I made these AI mistakes as a teacher first

This started as the first AI Teacher Toolkit post. It came from mistakes I had already made in the classroom and from conversations with schools, teachers, college professors, and state education teams trying to figure out what generative AI changes in actual classrooms.

The five mistakes below are the ones I kept seeing: ignoring AI, trying to ban it, treating AI like an expert you can beat, using it to make more of the same assignments, and getting too loyal to one wrapper.

Mistake #1: ignoring AI

Since November of 2022, students have had ChatGPT on their phone, on their computer. Now there are lots of other ways. But it isn't going away. Ignoring it isn't an option. How do I know? I ask my students. On the second day of class each semester, I give my students an AI use survey.

Here's a really interesting finding from over 100 students in the 2024-25 school year: their top used AI tool? Snap AI. Not what most adults think, not what all the techie programmer bros on LinkedIn are talking about. Over 70 percent of my students say they've used Snap AI. That's more than any other tool.

Another way we know you can't just ignore AI, is when you ask students, what are you using AI for? School, research, writing, your job? It was none of those things. In fact, 63 percent of my students said they're just using AI for fun.

Mistake #2: trying to ban or block AI

You also can't control what students have on their phones and their personal devices outside of your classroom. Your district or your internet connection might filter chat GPT while they're at school or block certain websites, but you can't control what they put on their phone.

The other reason you can't just block or ban AI is because then only the low effort cheaters or the kids that aren't skilled at using it are going to get caught. AI is really an equity issue. The students who know the workarounds will get around the blocks. The students who get caught are usually the ones who needed better coaching, not better surveillance.

Mistake #3: thinking you are smarter than AI

I don't know any teacher who knows more names, dates, and facts than Google does. I don't know any teacher that has a larger repository of information than Wikipedia does. While those tools aren't perfect, they're a lot better at storing information than our brains. And if you try to out Google, Google, or out Wikipedia, Wikipedia, you're not going to win. Don't fight that battle and don't try to be the expert on everything. AI is the same way.

If you needed 30 copies of a handout for your students, you could take a pencil and paper and handwrite those out yourself. But you would be crazy to do that. AI is no different. When you're trying to come up with ideas, improve lesson plans, or give students feedback, there is a point where doing it by hand is just wasting time.

Mistake #4: spamming more of the same

Of all these mistakes that I see, number four is probably the most common. I see teachers spamming more of the same. What do I mean by that? What we were teaching a year, two, five years ago, we're just doing the AI version of that.

Another thing we get when teachers spam more of the same is what I call AI ping pong. In other words, a student uses an AI tool to write something. That's the ball going over the net. A teacher uses an AI tool to give them feedback. That's hitting the ball back over the net. And it's AI to AI to AI to AI.

Mistake #5: relying on one wrapper app

The fifth mistake I see teachers make with AI, and I have made this mistake myself, is getting too loyal to one wrapper app. In a previous school year, I only used one AI platform with my students. I put all of my content in it. I had a tool to help them write better essays with it. My school did not block it. My kids liked it. It was great. And I thought, look at me. I am so smart. But I was making mistake number five.

So what should you do if you do not want to be stuck in one platform? Teach the skill of using AI, not loyalty to one program or one app. I don't teach my kids how to use ChatGPT. They do use it, but I teach habits that transfer there and to the next tool that replaces it.

Next up: policy

The next practical question is policy: not the giant district-document version, but the classroom version of what students can use and disclose, and where the privacy lines matter.

If you want the syllabus language, policy samples, lesson ideas, or the student AI survey, start with my links page. That is where I keep the practical classroom pieces.

Anyway, the policy piece is where the weird stuff starts...