Teacher Uses AI to Give Students Faster, Fairer Feedback

Jen Roberts was exhausted. After more than 26 years teaching English, the pandemic had pushed her toward burnout like so many other educators.

But when ChatGPT launched in 2022, Roberts saw something different than her colleagues did. While other teachers worried about students using AI to cheat, the Point Loma High School teacher in San Diego saw a lifeline.

Roberts started using AI as a second grader for student essays, just like the Advanced Placement exams use multiple human scorers. When her score and the AI's score matched, she felt confident in her assessment. When they disagreed, she could examine her own potential biases.

The results transformed her classroom. Students now get detailed feedback on their writing in days instead of weeks. That means they revise more often and improve faster.

Roberts also uses education tools like MagicSchool, which lets students check their work against her rubric multiple times during a single class period. She's watched students submit their writing for feedback five or six times in one period, something she could never provide to 36 students simultaneously.

She's not naive about the risks. Roberts requires all writing in Google docs where she can see version history and uses Chrome extensions to watch video playbacks of students' writing processes. Her secret weapon is simple: peer writing groups where students must read their work aloud and explain their choices to classmates.

Students who might casually submit AI-generated work to a teacher won't risk the embarrassment in front of their peers. Roberts also teaches ethical AI use upfront, showing students how to use it for feedback, sentence frames, and organizing thoughts without letting it write for them.

She demonstrates this by giving students three paragraphs and asking which is AI-generated. They always know immediately. "You could tell, so I can tell," she reminds them.

Why This Inspires

Roberts doesn't claim AI writes better lesson plans or replaces good teaching. Instead, she uses it to handle the exhausting small tasks that drain teachers at 4:15 on a Thursday afternoon.

Need a writing prompt when you're too tired to think creatively? AI can suggest six options in seconds. Want to break a long reading into digestible sections with vocabulary support? AI can do in five minutes what would take 45 minutes manually.

She also uses AI to transform dense instruction pages into color-coded, emoji-enhanced guides that students actually understand. When directions are clearer, students spend less time confused and more time learning.

Roberts offers one crucial warning to other teachers: never require students to use consumer AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, which aren't compliant with student privacy laws. Instead, use education-specific platforms designed to protect children's data.

After three decades in the classroom, Roberts has found that AI doesn't save her time—it lets her do more with the time she has, making her teaching more personal and effective than ever before.