WORCESTER – A group of 30 school principals and assistant principals from Denmark met with educators and attended a panel discussion at Worcester Public Schools (WPS) on Friday, April 12. The Danish educators sought to understand the WPS strategy for the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom.
Earlier this year, WPS launched the “Spark Team,” a group of educato0rs who are early adopters of “future-ready” teaching and learning practices, and who share these practices with colleagues. The Spark Team led the panel discussion, which included examples of WPS using artificial intelligence in classroom settings.
Those 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.
Along with the WPS Spark Team, the district recently introduced a “Vision of a Learner” framework. The framework outlines the “future-ready” skills and dispositions all WPS students aim to have when they graduate from high school.
“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.”
The Danish team of educators also visited the Harvard Graduate School of Education and three private schools during their trip.
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
Image Credit: Kyle Prudhomme/Worcester Public Schools.
From left to right: Elsebath Trap, principal of Rygaards School; Ole Wickman, Vice Principal of Giersings High School; Bo Mehl Jorgensen, Principal of Frederikssund High School; Lisbeth Storgaard Rose-Hansen, Principal of Vibord High School; Natasia Lundqvist, Commercial Advisor for Innovation Center of Denmark; Lars Peter Nitschke, Principal of Klostermarksskolen School; Sarah Kyriazis, Director of Educational Technology for WPS; Keefe Bangert, Assistant Director of Educational Technology for WPS; Thomas Toudal Jorgensen, Principal of Kolding High School; Bjartur Sigmundarson, Intern, Innovation Centre of Denmark.
