Since AI came onto the scene, a lot has changed with it while some recurring themes have sustained. AI continues to act as a broad tool that provides remarkably imperfect productivity.
While significant cautions abound assuming its reliability, understanding AI’s usefulness while recognizing its limits makes my day as a principal more efficient AND effective. This brought me to consider what a typical day looks like for me using AI tools to offload administrivia.
With so many options, I wanted to break it down for your use. I don’t expect to use all these tools everyday, but try a few and walk away liberated, with more time and availability for students, staff, and parents. That’s a win for everyone.
I start my day thinking about rising concerns by my faculty over religious opt outs, based on a Supreme Court decision this fall. They were receiving template emails people find online (hilarious when they forget to replace ‘student name’ with their child’s name). My nervous teachers want guidance, so I use AI to clearly and comfortably provide them with direction:
DOE Memo Converted To Slides (Time spent: 8 minutes)
I google my state's DOE guidance on handling parental opt outs and find a state memo that is a great antidote for insomnia. It is the standard boring, lengthy legalease. I add the link to Gemini and select canvas mode.
What I like is it follows my prompt to be pleasant and supportive. The slide deck gets me “mostly there,” my common phrase for AI giving me a terrific start that I edit, ensuring my voice is present. I then export the slides and edit as needed.
This process takes me under 10 minutes, during which I transform a dry, boring memo into a meaningful presentation for my faculty. This would have taken about an hour analog-style, so I get back 50+ minutes to be present for my school community!
Text-To-Email Blast To Parents (Time spent: 5 minutes)
Principals are mediums of communication, and often, are expected to funnel information into a digestible explanation, even when that information is shared in fragmented bursts, as it typically is.
Next on my list is a field day announcement. I need to communicate to ensure everyone is prepared for our big day of events. My physical education teacher sends me this text (at right).
It is timely, but to stop and rewrite it in a cohesive format will take time I often don’t have during a busy day. (Time that is better spent outside my office as improvement doesn’t happen there but in classrooms.)
I copy and paste the phys ed teacher’s text with a simple prompt: Convert this into a message for parents of our school, Central elementary for our field day.
The output is thorough, better than I expect, done in about a quarter the time it would normally take. Better, to get all this into a 140-character text message, I prompt from the output, “140 characters” and voila! This way, parents get an email and a text, increasing the likelihood they see it. All from a single text message!
Letter Of Recommendation (Time spent: 7 minutes)
I can write fast but when I get asked to write letters of recommendation, these all happen within weeks of each other. Drafting a good letter with fidelity takes time. This is the next task on my list.
For this, I have the requester send me their resume, copy it into my chat, and prompt the AI to write a letter of recommendation based on the information–2 minutes!
The other 5 minutes is me editing, revising, removing those weird AI words, and most importantly, adding a sentence or two about something I know personally regarding the candidate. What took a half hour now takes a quarter of the time, and the quality is sound.
Email Summary and Reply (Time spent: 5-10 minutes)
Every principal gets the dreaded email that is seven pages long, often emotional and hard to decipher. It is nearing lunch time and I need to get through it fast!
Typically, I prompt the AI to summarize the email, and then reply in a tone that is kind but firm, or whatever is necessary. This is a big time saver! I am not glued to my laptop, reading and rereading run-on sentences to find the essence of a message buried deep. AI does a great job of siphoning this off and producing a quality reply. Onward!
Sensitive Guidance (Time spent: 5 minutes)
Speaking of emotional challenges, every principal has gotten a charged call or email from a parent upset that a school official called the Division of Child Welfare. This is my next task, after lunch.
While school personnel are compelled by strict legal guidelines, parents see it as a personal attack on their parenting. Understandable. I didn’t get this one right the first time, and have to add my state specifics, as well as the tone: sensitive, understanding, pragmatic, etc.
What is produced is excellent. I am provided references to the legal obligation, integrated with an ideal tone. I edit it, print it, and show the parent. Its well-organized format helps me work through the document, and the parent expresses acknowledgement of my understanding.
Picture Of Calendar Events Added To My Calendar (Time spent: 3 minutes)
My day has to have some fun mixed in, right? It’s mid afternoon and I think of that dentist post card for my next visit that I always lose.
I just take a picture and prompt Gemini to add it to my google calendar. This works with Copilot users, too. Even better, I can use it with an email with a series of meetings or events, or my Penn State football schedule from this ugly screen capture–and instantly, I have 12 events (games) added. That’s fast and reliable!
NotebookLM for navigating lengthy documents (Time spent: 3 minutes)
My day is almost over and I spent most of it out of my office because of the AI tricks above. Next, I decide to check on a contract question.
I head over to Google’s NotebookLM, into which I upload a pdf of the teacher contract, and ask how many minutes of pupil contact time a teacher can have. Boom, 287 minutes with the link to the direct reference!
This is priceless for the administrator who often gets questions and different interpretations of contract language. Time-saver, and response can be within the spirit of contracts.
A few more AI time-savers that I have embraced, but not all on the same day, include PD planning, form feedback, and evaluation feedback referencing our evaluation model. I estimate a few hours saved daily–not minutes–and my school wins when I’m present!
Note: Much of the information I use with AI may contain names or other personal data, so I am sure to remove any of that before prompting.
