SUSAN BARBER
- What is the role of AI in today’s classroom?
I remember when ChatGPT broke on TikTok in late 2022 and feared how this would play out in classrooms. My concerns were validated when over 50 students suddenly used the work “evocative” in their first online essays in January of 2023. Since then, AI has continued to evolve, students have become adept at using it, and educators are struggling to figure out its place – if any – in the classroom.
In a midyear survey, I asked my students what they felt appropriate AI use in an English class could be. Here are a few responses:
“Honestly, I don’t really think there are any acceptable uses of generative AI in AP Literature. I think anyone who takes this class must be able to write without the use of AI; it can easily become a bad habit that turns into a reliance or addiction, in my opinion.”
“I think an acceptable use of AI could be asking it to review our writing and give feedback.”
‘I don’t think there are any acceptable uses of AI in any class. I believe AI directly inhibits creativity and writing ability and can quickly become a crutch in writing environments. What will once be used as just a tool for brainstorming will quickly become something that writes most of your work. AI is also run by very greedy companies that do not have creativity or knowledge at the core of their policies and as a musician, more use of generative AI actively hurts a potential career for me.’
‘I think using AI to check my writing is the most acceptable use of AI because I do all the writing on my own and use my own thoughts while also making sure I have correct grammar and valid corrections from AI.’
These responses were fairly representative of the classes as a whole: most believe there’s no place in the classroom for AI in thinking about texts but many think it can be a useful tool for receiving feedback and/or editing suggestions for writing.
At this point, I am taking a hard pass on AI in the classroom because there are too many unknowns for me. The primary reason is I have yet to find any research to support how AI is beneficial to student learning; (research actually shows the opposite – (MIT study). The primary goal of our class is close reading and forming opinions on the reading. With the entire focus of the class is not to teach students WHAT to think but HOW to think, AI at any where in the process robs students of the opportunity to build and strengthen their thinking muscles. I also have privacy and environmental concerns.
While I am not incorporating AI tools in my classroom (both for me personally as well as for students), I recognize that I cannot ignore these tools either as they will become more and more mainstream in education. I’ll continue learning on my own through reading and talking to other teachers while waiting on things to stabilize on the AI front (will that ever happen).
2 – Engagement – moving from a transactional classroom to one of curiosity and engagement
I’m noticing students have more and more of a pull toward transactional “learning” – coming into class, opening the computer, completing what needs to be turned in, and moving to the next task at hand. The parts of the classroom where I feel like real learning occurs is rarely an assignment submitted online; this simply becomes the way to assess learning, if that can’t be done in process.
Teachers strive for classrooms to be vibrant academic communities built on curiosity and content not robotic students going through the motions of school. So the question becomes how to create these classrooms.
I can’t imagine I’m the only person noticing this trend and have spent a lot of time thinking about how we got here. Some aspects of learning never shifted back post-pandemic with online access to lessons and assignments continuing to be accessible on LMS platforms. This has benefits for students who are absent and can now easily access missing work or if students need to review a lesson while doing homework. This also at times makes it easy for students to miss school knowing work is so easily accessible. The emphasis on grades over learning, prevalent cheating, student overscheduling, and the accessibility of AI for students are also factors that contribute to transactional classrooms.
So how do we return to classrooms where everyone is a vital part of an academic learning community? Classrooms where students are often struggling and working together to wrestle through hard concepts. Engaging classrooms are sometimes loud, chaotic, and hands-on. Engaging classrooms may have students working in pairs, small groups, whole class activities or even individually. Engaging classrooms focus on the process of learning rather than checking off a product for a grade.
3 – Teaching from a mindset of abundance rather than a scarcity mindset
I remember receiving my schedule this year with 168 AP Literature students and also being told that my lesson plan format was no longer acceptable. I tried converting my lessons to the required “template” which I was assured was simple, but it was not (even with the aid of ChatGPT); it was literally hours of work for something that did not at all affect what was happening in my classroom. I totaled the time for the various tasks required of me and figured that I would have approximately 7 seconds per student per week for feedback. I sunk my head into my hands in despair feeling defeated before the year even began.
Teachers rarely have enough time, support, and resources required to do the job we’re expected/required to do, and I can easily revert to a scarcity mindset. Approaching teaching from a place of scarcity leads to exhaustion – mentally and physically – as well as stress, agitation, and a lack of energy and passion. This is not how I want to spend my school days.
Shifting to an abundance mentality can be both surprising and rewarding change that makes so much difference. In the past, I can refocus on the weekends or extended breaks but often return to a scarcity mindset as soon as I enter the building. This year I am thinking about how I can teach from a heart of abundance and keep this at the forefront of my daily work. Teaching from abundance requires me to view colleagues as education’s most underused resources and build systems where we can help and support each other. Teaching from a heart of abundance is knowing that I simply cannot do all of the things required and prioritizing what I must do (or half do) and what I just don’t have time for – and being okay with the things I leave undone. Teaching from a place of abundance is me accepting that I may not make strong connections with every single student, that some students may not like me, and being okay with that. Teaching from abundance is about me realizing when I take care of myself and protect my boundaries, I am a better teacher (and person).
BRIAN SZTABNIK
- Build a Championship Program
I’m thinking about my own renaissance as a basketball coach and how that is influencing my classroom. Five years ago, I transitioned from the frenzied, intense, and anxiety-plagued world of coaching varsity to coaching JV, so that I could slow down, decrease the self-imposed pressure, and live with greater balance. I am a better coach now because I have a wider perspective. When I coached varsity, wins and losses defined my self-worth. I still have the same competitive fire, but now I channel that energy into building a strong culture of continuous self-improvement and long-term progress. I’m giving more pep talks, not about the immediacy of the moment, but about what happens when discipline and accountability work in tandem with principles and values. When all those elements coalesce, self-improvement and self-satisfaction are not far behind. This change has also afforded me time to do fun things like a Player of the Week, with images posted to Instagram of that young man holding a WWE championship belt. This has instilled a sense of pride in everything we do.
How could this joy and love NOT transfer to my classroom? I’m cultivating more positive energy than ever before. There is a clear game plan for success on the AP Literature exam. Students have bought into the classroom culture because there is a unified vision of what we can accomplish if we trust the process. There is discipline and accountability, but it never feels overwhelming or punitive. Students are gaining self-confidence as they persevere through the challenge of developing insightful commentary time and time again. Pep talks guide them through the common pitfalls of senioritis and lapses in judgment, galvanizing a belief in the achievement that comes when one achieves John Wooden’s understanding of success, that “peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
- There is No Model Quite Like the Authenticity of Love
Time and time again in 2025, teachers told Susan and me that they loved the spirit of the lessons in 100% Engagement because when they taught its ideas, they could feel the moment when enthusiasm became contagious. It was a ripple effect dispersing from a teacher, a text, and a practice. The comments we received revealed that two things are co-dependent in the classroom – love and enthusiasm.
In 2026 I will think about why we are never asked to reflect on this, articulate it, or share it?
Of all the faculty and department meetings I’ve attended, and all the PD I’ve gone to, no one has ever asked me what I love about a text or a unit. They’ve asked me about exit tickets. They’ve shown me how to plug an essay into a plagiarism detector. They’ve walked me through the steps to create a quiz with an online test bank. But nothing about love.
It is, as Robert Pirsig writes in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “it occurred to me there is no manual that deals with the real business of motorcycle maintenance, the most important aspect of all. Caring about what you are doing is considered either unimportant or taken for granted.”
In a way, I hope that if you are a long-time reader of this site, you have felt that love reflected in everything we have written. This is our space to reflect who we are. It is the reason why our book was a best seller. It defines our friendship. It is at the heart of our classrooms. We love the literature we teach and the process to make that love contagious. There is no faking it.
In 2026, the model that matters more than anything to me is love.
- Reflect Back as Much as You Plan Forward
For years now, I’ve been good about keeping a daily plan book with a topic, objective, instructional strategy, and assessment. But as valuable as it is to plan for the future, I am finding greater returns on reflecting back.
In 2026, I am going to spend my final minutes of each Friday asking myself these four questions that I stole from Elizabeth Gilbert:
- What was the bravest thing I did this week?
- What was the most creative thing I did this week?
- What was the most self-respecting thing I did this week?
- What was the best boundary I set between something unproductive or unhealthy this week?
I really like these questions. They do not speculate. They look back with blunt force. They will challenge me. They will serve as a scorecard as the person I want to be in the classroom. And that’s where I want to be in 2026, building a championship culture, modeling the authenticity of love, and looking back as much as I look forward.
