Do you ever feel that your classes turn monotonous, that your students lose motivation, and that even you get caught by that same laziness and lack of energy that feels like carrying a heavy backpack? It happened to me. And even though I understood it, I never showed it to my students, because I know emotions are contagious, and I didn’t want mine to become an obstacle for them and a problem for me. Still, I must confess: there were days when changing the mood of the class felt like climbing an impossible mountain.
One day, I noticed something that hit me hard inside: my students often said things like, “Ugh, that’s too long! Better let ChatGPT do it. Teacher, I can do that in one minute with ChatGPT,” or “Why should we do all that if the AI can do it for us?” And, deep down, they were right. But it was a shock to hear those words coming from such young voices. I asked myself with some sadness: could it be that technology, as wonderful as it is, is also stealing our desire to think for ourselves?
I confirmed it when I caught myself doing the same thing. Instead of grabbing a pen and paper to solve a simple math problem or calculate the change from dollars to euros, I went straight to ask ChatGPT. Before, I used to solve it on my own and even felt satisfaction when I got it right. Now, I didn’t even try.
And it wasn’t only with numbers. Recently, I had to write a simple message for a group of parents. Something that could come from my heart, from my own words. But without thinking much, I went straight to the screen and typed: “ChatGPT, write a message for parents…” The answer came in seconds, perfect… but cold. And there it was: I had lost the chance to pause, to reflect, to choose my words carefully, and to share from my real experience. It was easy, yes, but empty. And I asked myself, a little guilty: Am I becoming lazy?
If I feel the need to avoid thinking and want immediate answers, why wouldn’t my students?
That’s when I understood what mental laziness really means: that resistance to thinking, even when you have all the ability to do it. It’s the habit of escaping reflection, avoiding analysis, putting intellectual effort aside. And it hurt to see that I was falling into that trap, but it also hurt to see that my students were falling with me.
So I reacted. I couldn’t go on like that. I couldn’t ask my students to practice something I wasn’t doing myself. I told myself: if I want them to learn how to think, I must start with me. And in that moment, in fact, it’s the approach I have worked on my whole life; I remembered how much I love the subject of critical and reflective thinking. It was like my vocation whispered to me: it’s your duty to awaken those seeds of thought in them.
Because the brain, like any muscle, if you don’t use it, it weakens. We lose creativity, imagination fades, solving problems becomes harder, and life feels heavier. The consequences of not thinking are serious. Important decisions, and even small ones, cannot be taken without reflection. And ChatGPT won’t be there to take them for us.
In the future, our kids could miss opportunities to develop independence and creativity, which could affect their personal growth and career success, make it harder to adapt to new situations, solve complex problems, and lead to many other consequences.
And I don’t want that for my students, or for myself. Technology is wonderful, but it doesn’t think for us. It can think with us, if we let it. But first, we must turn on our own inner engine.
That’s why I have been thinking about practical strategies to promote thinking in my classroom, and I also use them with my students during class. Here I share 12 ideas to naturally and meaningfully stimulate thinking in class:
By the way, I’ll keep sharing tips about promoting thinking in the classroom on my social media, Pinterest, and Facebook. Keep an eye out! These are just 13 ideas, but I have many more
1- Start a topic by asking what makes them most curious, and create a question wall to answer at the end of the week.
2- Ask students to close their eyes and think about how the topic could help them or someone close to them.
3- Connect the lesson with a real classroom situation, preferably funny or relatable.
4- Begin with an open-ended question and let them give creative, funny, or unusual answers.
5- After reading a text, have them create a comic of a hero with a message for the world.
6- Send home an open question to discuss with their family and share back in class.
7- Ask them to write an email explaining the topic to a child who cannot attend school.
8- Propose a small project to apply what they learned to their daily life.
9- Organize debates in pairs or groups about a problem, respecting different opinions.
10- Encourage them to create their own open questions and answer them with examples.
11- When a student answers, ask them where the idea came from.
12- Motivate them to justify their answers, even with simple explanations.
13- Have your students answer an open-ended question in their own words. Then, let them compare it to the AI’s response and discover why theirs is unique and valuable.
When you apply these tips, the classroom changes. Suddenly, tired faces turn into shining eyes. You discover the creativity, the spark, the imagination, and the ability to innovate that your students already carry inside. And they realize something wonderful: that thinking is not boring or heavy, but a powerful tool to understand, create, and transform the world around them.
Helping students become reflective and deeper thinkers is not just a school goal; it’s a gift for life. Reflective thinking teaches them to pause, look inside themselves, and connect what they learn with what they feel, with their story, with their environment. It gives them depth, empathy, and meaning. And from there, the door opens to critical thinking: the ability to question, to analyze, to distinguish truth from lies, to see other perspectives, and to make wise decisions. Reflection is the root, criticism is the flight. Together, they are the foundation of transformative learning.
If you truly want to give your students the chance to grow as thinkers, I invite you to take the next step. In my store (Class Plus), you’ll find resources in Spanish and English, designed with love and experience, so reflective and critical thinking are not just distant ideals but daily practices in your classroom. Because your students deserve more than quick answers: they deserve to learn how to think with heart and with mind.
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