Key points:
- AI doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful
- AI tools are everyday study buddies, survey finds
- AI tools that support learning–not cheating
- For more news on AI in schools, visit eSN’s Digital Learning hub
In the last year, we’ve seen an extraordinary push toward integrating artificial intelligence in classrooms. Among educators, that trend has evoked responses from optimism to opposition. “Will AI replace educators?” “Can it really help kids?” “Is it safe?” Just a few years ago, these questions were unthinkable, and now they’re in every K-12 school, hanging in the air.
Given the pace at which AI technologies are changing, there’s a lot still to be determined, and I won’t pretend to have all the answers. But as a school counselor in Kansas who has been using SchoolAI to support students for years, I’ve seen that AI absolutely can help kids and is safe when supervised. At this point, I think it’s much more likely to help us do our jobs better than to produce any other outcome. I’ve discovered that if you implement AI thoughtfully, it empowers students to explore their futures, stay on track for graduation, learn new skills, and even improve their mental health.
Full disclosure: I have something adjacent to a tech background. I worked for a web development marketing firm before moving into education. However, I want to emphasize that you don’t have to be an expert to use AI effectively. Success is rooted in curiosity, trial and error, and commitment to student well-being. Above all, I would urge educators to remember that AI isn’t about replacing us. It allows us to extend our reach to students and our capacity to cater to individual needs, especially when shorthanded.
Let me show you what that looks like.
Building emotional resilience
Students today face enormous emotional pressures. And with national student-to-counselor ratios at nearly double the recommended 250-to-1, school staff can’t always be there right when students need us.
That’s why I created a chatbot named Pickles (based on my dog at home, whom the kids love but who is too rambunctious to come to school with me). This emotional support bot gives my students a way to process small problems like feeling left out at recess or arguing with a friend. It doesn’t replace my role, but it does help triage students so I can give immediate attention to those facing the most urgent challenges.
Speaking of which, AI has revealed some issues I might’ve otherwise missed. One fourth grader, who didn’t want to talk to me directly, opened up to the chatbot about her parents’ divorce. Because I was able to review her conversation, I knew to follow up with her. In another case, a shy fifth grader who struggled to maintain conversations learned to initiate dialogue with her peers using chatbot-guided social scripts. After practicing over spring break, she returned more confident and socially fluent.
Aside from giving students real-time assistance, these tools offer me critical visibility and failsafes while I’m running around trying to do 10 things at once.
Personalized career exploration and academic support
One of my core responsibilities as a counselor is helping students think about their futures. Often, the goals they bring to me are undeveloped (as you would expect—they’re in elementary school, after all): They say, “I’m going to be a lawyer,” or “I’m going to be a doctor.” In the past, I would point them toward resources I thought would help, and that was usually the end of it. But I always wanted them to reflect more deeply about their options.
So, I started using an AI chatbot to open up that conversation. Instead of jumping to a job title, students are prompted to answer what they’re interested in and why. The results have been fascinating—and inspiring. In a discussion with one student recently, I was trying to help her find careers that would suit her love of travel. After we plugged in her strengths and interests, the chatbot suggested cultural journalism, which she was instantly excited about. She started journaling and blogging that same night. She’s in sixth grade.
What makes this process especially powerful is that it challenges biases. By the end of elementary school, many kids have already internalized what careers they think they can or can’t pursue–often based on race, gender, or socioeconomic status. AI can disrupt that. It doesn’t know what a student looks like or where they’re from. It just responds to their curiosity. These tools surface career options for kids–like esports management or environmental engineering–that I might not be able to come up with in the moment. It’s making me a better counselor and keeping me apprised of workforce trends, all while encouraging my students to dream bigger and in more detail.
Along with career decisions, AI helps students make better academic decisions, especially in virtual school environments where requirements vary district to district. I recently worked with a virtual school to create an AI-powered tool that helps students identify which classes they need for graduation. It even links them to district-specific resources and state education departments to guide their planning. These kinds of tools lighten the load of general advising questions for school counselors and allow us to spend more time supporting students one on one.
My advice to educators: Try it
We tell our students that failure is part of learning. So why should we be afraid to try something new? When I started using AI, I made mistakes. But AI doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful. Around the globe, AI school assistants are already springing up and serving an ever-wider range of use cases.
I recommend educators start small. Use a trusted platform. And most importantly, stay human. AI should never replace the relationships at the heart of education. But if used wisely, it can extend your reach, personalize your impact, and unlock your students’ potential.
We have to prepare our students for a world that’s changing fast–maybe faster than ever. I, for one, am glad I have AI by my side to help them get there.
This post is exclusively published on eduexpertisehub.com
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