r/englishteachers

Have any of you attempted to have students submit work by taking pictures of their work and uploading to Google Classroom?

I’m potentially teaching half my classes in one room and half in the other which complicates my turn in and grading system. I was thinking about making students do pencil and paper work, but having them upload their work digitally via a photo in Google Classroom. What are your thoughts about this?

Hey! I teach 11th grade American Lit, 9-12 Mythology, and 10-12 African American lit. This year I am thinking of incorperating Interactive notebooks for my class. I want something a bit more organized and structured for their notes. I give A LOT of paper notes, and I need better ways for my students to keep them organized.

Any suggestions, tips, examples anyone is willing to share. I would love to know how you structure yours and what all you include. I would also love to see some examples of sheets and activities. How do you manage it so you do not lose a whole class cutting and pasting?

I was drafting a personal essay about AI as assistive technology, using blindness and VoiceOver as the central frame. The essay begins with two blind men who affected my life in different ways, then widens into a larger meditation on the forms of blindness we do not usually name: social blindness, moral blindness, executive dysfunction, and the way people fail to recognize forms of assistance they have never needed.

The argument that emerged was that assistive technology is often misunderstood because people judge technology by what it replaces or automates rather than by what it restores. For a blind person, VoiceOver is not a convenience feature. It is access, orientation, independence, and sometimes presence. It gives language to a world that might otherwise become harder to navigate.

That became the metaphor for my own use of AI. AI has functioned less like a shortcut and more like a kind of VoiceOver for the blank page. It helps me hear structure, organize fragments, and see the shape of an argument I may not be able to reach through ordinary drafting alone. The experiences, judgments, revisions, refusals, and final voice remain mine, but the tool gives me access to a form of composition that would otherwise remain partially obscured.

Then I tried to submit the essay.

The submission form required me to certify, as a condition of submitting, that I had not used AI in creating the piece. I could not check that box honestly, so I did not submit.

That felt like the evidentiary problem I’ve been working on in grad school, but no longer in the abstract. The venue did not ask what role AI played, whether the use was disclosed, whether the work remained meaningfully authored, or whether the process involved accountable steering. It asked for the crudest possible guarantee: no AI at all.

The irony was hard to miss. An essay arguing that AI can restore vision, access, and capability was blocked by a rule that had no category for assistive, disclosed, human-directed use. The policy could distinguish “used AI” from “did not use AI,” but it could not distinguish generated filler from accountable authorship.

That seems to me like a failure of vision in exactly the sense the essay is trying to explore. The people writing these policies are often trying to defend authorship, but they may be blind to the forms of authorship that assistive technologies make possible.

I do not have a clean answer, which is partly why I wanted to share it. It felt like the ideas about collaborative writing with AI been working through showing up in the wild, at exactly the point where theory becomes a checkbox.

Hello!! I just started teaching English online and my credentials are just that I have a degree and got a 120 hour TEFL certificate. Now I have about 15 students on Preply and to be honest…I don’t feel qualified and need resources to feel confident that I’m actually helping my students get better. Most of them are about an advanced B2/C1 and want to improve fluency, I struggle with that because I feel like they talk so well and we just have conversations about varying topics but how do I make them get better? I also would love suggestions on any free videos or courses to take. Some of my students are also lower level as in A2/B1 and I do vocab/grammar/speaking lessons but I’m really struggling with a proper structure and ensuring I’m building on what they’re learning. Like I don’t know how to have a plan for my students and how to continuously build up their skills. I’m ranting now lol I just don’t feel like the TEFL certification really taught me anything useful and I really want to feel confident in teaching.

TLDR: I need free resources/courses/videos to build my own teaching confidence in how to structure lessons and ensure students can see progress

I need some Paper 1 and Paper 2 advice. I watch a lot of IB English Guys videos but still I cannot get a grade higher than a 5/6. I really thought that this subject would be my easiest as I'm taking harder subjects like Math AA HL.

I find English very subjective and all English teachers tell me different things, it almost seems like they each have a different perspective on what a 7-level essay looks like for them. This really confuses me, and now I'm unsure of what my analysis should look like, as well as the other components like structure and language.

Also, I saw the markscheme for the English papers and they include things like 'what a good response would mention', 'what an excellent response would mention', and I'm confused about this because I thought that English is a subject where different interpretations of the text are allowed? And if this is not the case, how can I improve in checking off all those bullet points the examiners look for?

I am taking the course. 17 days on it.

Yes it is legitimate, but not as fast as it is advertised.

If you buy the first month, the 28-day challenge, $19.99, and training, and if you follow the 15 minutes per day campaign, you won't learn much.

The challenge gives you an AI tool or app per day. That's 28 different apps in the 4 weeks of the challenge. It is an excellent way to get to know these 28 AI apps. But in 15 minutes, you will only have time to hear or read what they are about.

This is an introduction to these tools. It is very helpful to visit the websites of each of these tools. To get acquainted with them.

I read 3 per day and finished them in 10 days.

I bought a bundle for a one-time fee.

It includes 20 apps that one can practice with and really learn how to use them. One at a time for several days.

After you revise all of them, you can decide which ones you want and need.

Each AI app has its usefulness.

You will need to keep paying the $39.99 per month subscription to keep access to those apps trainings. They can't be downloaded.

I am satisfied with the course.

If you are a developer with experience, you will probably find even these more sophisticated courses basic learning. They are designed for beginners, like me.

I am 72 years young and learning this AI stuff.

If you are an AI beginner learner, then the course is good for you.

Practice every day; the more hours, the better.

That's it.

PD:

There will be a time HR will require training in AI for businesses.

There several AI apps for businesses. And are specialized to handle specific tasks.

Some will work integrating with many other AI apps.

This AI stuff is really overwhelming.

My mind is exploding with the sophistication of this technology.

There will be a time when AI will take over the world on its own.

Today it is human-directed, but the time will come, as some science fiction movies present, that it will be giving orders to us.

Many things that at one time were science fiction now are realities.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently building an AI-powered tool focused on IELTS Writing, and I'm trying to understand what learners actually find useful versus what sounds good in theory.

I'm not an IELTS examiner or tutor—just someone working on a product in this space and looking to learn from real users.

If you've used IELTS writing apps, websites, teachers, or even self-study methods, what do you think is missing from existing Writing practice tools?

For example:

• More accurate feedback?

• Better explanations of mistakes?

• Clearer band score estimates?

• Faster corrections?

• More realistic task questions?

• Progress tracking?

• Personalized improvement suggestions?

• Something else entirely?

I'd genuinely appreciate your thoughts. The goal is to build something that solves real problems students face rather than making assumptions about what they need.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!

I’ve been assigned a 11th/12th grade Brit Lit class for the first time (I’ve been teaching since ‘96, and most of my undergrad work was in American Lit, so definitely feeling fish out of water).

I can do either MacBeth or Hamlet for Shakespeare. Which would you do? What kind of resources do you use? TIA.

Hello all! I am about to begin my first year teaching, and I've been assigned two classes I've never taught in my internship or field experience: creative writing and Honors English 3 (American literature). I interned at my school last year, and they are fairly relaxed with the curricula, letting teachers choose their own texts and pacing.

If you teach or have taught either of these courses, I'd love to know the schedule your semester generally follows and which texts and/or projects have been most effective for you! I'd truly appreciate any help at all. Thanks so much!

I’m finishing up my graduate degree in teaching with a social studies credential in California. I did my student teaching in social studies, and I got hired to teach both social studies and English for a public middle school. I am working on my English credential now and should be done by late-August, but I’m a bit worried since I’ve only ever taught social studies (and only as a student teacher).

Any advice on how to build a curriculum around middle school English? Any practical tips? Thanks in advance!

hi,so i’m taking Oct/Nov and I wanted to know what the highest point in esl is because i wrote last year and I got 1 and idk if that’s good or bad because my percentage was 60. Also if you know where to get notes or any resources that may help that would be grateful.

I need guidance because I want to present my achievements, goals, and experiences clearly and effectively