The role of instructional leader is as vital as ever. A principal’s leadership and decision-making style directly affects a school’s performance (Leithwood, 2010), and high-performing schools often have principals who cultivate a supportive culture and actively work to improve instruction (McGee, 2004).
The real struggle for many leaders is carving out the time needed to put these essential practices into action. The overwhelming workload of the job is a pressing concern. I’ve been there myself—juggling endless administrative tasks while trying to support a staff that’s already stretched thin. When I was a school leader, I wanted my team to find joy in their work, but the pressures of the job often created a negative domino effect. Building a strong learning community is crucial, but the time and effort required can feel overwhelming.
The good news is that today we have many helpful tools to save time. In my career, I’ve always been eager to explore and adopt new tech tools that have the potential to lighten my workload and streamline tedious tasks. Right now, I’m most excited about generative artificial intelligence (AI), which offers unprecedented opportunities to transform how educators work and live. By streamlining time-consuming tasks, this technology offers the opportunity to automate routine tasks, enhance decision-making processes, and improve communication—paving the way to focus on what matters most.
In this article, I draw from examples in my book AI for School Leaders: 62 Ways to Lighten Your Workload and Focus on What Matters (2024) to show how AI can assist in strengthening key areas of leadership, providing school administrators with more time to connect with their team and students. Here are a few practical ways you can leverage AI to reclaim time and focus on what matters in your role as an instructional leader.
Making Time for Observations
Maintaining a regular and visible presence in classrooms is a fundamental aspect of effective instructional leadership. However, the demands of the principal role can often make it difficult to prioritize classroom visits. As Kim Marshall (2013) aptly notes, administrators are rarely present for most of the classroom instruction, yet are still expected to evaluate teachers fairly.
Justin Baeder (2017) defines the first two characteristics of effective classroom visits as frequent—approximately 18 biweekly visits per teacher per year—and brief—lasting around 5 to 15 minutes. AI can offer suggestions for how to fit this important practice into a busy school schedule with a prompt like this:
As a campus administrator, I want to develop a consistent and manageable schedule for visiting classrooms. Suggest ways to create a structured plan that ensures I regularly observe [insert number, i.e. 30] teachers within a specified timeframe [i.e. Approximately 18 biweekly visits per teacher per year, lasting around 5 to 15 minutes]. Include strategies for both low-tech (i.e. paper-based logs, visual calendars) and high-tech (i.e. digital tracking apps, scheduling software) methods to monitor visits and ensure no teacher is overlooked. Additionally, provide suggestions on how I can align these visits with specific school goals [insert goals, i.e. increasing student engagement, supporting differentiated instruction]. Finally, offer strategies for maintaining consistency and flexibility in this routine, even with unexpected interruptions or conflicts.
When you enter this prompt, generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, will offer ideas for setting time blocks, align its suggestions with your school’s goals, and offer tips for maintaining consistency. You can then customize the plan to fit specific school needs, making it a great starting point for integrating regular classroom visits into your weekly routine.
You can also use AI to save time with tracking all those visits. Instead of manually creating a spreadsheet to track classroom visits, try out Gemini, a free AI platform by Google, to quickly generate a tailored spreadsheet template for documenting classroom visits. (See Figure 1.) The template can be created in seconds and exported directly to Google Drive. Use a prompt like this to create a template that helps you document the details of a classroom visit:
As a campus principal, you are responsible for monitoring [insert number] of classrooms. Create a spreadsheet template to efficiently track classroom visits, helping ensure a consistent and organized approach. Include columns for [insert topics, i.e. classrooms, dates visited, goals for each visit, follow-up actions, and space for additional notes.]
Feedback Made Easier
For many teachers, hearing constructive feedback from a supervisor soon after a classroom visit can be a significant relief, reducing stress and building trust. Timely, consistent feedback demonstrates a leader’s commitment to supporting their staff’s growth and development. But good feedback often takes time to craft, and busy leaders might find themselves pushing that task lower on their ever-growing to-do list.
AI can help. After classroom visits, an AI tool can suggest language for follow-up emails to teachers that summarize the observation session and provide personalized feedback. Try using a prompt like this after you’ve taken notes on an observation:
Create a summarizing email to a teacher from a supervisor who has just completed a conversation about a classroom visit on [insert date]. Use a tone of gratitude and encouragement. Summarize these key points: [insert notes]. Emphasize something the teacher did well and include an invitation for a follow-up conversation on [insert date/time].
One important note: While AI can be a powerful tool for generating follow-up emails, remember that these drafts are just a starting point. Leaders should review and modify whatever the AI provides, making sure it reflects their own voice and unique relationship with each teacher. Personalizing the message not only helps build trust, but also shows that you’re fully engaged and thoughtful about the feedback process. This small step turns a generic email into a meaningful and supportive communication that strengthens connections with teachers.
Clear Expectations and Communication
As a school leader, I prioritized goal setting with teachers at the start of each year. We collaborated to create a shared vision of expectations and to set measurable objectives. AI can play a pivotal role in the goal-setting process. It can enhance leaders’ ability to maintain high expectations while effectively managing their time and resources. Here are a few ways to do so.
1. Refine goals.
Real progress happens when we set actionable goals and regularly reflect on them. However, this process can feel overwhelming, especially at the start of the school year when so many other tasks demand a leader’s attention. While goal setting is essential, it requires focused time and energy.
AI can help school leaders craft clearer, more targeted goals quickly, freeing up time for everything else on their to-do list. A sample prompt might look like this:
Create a SMARTIE goal to [insert a goal, i.e. increase the percentage of students in fourth grade meeting grade-level reading benchmark scores by 15%]. Make the goal: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound, Inclusive, and Equitable. Summarize the goal into one sentence.
This prompt is just the beginning; it initiates an interactive, iterative process that moves beyond a one-size-fits-all template. The initial response provides a structured framework and serves as a starting point that will evolve through ongoing dialogue with the AI assistant. The magic happens when users engage, question, and refine the initial draft. Treat this as your launching pad, not the final destination.
Here’s an example of how AI might respond to this prompt. Keep in mind that when you use this prompt, many more details will probably be added by the AI for you to review.
By the end of the academic year, we will increase the percentage of fourth grade students meeting grade-level reading benchmark scores by 15% through targeted, inclusive, and equitable instructional strategies that support all learners.
Leaders can refine or expand the goal by prompting AI to specify strategies, outline objectives, or adjust timelines. AI can also develop metrics for tracking the goal, communication ideas for sharing the goal, or suggest ways to impact growth for students with specific needs. This collaborative back-and-forth with AI ensures that the final goal and objectives are aligned with what you and your teachers need to foster student growth.
AI can strengthen key areas of leadership, providing school administrators with more time to connect with their team and students.
2. Brainstorm questions for feedback discussions.
Real growth for teachers is about their reflection and conversations with their principals. It’s about analyzing their teaching strategies, identifying goals, and taking charge of their own learning. Instead of school leaders doling out the “right answers,” they should nudge teachers into deep thought and personal insights (Baeder, 2017).
How exactly can an AI thought partner help leaders with this process? AI can help craft deep-dive questions for impactful feedback. It can help leaders sift through and spotlight key insights to supercharge discussions.
In the next example, I wrote a prompt and provided AI with a set of observation notes (omitting personal details). The AI tool used the notes to generate focused questions about the teacher’s lesson. I also incorporated content from a template called “10 Questions for Better Feedback on Teaching,” available as a free resource on The Principal Center’s website (principalcenter.com/feedback). This approach shifts the focus from giving direct feedback to encouraging self-reflection among teachers. Here is the prompt:
You are a supervisor who has just observed a teacher. You took notes during the observation and are planning a one-on-one meeting with an educator to provide time for reflection and feedback. Use the 10-point structure below to customize a list of 10 questions. Incorporate the notes from the observation into the questions.
NOTES FROM THE OBSERVATION: [insert your observation notes.]STRUCTURE FOR QUESTIONS:Context: I noticed your lesson objective is [ ]. Could you talk to me about how the objective aligns with your lesson?Perception: Here’s what I saw the students doing [ ]. Tell me about what you thought about those actions.Interpretation: At one point in the lesson, it seemed that [ ]. What was your take on this moment?Decision: Tell me about this point in the lesson when you decided to [ ]. What went into your decision?Comparison: I noticed students were [ ]. How did this compare with what you expected to happen when you planned the lesson?Antecedent: I noticed that [ ] happened. Could you tell me about what led up to this moment, perhaps in a previous lesson?Adjustment: I saw [ ]. What did you think of this moment? Will it affect what you do tomorrow?Intuition: I noticed [ ]. How did you feel about how this portion of the lesson played out?Alignment: I noticed [ ]. What connections do you see to your objective for the lesson?Impact: What effect did you think it had when [ ] happened?
By letting AI synthesize your notes and draft good conversation starters, you’ll have more time to focus on connecting with your teachers.
To personalize feedback conversations in relation to your school goals, you can also prompt AI for suggestions on how to phrase questions that elicit specific conversations aligned to goals of the school:
Craft three targeted questions for me as a school leader to ask teachers during feedback sessions that will encourage discussions focused on our school’s goals of [insert goal, i.e. promoting collaborative learning]. Describe why each question is important.
Please note that an AI assistant can generate many suggestions. But bombarding teachers with too much information or too many questions can backfire. Those who receive too many suggestions for improvement may walk away discouraged instead of motivated to change. Try focusing on one specific goal rather than trying to “fix” everything at once.
3. Improve active listening skills.
Research underscores the importance of active listening in one-on-one meetings. When employees are given the opportunity to speak 50 to 90 percent of the time, the conversation is more likely to be productive and empowering (Rogelberg, 2024).
By actively listening, instructional leaders can create a supportive and trusting environment that fosters professional growth. AI can be a valuable tool in enhancing listening skills by providing prompts and reminders to stay focused on the speaker’s perspective:
You are a school leader looking to improve skills for active listening. Create a list of reminders to use during one-on-one meetings to focus on active listening. Include suggested phrases and questions that encourage employee input and reminders to let the employee speak at least 70 percent of the time.
Think of the list as a guide, not a script. Instead of using it during the meeting (which might be distracting), review it ahead of time to get familiar with key phrases and questions. This way, you’re more focused and ready for active listening.
After the meeting, take a few notes on what worked well and where you can improve. The goal is to make these habits second nature so you can be fully present with whoever you’re speaking to. Sharing your effort to strengthen listening skills can also show respect for your team, build trust, and lead to more open, meaningful conversations.
Time for What Matters Most
The increasing demands of administrative tasks often pull school leaders away from their core role as instructional leaders, yet that role is essential to a school’s success. By embracing AI’s potential, leaders can reclaim time for what matters most: watching teachers teach, fostering a culture of continuous growth, and finding a better work-life balance.
When used thoughtfully and safely, AI can boost productivity, spark creativity, and ignite curiosity, helping leaders move beyond the traditional confines of “the way we’ve always done it.” So, lean in, lighten the load to get greater efficiency, and find renewed joy in your work.
Reflect & Discuss
➛ Which strategy for using AI to enhance instructional leadership outlined in this article resonates most strongly with you? Why?
➛ What steps could you take to better incorporate AI in your work as a leader?
➛ How can leaders ensure that AI-generated communication remains safe and authentic in a way that helps build trust with teachers?
