Austin Scholar #83: How AI is changing the role of teachers for the better
& the Guide who changed my life
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: The Guide who changed my life
How AI is changing the role of teachers for the better
Scholar’s Sources: More on the impact a good teacher can have on a student
Austin’s Anecdote: The Guide who changed my life
When people hear that I use online apps to learn, they’re concerned about the lack of human interaction in my school day. 2 Hour Learning seems cool and all, but you’re just interacting with your computer all day, right?
Well, let me tell you, though, that although we don’t call them “teachers” at Alpha, our school is so fantastic because of the supportive adults guiding us through our day (we call them “Guides”). They don’t teach academics (they don’t have to–we have apps for that), but they sure are teaching us life skills and helping us on the journey of growing up.
Everyone has a story of the “teacher who changed their life.” I’m no different.
Chloe has been a Guide at Alpha since my sophomore year of high school, and she has absolutely changed my life. As the head Masterpiece guide, Chloe has helped me through every step of building Austin Scholar.
In the early days, she built up my confidence to hit publish for the first time. As time passed, she continuously raised her standards for me, forcing my quality of work to increase.
She’ll tell me, “I know you can do better.”
And seriously, if that’s not the most motivational thing–to have someone believe in you wholeheartedly–I don’t know what is.
Chloe pushes me to do the hard things. Whenever it’s late at night and I really don’t want to post on Twitter (but know I should), thinking of Chloe’s face looking at me with disappointment is all I need for motivation.
And whether I’m struggling to write a cold email or stressing about everything I have to get done before college applications, I know that Chloe’s desk is a safe, supportive place to talk about everything. She’s helped me through an infinite amount of challenges and hard days.
She’s also gotten the chance to get to know me–and other students–beyond just academics. My friends and I storm Chloe’s desk during lunch to talk about the latest Survivor episode or squeal about the new Taylor Swift vault tracks.
Chloe is most certainly a role model for my friends and me, and she is, without a doubt, the “teacher” who changed my life. And she hasn’t taught me a single academic class.
She would not be able to do this–to support me in the way she has–if she was stuck in the front of a classroom helping me memorize the US presidents or teaching me how to solve a matrix equation.
How AI is changing the role of teachers for the better
It hasn’t always been possible for teachers to be in a “Guide” role. It’s been necessary for students to learn their core curriculum from a teacher standing in front of a classroom, grading their paper worksheets and handwritten essays, simply because there was no alternative.
But now, in this new age of AI, technology can take over the boring job of teaching academic content, giving teachers the time to form genuine bonds with their students–bonds that allow them to provide motivational and emotional support to every student.
What’s more, because AI allows students to learn their academics in just two hours every day, they have four hours of their afternoons freed up, like I talked about in my last couple of newsletters. This is the time they can build life skills and create Masterpieces.
And this time, the afternoons, are where the Guides at Alpha truly shine.
They spend the mornings (while their students are working on the apps) creating fun, engaging workshops to help kids learn life skills. They can help students form grit through puzzle workshops, learn how to spot details in special effects experiments, build negotiation skills through mock negotiation situations, and so much more.
And, instead of nagging kids to complete assignments, they can connect with the students on a deeper level, so they can be allies instead of enemies, since the apps can take care of the boring academic stuff.
Let’s be real: teachers didn’t become teachers to grade exams and create lesson plans. They did it to transform kids’ lives. AI allows them to spend 100% of their time doing just that. They can play the motivational and emotional support role they’ve always dreamed of being.