educators and future educators have a responsibility to be up-to-date on the field of education, as it changes rapidly. one of the biggest changes to education in the past few years has been the explosion of artificial intelligence. as an education student, i hear about AI daily. however, i've noticed a trend that professional educators are beginning to endorse and encourage AI usage among other educators.

i think that fucking sucks.

i'm going to focus on two programs primarily: Pear Deck and MagicSchool AI. Pear Deck is a presentation tool that's been around for a good few years, but has recently started to lean heavily into AI. MagicSchool AI is a bit newer, and it's essentially a collection of AI "tools" for educators. i want to focus on these two as one highlights how AI in education affects students, and the other highlights how it affects teachers.

additionally, any materials i show in this post will revolve around the social studies as that is my primary content area, but the main ideas are applicable across all subjects.

Pear Deck

i first used Pear Deck in 2019 when it was just an interactive slideshow tool with a few fun games to keep students interested. it was good, it was useful, and it was AI-free. now, in 2025, one of the first things you are greeted with is the option to make a Pear Deck presentation with AI.

i began making my AI-generated lesson, which was pretty easy. i entered a topic, chose my grade level focus, the subject, and the type of lesson that i wanted, and it was ready within 30 seconds. my topic was regarding the rise of fascism and the enablement of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany because as i'm writing this, i'm also preparing for a meeting with a Holocaust survivor a few hours from now. so it's on my mind.

it's important to point out that i did absolutely no work. i typed the prompt on the above screen and that was it; everything you see in the following slideshow was AI-generated. i've attached it below, and now i'm going to pick it apart.

the first thing i noticed is that this is not age-appropriate. this lesson was intended to be designed for 10th graders, which is around the 15-16 year old range. the lesson generated explains basic historical concepts at what i would consider an 8th grade level. 16 year olds are nearing adulthood and are grown enough to have hard concepts like genocide explained to them like adults. the vocabulary used in this lesson is juvenile and would not promote learning among students.

also, holy shit that slideshow is wordy! a powerpoint slide is not supposed to have that many words on it! presentations are designed for key points; what i put on my presentations is what i need students to know. i don't need to write every detail on that slide because i have a college education and can explain these concepts verbally better than a robot can write down.

another big fault is that this slideshow doesn't resonate with any human being ever. because it was AI-generated, the language is often robotic or overly simplified, and takes away the humanness needed to reach beyond the apathetic shell of every single 16 year old in order for them to actually observe history. students would forget about this lecture as soon as they leave the class, and with a topic as timely as genocide, that's not really an option.

i enjoy Pear Deck as a presenting tool, but not as a lesson generator. this just would not work in a classroom. additionally, it really isn't that hard to just make a powerpoint. if you're a teacher, you have a college degree, so you know things! use your knowledge to create a better, more engaging presentation for your students. students will learn better, the content will have a higher guarantee of accuracy, and it's just so much more fulfilling than using an AI-generated slideshow.

MagicSchool AI

MagicSchool AI is a suite of tools for educators that's designed to make their lives a little bit easier. this includes things like lesson plan generators, rubric generators, and even AI-generated responses to emails from families and administrators. i want to focus on two specific tools, the lesson plan generator and the email to parents generator, as those are two of the things that suck the most as a teacher.

lesson plan generator

for the lesson plan, i'm going to use the exact same prompt as i used for the Pear Deck presentation. i'll also be linking to Michigan's social studies standards relating to World War II, as MagicSchool AI allows you to include state standards for a better lesson plan, which is a feature i like!

given those prompts, it generated a lesson plan within 30 seconds. and unfortunately, i like it. i really do. the lesson plan that MagicSchool generated is in line with state standards, and it's honestly a really good starting point for a lesson plan. the lesson plan is also below for a quick perusal.

email generator

the last tool i wanted to discuss is an email generator for writing home to families. contacting family is one of those things that every teacher dreads a little bit because it's just so unpredictable. you can either get the best families ever who are really dedicated to supporting the classroom, or you can get the unbearable helicopter moms who refuse to believe their kids can do any wrong.

my prompt for the email was that a (fictional) student is having severe behavioral and academic issues that are unable to be addressed at the classroom level.

MagicSchool generated the following email from that prompt:

Dear Family,
I hope this message finds you well. I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for your support and involvement in your child's education.
I am writing to discuss some concerns regarding your child's behavior in the classroom. Unfortunately, he has been experiencing severe behavioral issues, which include consistently disrupting the learning environment with foul language, distracting noises, and teasing or mocking other students.
Additionally, I want to bring to your attention that he is currently failing the class with a grade of 32%. This puts him at risk of having to retake the class in a future school year.
I believe that working together can help address these issues and support your child's success. Please feel free to reach out to discuss this further.
Thank you for your understanding.
Best regards,

i can't get behind this one. this just took the prompt and plugged it into a basic email format. there is no reason to utilize AI for this besides just actual laziness. writing emails does suck sometimes, but it's not that time-consuming and with the sensitive subject matter of so many emails (FERPA......), i cannot rationalize a reason for using AI in this case.

general thoughts

overall, the only tool i can sort of get behind is the lesson plan generator. however, i don't support the usage of any AI tools. there is nothing that AI can do that a human can't do with a little bit of time dedicated to it. even though using an AI lesson plan generator may not be taking away from human work in the same way that, for example, AI art does, using these tools still supports the continued growth of artificial intelligence, which enables those who are using it to steal from actual people to continue doing so.

especially in the education field where everybody has at least a bachelor's degree, we don't need to be doing this. we are capable of writing lesson plans without robots. support your creative friends. stop enabling the growth of AI.