AIOhioEd

The AI Classroom is About More Than Tools

Districts are heading into a new school year awash in AI-powered tools. Education leaders and vendors in a recent webinar said the focus should be on deepening education, rather than speed and efficiency.

The time is ripe for schools to leverage AI in all classrooms, specifically to enhance instruction rather than solely improve efficiency. AI, they said, has created an opportunity — and some urgency — to reconsider what is fundamental to learning: critical thinking, human interaction, curiosity and the ability to scrutinize what technology produces.

ChatGPT for Teens is here.

Will they use it?

OpenAI says this is "an experience designed to help teens learn, think critically, deepen understanding, and use AI with confidence. It provides stronger built-in safety protections for teens, including features to promote healthy use and additional controls for parents."

Teens told us they're not just seeing AI nudes — they're making them

A recent survey from Common Sense Media finds that sexual deepfakes often involve friends, exes, and classmates; and parents are barely talking about them. More resources are embedded in the page as well. This is a powerful article that would be a valuable resource to distribute to staff and parents.

Google's AI Search is failing kids — and parents can't turn it off

Google's unavoidable AI answers do kids' homework and miss signs of crisis.

MagicSchool earns a 95% privacy rating from Common Sense Privacy

For educators looking to make the absolute safest choice for AI integration, Magic School really has put itself in the top tier of options.

Helping Teachers Successfully Adopt New Technology

An Op-Ed piece worth a few minutes of your time.

"Educational technology is most effective when teachers have the time, support, and understanding to integrate it into their daily practice."

Start with a real need or educational curiosity.

The Future Of Learning Is Already Here

AI is rapidly transforming the workplace, demanding new skills like adaptability, collaboration, and critical thinking beyond traditional knowledge. The article argues that true educational innovation lies in redesigning learning, not just adding technology.

Preparing students for tomorrow requires more than new technology. It requires rethinking how learning itself is designed.

Schools are building AI rules before they know the destination

• When it comes to AI, what do students actually need to learn in order to be successful for the rest of their lives?
• The future isn’t set in stone, especially when it comes to dealing with new and emerging technologies like AI. For example: One-third of entry-level jobs now reference AI-related skills, yet students report wildly uneven access to AI guidance and little clarity on which skills will actually matter.
• Young people today are expected to change career paths more times than any other generation before them.

AI Transparency in Schools Starts With Questions and Conversation

Everyone is asking the same questions about AI. Here’s how schools should start answering them -in conversation with teachers, staff, and students’ families.

How Teens Are Using AI: Key Takeaways for Educators

4 Times Not To Use AI as a Teacher or Student

While there are exceptions to all of the 24/7 "guidance" being offered right now in education, this list does provide food for thought. I have never been a fan of utilizing AI to "write emails", which makes the list, so I may be partial! (Note: there is a difference between "helping me edit or adjust the tone of my email" and "writing" the email).

1) AI is often too agreeable (sycophantic)

2) We all have blind spots, gaps and bias.

We bring that to the table when we interact with AI. And this is where there can be real opportunity to grow.

Ask the AI:

• what you're missing?
• what you're not considering?
• what would someone with the opposite viewpoint argue?
• what gaps exist in this lesson related to the objective?
• does this assessment measure what I think it measures?

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Elementary teachers:

Prompt for interactive warm-ups

If you are about to start your school year, and looking for some more ideas for classroom warm-ups because you want to get students moving and have them interact, this prompt will help you do that!

- From Mark Cuban AI Bootcamp

The examples are everywhere.

This clip went viral recently "after capturing the politician accidentally reading AI-generated editing instructions aloud during a formal speech in the provincial legislature."

(*Courtesy of Jake Miller)

There are a number of ways to utilize this resource in your classroom. Sometimes starting with errors in perception is a powerful way to begin a lesson and engage students.

An easy entry point would be to utilize the handout as a small group / class discussion generator. But you could easily take it to another level and look for connections in your curriculum.

Exercise for teachers in grades 5-12:

I worked with Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude to refine a prompt framework. I was surprised at how lackluster Gemini's response was. So here are the prompts from Claude and ChatGPT if you'd like to walk through a very insightful exercise. It might take you 5-10 minutes and I highly recommend it!

Click HERE for Claude's prompt

Click HERE for ChatGPT's prompt

You need to download and attach the "GenAI Misconception" document from AI for Education

for the exercise.

Every month, you'll find strategies, concrete examples and introductions to tools that can make an immediate impact on classroom instruction.

10 Back-to-School AI Updates For Educators

Gemini in Classroom expands, and updates on Magic School, Kahoot, ChatGPT, and Diffit.

I HIGHLY recommend every teacher read this article!

What Worries Me About Teachers’ Use of AI

A high school teacher reflects on how adult choices around AI use - particularly their approaches to transparency and focus on efficiency - can affect classroom culture.

Is Your Assignment Vulnerable to AI?

Instead of starting with the question ‘can AI do this?,’ it may be more helpful to ask, ‘What thinking is required of students?’

For AP and higher level courses: Consensus

Consensus is an AI-powered search tool that helps users quickly identify what peer-reviewed research says about specific questions.

How Educators Are Designing AI Assessments That Actually Work

Helping Students Think Critically, Engage Deeply, and Take Ownership of AI

This is a quick 3-minute walkthrough of the Snorkl platform and how it works to capture and celebrate student thinking. Snorkl supports learning in all subject areas by allowing students to speak, show, and write their thinking and receive immediate personalized feedback aligned with teachers' goals.

One of the leading voices in AI, education and society.

(click for a link to his soon-to-be-released book)

What My Freshman Daughter Taught Me About AI

Another interesting piece that reinforces why conversations with our students are SO important!

Students Created a National AI Policy Framework. Here’s What It Includes

"A diverse group of 98 high school students representing all 50 states convened in Boston to craft, debate, and vote on "The STUDENTS FIRST Act," a national policy framework for the responsible use of AI in K-12 education."

Highlights included: AI literacy for all, beginning in early grades; and the importance of transparency and human judgment.

Lessons on AI for Elementary Students: ‘Teach Them Good Habits Now’

“We can better prepare students to be more critical consumers and to become creators, not just passive users”

Practical, straight-forward examples that can make a big difference in AI literacy for our students.

There are a lot of schools looking for guidance with curriculum resources related to AI. This list is a great place to start. While I'm a believer in weaving AI literacy into all subjects, it is such a large task to tackle, these lessons can greatly support our efforts to prepare our students.

CodeAI: Curriculum for every grade all in one place

From Common Sense Media:

• Digital Literacy & Well-Being Curriculum 9-12
• Free K–8 lessons to prepare students for life, online and off
• Implementing our K–12 Digital Literacy & Well-Being Curriculum

Data Literacy Skills Seen as Key for Success in the Age of AI

"In a workforce that is quickly expanding its use of artificial intelligence, data literacy is more important than ever..."

Are schools doing enough to support this need, or are successful examples hidden by silos within subject integration?

Help Students Recognize AI-Faked Political Ads

While it can be a challenge to cover the current political landscape in our classrooms, it may be the most important time in our history to do so. Students need digital literacy skills to be well-informed citizens.

"…emphasize investigation, evidence, emotional manipulation, and source checking and spend less time explaining how generative models technically work. That’s much more likely to produce habits students can still use when today’s deepfake-detection tricks become obsolete."

Kent State to Use AI to Find Minerals for DOE Genesis Mission

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's “Genesis Mission” to advance scientific discovery using AI, a public research university in Ohio will analyze river datasets going back 50 years to find naturally occurring minerals.

I have seen many articles on how AI is being integrated into scientific research, and the positive impacts. This is interesting as it's right in our own back yard.

August 2026

July 2026

June 2026

Please reach out with questions or ideas for future newsletters. Also, if you know of a teacher who is leading the way with AI integration, let me know so they can be featured in the "Teacher Spotlight"!

scottr@summitesc.org