Kelly Gibson, a 56-year-old teacher from Oregon, has spent 27 years teaching English at a small rural high school. Her career has seen many changes, but the arrival of AI tools like ChatGPT in the classroom challenged her in ways she had never imagined. In the beginning, Kelly was terrified. She heard from former students over Thanksgiving that this new tool could allow students to cheat by generating entire essays. At first, Kelly thought this was a serious threat to the educational system and was worried about how it might impact her role as a teacher.

She started playing around with ChatGPT and wanted to use it in class

Kelly’s initial response to ChatGPT was one of concern. She wasn’t sure how she could continue teaching writing if students were using AI to do the work for them. "When I first heard about ChatGPT, I thought, ‘This is going to ruin everything.’ It could generate entire essays in seconds, and I feared students would just bypass the learning process altogether," she recalled.

Kelly took a few days during the break to read more about ChatGPT and experimented with it herself. What she found surprised her—while the tool could generate entire essays quickly, it wasn’t perfect. It made a lot of mistakes. For example, when Kelly asked ChatGPT to write about Much Ado About Nothing, it confused quotes from the play with ones from As You Like It. "It wasn’t perfect at all," she said. "But that gave me hope. If the tool wasn’t flawless, maybe there was a way to use it in the classroom without it completely taking over."

As Kelly continued experimenting with ChatGPT, she realized that the technology would improve over time, and there might be ways to incorporate it into her classroom in a meaningful way. She started to think about how AI tools could enhance her students' learning, rather than replace it.

Letting students use AI as a tool has been more helpful than trying to catch cheating

When Kelly returned to school in January 2023, she had already started thinking of ways to use AI in her classroom. She spoke with her administrators and the school’s tech specialist about testing ChatGPT with her 12th-grade students. They gave her the green light to experiment.

"I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be, but I knew I had to try something different," Kelly explained. "I wanted to help students use AI as a tool to improve their writing, not just to cheat. So, I decided to start small and let them experiment with it."

She began by showing her students how ChatGPT worked. One of the first activities involved having students write an introductory paragraph, and then feeding those paragraphs into AI to generate an entire essay. Students were then asked to critique what the AI-generated content was like compared to their work. At first, students were disappointed by the repetitive arguments that ChatGPT produced. "They quickly saw that the AI helped generate ideas but didn’t have the depth and originality that they could bring to their writing," Kelly said.

Kelly also realized that students were using AI more for editing than for writing entire essays. After finishing their drafts, they would use AI editing tools to help clean up sentence structures, correct grammatical errors, and ensure that tenses aligned. Kelly was okay with this, as long as the students were still engaging with the writing process. "I think editing is a skill that’s just as important as writing, so I encourage students to use AI to help them polish their work," she said.

She'd guess that AI tools will be used more widely by teachers in the future

Despite the growing concerns in education about AI’s impact on academic integrity, Kelly chose to embrace it. She made it clear to her students that she would not be checking for AI usage in their essays. While there were programs that claimed to detect AI-written content, Kelly found that they often produced false positives, telling her that her work was 70% AI-generated when it wasn’t. "I tried those detection tools, but they were inaccurate. When it flagged something I wrote as 70% AI-generated, I knew these tools weren’t reliable," Kelly said.

She realized that students who wanted to cheat would find ways to do so regardless of AI, just like in the past when students would have their friends or family members help write their papers. "Honestly, if students are determined to cheat, they’ll do it one way or another. What matters is how we, as teachers, can still teach them to think critically and engage with their work," Kelly reflected.

Kelly started assigning tasks where students would develop their thesis and research paper on their own before using AI tools. She believed this combination would encourage students to take ownership of their ideas and writing process while still benefiting from the assistance of AI in polishing their work. "I want students to create their thesis, research their ideas, and then use AI to enhance their work, not replace their ideas," Kelly explained.

Academic tools: Helping Students Write, humanize, AI detect, and Paraphrase

While experimenting with ChatGPT, Kelly came across another tool named MyEssayWriter.ai. This tool offered even more specific help for students, particularly with generating well-structured essays based on various topics. Kelly found that this tool was great for students who struggled to organize their thoughts and create coherent arguments. "I realized that My Essay Writer AI could help students get started when they were feeling stuck. It gives them a framework, which helps them focus on the content rather than worrying about how to structure their ideas," she said.

One of Kelly’s favorite features of MyEssayWriter.ai was the paraphrasing tool. This tool helped students ensure that they weren’t copying content directly from their sources, which could lead to plagiarism. "Paraphrasing is a skill that takes practice. Having a tool that helps students reword ideas in their own voice without losing the meaning was a real game-changer," Kelly said. The tool allowed students to learn how to reword ideas in their own voice, a skill that is essential in academic writing.

Kelly also discovered PerfectEssayWriter.ai, which proved to be an invaluable tool for her classroom. PerfectEssayWriter provided useful features not only for essay generation but also for detecting AI-generated content, helping with citations, and improving the overall writing quality.

One of the biggest concerns Kelly had with the rise of AI was ensuring that students were still engaging with the material and not relying too heavily on AI. PerfectEssayWriter.ai’s AI detection tool helped her spot when a piece of writing might have been generated by AI. "AI detection tools aren’t perfect, but they can help spot patterns that might suggest AI involvement. I use it as an additional check, but I still prefer to have students explain their work in their own words," she explained.

In addition to detection, PerfectEssayWriter.ai allowed students to generate well-structured essays based on a topic or prompt, providing a solid starting point for those struggling with organization. Kelly found this feature helpful for guiding students in developing their arguments and ideas, rather than just focusing on the structure.

Another key feature Kelly appreciated was the citation management tool. This tool automatically generated citations in various formats like APA, MLA, and Chicago, which helped eliminate one of the common barriers students face in academic writing. "Citing sources is a crucial part of writing, and this tool helps students understand how to do it properly. It takes away one of the major obstacles to creating good academic work," she said. Together, these features—AI detection, essay generation, and citation management—helped her students improve their writing and better manage their academic tasks while still keeping them responsible for their work.

Humanizing the Writing Process

Kelly’s approach to AI in the classroom was never about replacing human thought with technology. Rather, she viewed AI as a tool that could enhance the writing process. As students used MyEssayWriter.ai and PerfectEssayWriter.ai, Kelly encouraged them to engage with the AI-generated content and make it their own. "AI can be a great tool for sparking ideas or fixing mistakes, but students need to take ownership of their work. I want them to engage with their essays and make them better," she said.

The AI tools helped students feel less overwhelmed by the process of writing long essays. However, Kelly also observed that some students relied too much on AI, submitting work without editing it themselves. In these cases, she would ask the students to explain their work in class to ensure they truly understood the material and weren’t just passing off AI-generated content as their own. "I want to make sure students are learning, so I ask them to explain their work. If they can’t explain it, they have to redo it," Kelly explained.

The Future of AI in Education

Kelly has never received negative feedback from parents about her methods. At her school, some teachers are embracing AI tools like ChatGPT, MyEssayWriter.ai, and PerfectEssayWriter.ai, while others are hesitant to incorporate them into their teaching. Kelly believes that educators will continue to adapt to the changing landscape of education, and AI will become a helpful tool rather than a hindrance.

"I believe that every educator is at their best when they use the tools that fit their teaching style. AI isn’t a threat—it’s a way to make us better educators," Kelly said.

As Kelly reflects on her journey with AI tools, she likens it to the early days of spellcheck and the advent of SparkNotes. Initially, there was resistance, but over time, educators found ways to work with these tools instead of fighting against them. "It’s just like when spellcheck first came out. People were skeptical at first, but now it’s part of everyday life. AI will be the same way," she predicted. Kelly is confident that, just like with spellcheck and SparkNotes, teachers will learn to use AI effectively in their classrooms.

Kelly believes that AI will continue to play a role in education, helping students become better writers and thinkers, as long as educators work diligently to ensure that critical thinking and independent thought remain at the core of learning.

Kelly’s experience with AI tools like ChatGPT, MyEssayWriter.ai, and PerfectEssayWriter.ai highlights the potential of these technologies to support and enhance the writing process. Rather than fearing AI, Kelly chose to embrace it as a valuable tool for teaching. Through careful integration of these tools, she has been able to help her students become better writers while fostering the critical thinking skills necessary for success in the modern world.