss themes and using the text leveler feature on these educational programs to make them accessible to my ESL II students. This allows my students to analyze and discuss themes while practicing their English skills.
To use AI efficiently and responsibly, educators need training and support. In the report I co-authored with other Teach Plus Illinois teacher leaders, Rules and Tools for AI-Powered Learning: Why Educators Can’t Afford to Wait on AI Policies, 92% of the more than 200 educators we surveyed last spring shared that they know AI can be helpful; however, only 46% received any form of training on AI, and just 16% use the emerging technology regularly.
Statistics like these demonstrate the urgent need to pass legislation that prioritizes AI training for educators. Two bills that are now before the Illinois General Assembly, HB2503 and SB1556, would establish a solid framework for AI in education by ensuring educators like me receive high-quality ongoing training and have a say in the creation of guidelines and guardrails on behalf of our students. It was through a pilot AI training in my district, Chicago Public Schools, that I learned how to create strong prompts that generated targeted and scaffolded sentence stems to help Marcos. For example, he followed along with The Life of Roberto Clemente and When Stars Are Scattered, two texts we read as a class, and composed a paragraph in English on his own, with AI providing him the tools to get there. I also learned to craft assignments and activities that required students to work together to complete tasks. Assignments like this increase English dialogue amongst my students and help students like Marcos practice literacy skills safely in engaging ways.
Artificial intelligence is here to stay, so let’s start learning. Training should center on how AI works and why privacy and safety are top priorities. It also should provide educators best practices with how to integrate it appropriately into our teaching and leverage it to streamline our administrative tasks.
Opening opportunities for teachers to share their concerns and solutions when it comes to AI will help us avoid confusion that naturally arises when schools, teachers, and students are faced with big educational shifts. The AI Teach Plus report and our legislative campaign, which involved talking to other educators around the state were the opportunities I needed to advocate for our critical role in shaping the future of AI in education. It is important that teachers are at the table designing and continually updating AI policies and guidance in addition to brainstorming and implementing AI training and support in response to the rapid changes.
As I’ve navigated my second year with Marcos, I’ve continued to use AI to create literacy support for him and other multilingual learners. Over time, my AI-inspired graphic organizers and sentence stems have become even more effective and targeted, assisting Marcos in writing complex sentences that improve his note-taking skills, a gateway to comprehension. We need all students to have equal opportunities to receive support like the ones I’ve provided Marcos. This requires teachers to learn to use AI, so let’s ensure we have the guidelines and training needed so that every educator can make AI their partner.
Maria Solis is an English as a second language (ESL) teacher and English Department Chair at Benito Juarez Community Academy in Chicago. She is a 2024-2025 Illinois Policy Fellow.
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