Head of School Letter: AI and Shorecrest

The use and impact of Artificial Intelligence in education is a hot topic. At Shorecrest, teaching about and learning with AI tools happens daily in classrooms and offices. We actively explore safe and relevant ways to incorporate AI tools into our students’ educational experience and teach our students how to use these tools responsibly, even as they change with lighting speed. 

I recently surveyed our senior administrative team about how they and their departments use AI in their daily work lives. The responses (which I analyzed through Gemini) illuminated how Shorecrest uses AI tools and their powerful capabilities for enhancing educational pedagogy, creating content and assisting in various educational and business tasks.

Division Heads shared how teachers leverage AI tools to enhance learning through differentiated lesson plans, custom rubrics and the creation of formative assessments. Students are taught how to use different AI tools and platforms in an age-appropriate manner. Creative applications are also expanding, with the ability to use generative AI to design visual assets for websites, presentations, and storytelling projects. As AI continues to evolve, Shorecrest will continue to seek out tools that enhance our students’ critical thinking skills and prepare them for the world ahead. 

While these tools can enhance learning and creativity, we stress that they come with responsibilities and potential risks. All community members are expected to use AI tools responsibly, ethically, and in alignment with Shorecrest’s mission and the Core Values Pledge, while also safeguarding community data. As a school, we were early adopters in creating AI policies, to clarify for students and teachers how to harness this amazing technology in a transparent and productive manner. To see our faculty and student school-wide AI policies, click here. 

Outside of the classroom, we use AI for research, editing of content, assisting with communication and streamlining workflow. Administrators and teachers use AI to refine professional communication, to analyze and assess the content of email received and adjust the tone of sensitive correspondence. AI is also used to streamline operations by reviewing contracts, analyzing data patterns, strengthening policies and automating various tasks.

Some key questions to consider as we move through this new educational space are:

1. What stays human in an AI world?
2. What could go AI but we choose to keep analog and why, all in support of our Mission? 

What is so clear to me is that AI will never replace the teacher-student relationship. AI cannot sense what a child feels, when a student is having a bad day or needs a supportive hug or words of encouragement. AI cannot demonstrate wisdom, judgement or even context. It cannot read the room and have situational awareness. What AI can and will do is augment learning. It is a great tool, and should be approached as such, so we must prepare students to take advantage of AI’s capabilities.    

At the same time, as an educator, I believe that we must also utilize AI to cultivate in the next generation the very human-centric skills that AI cannot replicate. At Shorecrest, our objective is to educate children to thrive alongside AI by cultivating skills so that they can grow up to be engaged citizens and forward-thinking leaders. In support of our mission, we aim to use AI to continue to develop creativity and problem-solving, critical thinking and questioning. In a world of instant answers, the ability to ask the right questions and assess information is more valuable and differentiating than ever. 

All the best,

Nancy