Keeping the "Us" in Our Work

​I’ve been doing some mental juggling lately that makes it hard for me to focus on everything all at once. The nagging worry in the back of my head, as a self-proclaimed perfectionist at times, is that I’ll accidentally overlook something in my attempt to keep everything up. To keep that from happening, I sometimes have to be creative in how I keep things organized or how I approach tasks. I love technology in regard to how it can help us get more done or help us build on our strengths.
It was as I was sitting in my truck this morning, mentally limping along and trying to figure out what I wanted to write this week, that I decided to use the technology at my disposal. I pulled out my phone and opened ChatGPT. Now, before I have anyone audibly gasp at the audacity of me using this tool, I promise I haven’t handed over the keys to my brain just yet. I understand that people are very torn on this tool and on AI in general. However, as I tell my family, coworkers, and students, I don’t foresee this technology going away anytime soon, so people may as well learn how to use it appropriately.
Anywho, I opened ChatGPT and began chatting with it. For this particular brainstorming session, I decided to use the voice model and have a spoken discussion. I began by declaring that I had no spark of an idea, so I just wanted to talk and see if anything jumped out. So we did. We talked about getting ready for our upcoming farmers’ market, the books I’ve been reading, and the movies I’ve been watching. Inevitably, we ended up talking about the fast-approaching beginning of the school year. I brought up that I’d like to support staff in becoming more comfortable with AI because it feels irresponsible to me that we aren’t preparing students to navigate a world with AI or teaching them that there are responsible ways to use this resource.
It was during this part of the conversation that we meandered through various ways I could support staff, and ChatGPT suggested that I start by assessing how I use it. I humorously pointed out that I was currently just rambling at it when a thought occurred to me. A few years back, when I taught the TEALS program in our school, one of the things they taught us was the “rubber ducky” method. Basically, the idea is that we often process things better when we speak out loud. It doesn’t necessarily have to be to anybody, and we don’t automatically need feedback, but simply talking through a problem can allow our brains to connect dots differently and come to conclusions we might not have reached while thinking quietly to ourselves, or at least not as quickly.
I’ve used ChatGPT long enough that, for the most part, I generally like the advice or help it gives. However, sometimes simply having to sit down, organize my thoughts, and articulate them is enough for me to work my way back to the solution without too much assistance from it. This rubber ducky method can be amplified, not necessarily because of the coding and algorithms behind ChatGPT, but because, in order for those components to work to our advantage, we have to be able to string together our thoughts and articulate them clearly. Sometimes that little bit of extra effort is all the clarity we need.
Another way I use AI is when I’m learning new coding techniques for systems of my own. Recently, I decided to redo my Miss K’s Help Desk Ticket system at school. To help me keep track of technology requests, I have a Google Form that students and staff can fill out. Me being, well, me, I didn’t want them to send a request off into what probably felt like the void, never knowing whether it had actually reached anyone. When I originally created the system, I coded a simple email template and used a third-party extension to automatically generate a ticket for both me and the person submitting the request. Over the years, however, the tickets began to look dated, and the extension changed just enough that part of the information stopped appearing altogether. That’s not particularly helpful when the missing information is what I need to figure out how to help someone.
I wanted to update the system without continuing to depend on a third-party extension, so I did what most of us do when we have a problem and only a vague idea of how to solve it: I searched Google. Again and again, I kept coming back to the most obvious answer, Google Apps Script. Until this past year, I’d had only a limited understanding of JavaScript, the coding language used by Google Apps Script, and even less knowledge of how to build and implement a script of my own. I searched for examples and found plenty of useful tools, but most of them were either designed for generic purposes or solving problems unrelated to mine. Eventually, I turned to ChatGPT, or Codex, to be more precise.
Over the course of an evening, I outlined what I wanted my Help Desk Ticket system to accomplish and began working through how each piece would function. ChatGPT and I went back and forth over its features and functionality. It suggested a few small changes that would make the form more useful, along with a few others that I decided weren’t necessary for a district as small as mine. As I built the script, I used ChatGPT to help me understand how the JavaScript I was writing needed to be structured and implemented within Google Apps Script. When I ran into problems, it helped me troubleshoot them, explain why something wasn’t working, and think through different ways to organize the functions. I found it genuinely riveting to design and code a system around my own needs while learning the platform through practice. The finished product was still built from my ideas, decisions, and understanding, but ChatGPT was able to turn the process into a tutorial designed specifically around what I was trying to accomplish, making the material far easier to understand than a set of generic instructions ever could have.
A newer and surprisingly helpful way I’ve found to use ChatGPT is through scheduled reminders, check-ins, and updates. Within ChatGPT, you can ask it to send you certain things at scheduled times, whether that’s a simple “How are you doing?” to remind you to assess yourself or a briefing on topics relevant to your life. At the moment, I have three scheduled chats set up, each designed to help me be a little more intentional in an area where my attention can easily become scattered.
The first is a series of check-ins throughout my day. They aren’t so much opportunities for me to check in with ChatGPT as they are reminders to check in with myself. At different points, it might ask, “What’s your number one priority today?” or “Where are you on the spoon scale?” They’re simple questions, but they make me pause long enough to notice how I’m actually doing instead of charging blindly into the next task. If I answer that my priority is finishing a particular project, it can refer back to that answer later and ask whether I’ve made progress. For someone like me, who can become a little scatterbrained when technology tasks start hitting the fan, that small interruption helps me step out of the chaos and return to what I’d already decided mattered most. ChatGPT doesn’t determine my priorities or enforce my boundaries. It simply helps me remember the ones I chose before the day became noisy.
The second scheduled chat is what I call my “Daily Interest Briefing.” I gave it a collection of topics that either interest me or directly affect my work, including books, movies, technology, education, and Washington State news. I can continue shaping the briefing as my interests and responsibilities change, which makes it feel far more relevant than scrolling through a generic newsfeed and hoping something useful appears. As I begin shifting back into a school-year mindset, I especially appreciate that the briefing does more than list headlines. It helps me consider how developments in education or technology might affect my job, support staff and students, or be useful in one of my classrooms. It doesn’t replace my curiosity or decide what deserves my attention. It helps clear away some of the searching so I have more energy to think about what the information actually means for the people I serve.
The third and final scheduled chat I’ve set up recently is my “Daily Kindness Idea.” As I step into the ASB Advisor role, I keep thinking about some of the beautifully simple things previous coworkers have done to help both students and staff feel seen. While I’d love to boast that I’m a black belt in kindness, anyone who knows me knows that’s not quite the truth. I’m only a brown belt. Regardless of our kindness prowess, though, all of us can learn to be a little kinder. This daily reminder feels almost like a small morning challenge. Yesterday’s idea was simple: “Bring someone a drink without being asked. When you hand it to them, don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s a tiny act that quietly says, ‘I was thinking about you.’” Every day is already filled with opportunities for tiny kindnesses, but the reminder encourages me to make at least one of them intentional, especially on the days when kindness doesn’t come as naturally.
None of these scheduled chats can do the human part for me. They can’t decide what matters most in my life, genuinely care about the people around me, or walk into school and make someone feel seen. What they can do is cut through the noise long enough to remind me of the person I want to be. They help me pause, refocus, remain curious, and act with intention. In that way, the technology isn’t replacing the “us” in the work. It’s helping create more room for us to show up in it.
I understand why people worry that tools like ChatGPT might remove the human element from our work because, used carelessly, they certainly can. They can become a shortcut around learning, creativity, judgment, or even the uncomfortable but important process of sitting with our own thoughts. But I don’t think that has to be their role. To me, the more important question isn’t simply whether we use AI, but what we’re asking it to do. Is it helping us step away from the work that requires our voice, experience, and judgment, or is it helping clear enough space for us to bring more of ourselves to it?
This morning, ChatGPT didn’t decide what I believed or write this post for me. It gave my tired, scattered thoughts somewhere to land until I could finally hear the idea underneath them. The Help Desk system still required my vision, decisions, and growing understanding of the code. A reminder about kindness still requires me to notice another person and choose to act. Technology can organize, prompt, explain, and assist, but it can’t supply the part of the work that comes from who we are.
Maybe the goal shouldn’t be to ask technology to become more human. Maybe it should be to use technology in ways that leave us with more time, energy, and attention to be human ourselves. It shouldn’t replace the “us” in our work. At its best, it can help clear a path back to it.