I Used ChatGPT to Do Every Assignment I Gave My Students for a Whole Semester

What if I told you that you could learn more about your own teaching by becoming the student? Not just for a lesson or two, but for an entire semester...with the help of AI? That's what I did, and I'm here to challenge you to do the same.

In just the past year, most of my high school students have figured out that ChatGPT or another free AI app can generate answers, write essays, and “cheat” on most of their assignments.? But is that the only way to use these tools? Is that really the only purpose of AI in a classroom?? Most importantly, am I prepared to teach and assess students in a world where AI can do their school work for them?

I was first introduced to ChatGPT in November of 2022 via… TikTok. If you work with any young teachers, you know they use TikTok to learn teaching strategies as often as they watch dance videos. I watched a few videos, signed up for a free Open AI account, and stared at my laptop screen wondering, “Is this tool going to change my teaching & my students’ learning?”

That’s when I got a crazy idea: At the start of the new semester, I would “assign” myself every assignment I gave my students. But there would be a catch: I could only use ChatGPT to complete it. Notes, essays, reflections after a classroom activity. They all had to be? graded on the same rubric as my students, but I could only use ChatGPT to generate the work.?

But that was only half of the experiment: then I would use ChatGPT to score my own work with the rubric. This way I could practice getting ChatGPT to give meaningful feedback without having to use my students as a guinea pig for the AI induced train wreck I was seemingly embarking on.? So, how did it go?

By about the second month of the semester, it was painfully obvious: this AI stuff is going to blow up the entire system of education as I had known it. What was the light bulb moment for me?

As I stood in front of the Advanced World History class, in character as King Louis XVI on trial for treason, I pushed play on the Drake song, “God’s Plan” and started wrapping a closing argument for why the French king couldn’t be executed or exiled, but in the style of a Drake song.??

My students were absolutely losing it, wondering how long I had been a music writer and what inspired this seemingly awesome creativity.??

So here before you, my defense I lay,

Under God's watchful eye, I've led the way.

Bad things, it's a lot of bad things, they claim I've done,

But under God's plan, I shine like the sun.

Wow! There was no way I could ever come up with something like this before.?

And it took me literally 1 minute to generate four verses just like that one.? How was this even possible?

The great AI experiment had its ups and downs. I was terrible at using it to write my own essays. These required direct quotations from primary sources, detailed analysis of historic events, evaluation of the reliability of sources. But that is because I was using AI like many students who have not been taught HOW to use it: “ChatGPT, write me an essay on the Battle of the Somme.”? With a vague, open ended prompt, I was getting vague, open ended AI babble.

This taught me something important: teachers are especially well equipped to learn how to use AI. We don’t need to know coding, complicated prompt engineering, or anything we don’t already do on a daily basis. It really boils down to these two skills:

1. Give clear instructions
2. Give feedback & help revise initial drafts to improve them

What do teachers do hundreds of times a day with their students? That’s right!

1. Give clear instructions
2. Give feedback & help revise initial drafts to improve them

If you are one of the teachers who has seen glimpses of AI but don’t feel comfortable enough to dive in head first, take the challenge:?

do every assignment you give your students, but use AI.?

Then use AI to grade it on your own rubric.

If your results are terrible (like mine were at first), just give more clear instructions and provide it with feedback like you would to a student.?

Do this for a semester & you will be ahead of 99% of teachers!

If you need help on how to get started with this, leave a comment below. If you know a teacher who should do this challenge with you, tag them in a comment!