By: Audry Pallas

There is absolutely nothing like the first week of school. The buzz is always tangible—a mix of excitement, nerves, and hope. Old faces and new, pep rallies and meet-the-teacher nights. As teachers, we are always reminded that the first two weeks are the most important—build the relationships and set the routines. I always feel so inspired by planning and prepping during this time, because I love big-picture thinking. Imagining what the new year will bring for my students always powers me through the long first days—and my, are the days long.

Along with setting routines and expectations, teachers juggle numerous tasks: learning new names, building connections, sending contact information home, updating our syllabi, attending planning meetings—the list goes on. By Friday night of the first week, I often find myself sitting on my sofa, with a hoarse voice, drained.  

A former principal and mentor of mine always used to say, “We’ve done our best—the lesson plans might not be perfect, and your room might not be exactly the way you want it. The most important thing that students need on the first day is you.”They were right—the connections we make in the first week—and month, of school set our groundwork for the rest of the year.

Fortunately, we now live in an exciting new age where AI can significantly impact the amount of time we spend doing the prep work for the first week. I’m hoping to share a few tools that will resonate with you—or a teacher friend, so that we can focus more on the connections we make in the first week and save some of our energy as we head into week two. These tools are designed to be incredibly user-friendly, so you won’t need to worry about adding more to your plate.

1.Team Building: Gone are the days when we had to furiously google for “this or that” activities or dig through our school drive for icebreakers we’ve used in the past. Prompt the UnconstrainED chat to help you come up with these in no time.

Tools: UnconstrainED chat, ChatGPT

2. Lesson Plans: AI can easily help out with synthesizing your creative ideas and content knowledge for lesson plans. It can even act as a thought partner as you draft your lessons.

Tools: UnconstrainED LP Tool, Eduaide.ai

3. Welcome letters: Using AI, you can quickly whip up personalized letters for your students and parents in no time.

Tools: UnconstrainED chat, Claude

4. Differentiation: After you’ve received your students’ IEPs, you can quickly plug in your lesson plans and materials to ensure you are meeting the needs of your students.

Tools: UnconstrainED Differentiation Tool, Diffit

5. Student Surveys: Create survey questions for your class that stand out. Pop these into a Google Form to have students fill out in class or print for students to take home.

Tool: UnconstrainED chat, ChatGPT

If you’ve already used these tools to free up some time this week, check out the rest of UnconstrainED’s curated tools to use, and courses to engage with this year. I truly hope that you are enjoying the start of the year and relishing all the excitement. Remember, AI tools are meant to support us, allowing us to focus on the human element in education—which is what our students need most.