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WORCESTER – Tuesday, April 16, 2024 – On Friday, April 12, the Worcester Public Schools (WPS) hosted a delegation of 30 school principals and assistant principals from Denmark who wanted to understand the district’s strategy of artificial intelligence in classroom learning. A panel discussion included examples of WPS using artificial intelligence in classroom settings.
The educators also visited three private schools and the Harvard Graduate School of Education during the trip, which was organized by Innovation Centre Denmark Boston.
“One of the significant shifts facing educators today is the increasing presence of AI technologies in classrooms,” the Centre wrote in a LinkedIn post. “As these tools become more prevalent, it’s essential for educators to comprehend both the challenges and opportunities they bring.”
“Artificial intelligence can be scary, but it is here and beginning to rapidly change the lives of our scholars,” said WPS Superintendent Rachel H. Monárrez, Ph.D. “It will have an impact on their future college and career experiences. It is our responsibility as educators to prepare our scholars for a world that will look much different after graduation.”
This year, WPS launched an initiative called the “Spark Team,” a group of educators who are early adopters of “future-ready” teaching and learning practices, and who share these practices with colleagues. The Spark Team is led by coaches from the district’s Educational Technology Department and its director, Sarah Kyriazis, Ed.D., who is also the Principal of Wawecus Road Elementary School.
During the panel discussion, 15 educators shared examples of how they used artificial intelligence in classroom settings. Examples included:
- Kindergarten students at Union Hill Elementary working in small groups to prompt AI image generation using text-to-speech in Canva.
- A 4th grade lesson focused on the fundamentals of machine learning and AI.
- A Burncoat Middle School lesson about racial bias in AI, sharing how it can misidentify people of color and use job hiring algorithms that favor males.
- A Doherty High School English class that used AI picture-generation to allow students to visualize what they were writing about. AI was also used to expand sentence structure, and encouraged students to develop deeper vocabulary.
- A graphics design class at Worcester Technical High School, where students used AI to develop more robust business plans and presentations.
The Spark Team training ties into the district’s new “Vision of a Learner” framework, which outlines the “future-ready” skills and dispositions all WPS students aim to have when they graduate from high school.
Artificial intelligence is included in a long list of innovative practices outlined in the framework, which also include robotics and coding challenges, digital storytelling, online research and data analysis, outdoor education, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) integration, cultivating curiosity, and data visualization tools.
Vision of a Learner has five core dispositions that WPS would like all scholars to possess upon graduation:
- Engaged Community Member: Scholars are proactive participants in the democratic process and work toward the upliftment of their communities.
- Curious Learner: Scholars are nurtured to find joy in the lifelong journey of learning.
- Empowered Individual: Students leave school confident to tackle life challenges, armed with emotional intelligence and a self-driven attitude.
- Problem Solver: Scholars adopt a methodical approach to challenges, applying learning from past experiences to new and complex situations.
- Effective Communicator: Scholars will be articulate across a range of media and settings, capable of engaging in constructive dialogues and collaborations with various audiences.
The WPS educators who participated in presentation and panel discussion event were:
- Keefe Bangert, Assistant Director of Educational Technology
- Lori Backlin, Grade 2 Teacher, Wawecus Road Elementary School
- Nicole Carlson, Graphics Teacher, Worcester Technical High School
- Hayden Champagne, Educational Technology Coach
- Edward Chen, Educational Technology Coach
- Julie Cincotta, Focused Instructional Coach, Burncoat High School
- Annie Cohn, Educational Technology Coach
- Kam Dealey, History Teacher, North High School
- Michelle Duclos, English Teacher, Doherty Memorial High School
- Bethany Emery, Educational Technology Coach
- Allison Houlihan, Assistant Principal, South High Community School
- Sarah Kyriazis, EdD, Director of Educational Technology and Principal of Wawecus Road Elementary School
- Kim McLaughlin, Kindergarten Teacher, Union Hill Elementary School
- Sarah Sanders, Media Specialist Teacher, Burncoat Middle School
- Mackenzie Satilino, Grade 4 Teacher, City View Elementary School
- John Staley, Principal, Doherty Memorial High School
- Drew Weymouth, Principal, Worcester Technical High School