Recent studies show that there is a growing anxiety among teachers about students abusing AI. Two out of three teachers do not use it and believe it does more harm than good.
However, Ms. Bolaños has adapted to the changing world of technology and incorporates AI in her classroom. She encourages students to revise their essays by receiving feedback from Chat GPT for extra credit points.
Rather than viewing AI as a threat to academic integrity, Ms. Bolaños chooses to see it as a tool that students can use for growth. Still, she cautions against overly relying on it as it could later cause students to struggle with original expression and critical thinking.
“I’ve integrated AI into writing workshops, helping students use it to enhance their own compositions or to compare their work against AI-generated responses,” Ms. Bolanos said. “What I’ve found is that my AP Lang students often know the College Board’s standards better than AI does. This opens up rich discussions about rhetorical effectiveness, argument development, and stylistic nuance.
In her teaching, Ms.Bolaños uses AI as a tool for a variety of everyday tasks such as generating lesson ideas, refining rubrics, drafting professional emails, and even organizing her thoughts for presentations or proposals.
She has found that the best improvement happens when students don’t just passively accept the AI corrections, but think critically in order to adjust the revisions to fit AP criteria. “Critical thinking remains at the heart of this process—AI is simply another tool in their arsenal, not a substitute for human reasoning or creativity,” Ms.Bolaños said.
Ms. Bolaños advises other teachers who fear AI to keep an open mind as well. “I understand the concerns, especially with academic integrity, but banning AI outright ignores its potential as a learning tool. Instead of avoidance, I believe in guiding students toward responsible use. AI isn’t going away, so it’s better to teach students how to engage with it thoughtfully rather than pretend it doesn’t exist,” she said.
Ms. Bolaños makes it clear to students that their use of AI must be interactive or else it crosses the line and becomes cheating. “If a student uses AI to brainstorm, revise, or clarify ideas, that’s productive. If they use it to bypass learning—copy-pasting an AI-generated response with no personal engagement—then it’s a problem.” (Photo/Sadie Loughlin)
