From Good to Great: Transforming My Teaching with EnlightenAI

Sean Galvin teaches 6th grade World Geography at Marshall Middle School in Marshall, Michigan, where he lives with his wife, Becky and their three boys. Sean earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University, authoring his dissertation on the effects and impact of mentoring for at-risk youth. Sean’s innovative use of AI tools, like EnlightenAI, has significantly enhanced his teaching effectiveness and allowed him to balance his professional and personal life.

I had a decision to make: strive to be a highly effective teacher, or strive to be a highly effective husband and father. As the 2023-2024 school year kicked off, it seemed impossible to do both.

Before I encountered EnlightenAI in October, 2023, I was a serviceable teacher. I consistently received an “effective” rating, which translates to “good but not great.” I managed the classroom well, students seemed to like me, and there was some decent learning going on in my classroom most days. 

The learning, however, was limited. I understood then, as I do now, that asking students an open ended question (“How does Earth’s tilted axis connect to the four seasons?”) and having them explain their understanding in writing would be far more effective than a multiple choice quiz. But, as a married father of three young boys (a four year old and twin two year olds) who sought a balanced life and practices self care, the quiz was the move. I could grade it while multitasking over the next few days, have it handed back by the end of the week, and move on to the next lesson - usually without analyzing what students were and were not grasping. 

Good but clearly not great.

Discovering EnlightenAI

Last September, I was loosely aware that artificial intelligence was making its way into the world of education, and that it wasn’t just for cheating. A planned ankle surgery and an unplanned positive COVID test provided me with the down time and mental bandwidth to poke around the internet and see which, if any, available tools might help me.

Eventually, I started tinkering with Enlighten AI. It addressed my #1 problem: sustainable grading and feedback. Also, it synced with Google Classroom, which was and still is essential to me.

While setting up, I asked the EnlightenAI support chatbot a question, and ended up chatting directly with the CEO, Gautam Thapar. Since then, Gautam and I have connected regularly in an effort to improve the product and make it work for teachers around the globe.

A Tireless Teacher's Assistant

After a slight learning curve to get familiar with the tool, I began using Enlighten weekly. Each Friday, I would have students watch a news show about current events, then have them answer open-ended questions about each story (i.e. “What did you think? Why does this matter?”)

From there, I would train EnlightenAI to help me grade and give feedback on each student’s work. Grading 90+ papers and giving thoughtful feedback on my own, even if I limited myself to two minutes per paper, used to take at least three hours which I would spread across multiple days - even weeks. The depth and quality of my commentary would vary based on my mood/energy levels - some papers would receive attentive, careful feedback (usually the first few I graded), while others would get hurried, shallow notes as I rushed to finish. Oftentimes, students would have already forgotten about their papers by the time I returned them, then I would find them on the floor after dismissal.

Training EnlightenAI, however, took about ten minutes. I would grade the first few papers on my own to give EnlightenAI working examples, then sit back and watch the tool mimic my grading style. Not only was EnlightenAI able to mimic my grading style, it was able to provide thoughtful commentary on each of the 90+ papers with no signs of fatigue, frustration, or bias.

Once I began to trust EnlightenAI, I could have the grades and feedback posted on the same day the assignment was given.  After a month or so, I noticed a few things:

1. More students turned in “Current Events Friday” than any other assignment
2. The quality of work on “Current Event’s Friday” far exceeded the others
3. I was having more positive interactions with students on Fridays (not just TGIF vibes)
4. I was leaving school at contract time with grades/feedback posted, without a headache, with time to work out before childcare pickup.

This was the equivalent of handing a intelligent, diligent, and tireless teaching assistant a stack of papers and having them returned, promptly and in alphabetical order, meticulously evaluated - complete with commentary that encourages students while gently holding them accountable.

Improved Learning

Soon after this breakthrough, I engrained digital writing assignments into my 6th Grade World Geography curriculum. Grading paper assignments by hand began to feel incredibly cumbersome, like using a folded Rand McNally map to plan a road trip instead of just plugging the address into Google Maps.

Students understood they would receive prompt, thoughtful feedback, and learning improved across the board. Advanced students got a chance to work on their comprehension and writing skills instead of finishing ahead of time and receiving an A with no commentary days later. Students who were struggling or disengaged were held accountable to improving, and got the in-depth feedback they needed to meet expectations.. Everybody was putting forth more effort.

Just as I was getting into a groove with all this, June rolled around and students turned their chromebooks in. It was the first time in my education career that I found myself disappointed (slightly) that the school year was ending. It was also the first time in my teaching career that I received a “highly effective” rating.

Looking Ahead to 24-25: a Team of Teacher's Assistants

I find myself drawn to EnlightenAI as an organization for two reasons. First, they have saved me far more time and bandwidth than it is taking me to write this blog post. Second, because I believe this tool can revolutionize the teaching profession - making it more sustainable, enjoyable, and desirable. 

The grading tool, coupled with other tools EnlightenAI continues to roll out, has the potential to provide teachers not only with a diligent TA, but with an army of TAs who evaluate work, analyze common strengths/weaknesses, then create lesson plans based on those strengths and weaknesses. This platoon of teacher assistants is never biased, never in a hurry, never needs a day off nor spills coffee on the assignments.

As a new school year rolls around, I find myself looking to the Fall with more optimism than previous years. EnlightenAI has addressed my grading/feedback problem, and I’m aware of new features such as “instant feedback” where students can submit drafts of an assignment to the virtual TA and receive instant suggestions on how to improve before turning in the final draft. I haven’t used this feature yet, but I’m excited to try it when school starts up again.

My army of teacher assistants will handle a significant chunk of the heavy lifting - grading, planning, accountability - providing me with time and space to engage with children, live a balanced life, and be highly effective inside and outside of the classroom.