This article is part of the collection: Teaching Tech: Navigating Learning and AI in the Industrial Revolution.During our research project on teaching and learning with AI, Mi Aniefuna talked to a lawyer-turned-teacher-turned AI ethicist. Masheika Allgood, founder of AllAI Consulting (pronounced “ally”), shared a story with me about her most transformative year as a teacher. What she did to help her seventh grade ELA students is something that generative AI, as we know it, can’t do. As the number of teachers using AI for tasks like grading and lesson planning increases, Allgood advocates that they be informed users. All first-person accounts in this article belong to Masheika Allgood, with research support from EdSurge researcher Mi Aniefuna.I’ve always taught. In undergrad, I was an elementary school substitute teacher. In law school, I volunteered at a preschool. In 2009, I was an online professor at Strayer University, when online learning had just become a thing. Most recently, I taught a course for Executive MBA students, and I am currently teaching a course for Juris Master's students. So, that’s what I do — I teach, and it’s what I’ve loved since I was a young educator. Among all my teaching experiences, my most formative period as a teacher, when I developed a style and pedagogy, was the year I taught seventh-grade language arts at a public middle school in South Florida.By the time I stepped into that middle school classroom, I’d already completed three of my four degrees. My goal wasn’t to just make it to the end of the year; it was to help each of my students come to love the classroom as much as I did. For me, that journey began with preparation, ensuring that every student had a strong foundation so that when it was time to fly, we could all rise together.As with any journey prep, this one started with taking inventory; in our case, it was diagnostic tests. I know from experience that smart kids can fudge their way through skills they haven’t fully developed, and education doesn’t always notice. I also know that people often make incorrect assumptions about low achievers, namely that they’re equally low-performing in all areas. But people can surprise you, especially children. And you can’t properly assess inventory if you don’t actually check the cabinets to see where things are. For diagnostic testing, I selected specific areas to assess based on the year's learning goals and the fundamentals students needed to meet them. For example, a student can’t analyze a section of reading if they don’t know how to compare and contrast. So I assessed, gave feedback and coached my students to incorporate it.