Lagunitas Community School by Steve Rebscher
Parcel Tax Thank You and Artificial Intelligence in our School: Part II
guides that help teachers reduce prep time and open more time for one-on-one student interaction. Student use of online resources increases as they move into middle school. The first question I asked our middle school teachers was, “How much have kids used AI prior to beginning middle school?” I was surprised to hear that Andrew felt that AI use outside school is infrequent. Many kids spend time with social media and games but relatively few with chatbots and AI apps specifically. One area of AI that kids seem to be interested in, and experiment with, is music and video generation but this appears be a minority, possibly 15-20% of the kids. Students are also learning to ask more effective questions in search engines rather than simple single word queries. Katherine Sanford has a different perspective. Although younger students may not turn directly to Chat GPT, or other chatbot software, she emphasizes that we all use AI everyday. Whether we are searching for information in Google or writing a text or email we are constantly provided with prompts suggesting the next word we might want to use or where we should look for information. These “sugges- tions” are generated by AI. Our challenge is how to recognize these new, and not always obvious, uses of AI in our lives and more consciously incorporate them in a positive way. One student that took an interest in AI, and its potential benefits and risks, is Miles Bozeman. Miles designed his 8th grade Change Project to better inform fellow students about artificial intelligence and organized a Fall assembly; lead by an AI focused educational nonprofit organization. Personally, Miles uses an AI chatbot to answer questions about topics he doesn’t fully understand but does not want to use a bot for writing tasks. He feels that few of his fellow students use AI directly for school assignments, fewer than at his previous school. Miles also com- mented that using a chatbot to explore new subjects makes learning more exciting. When I asked Andrew and Katherine to describe how they manage the risk of outright copying from AI and having AI do actual assignments their responses were similar. Both emphasized working closely with students in the development of their work, using one-on-one and group discussion to develop the concep- tual framework that comes before a chatbot prompt question, then being critical when they consider the response. Katherine emphasizes that group discussion and analysis of these ideas can differentiate between a student becoming dependent on AI from students using AI as a source for gathering useful information and an input for creative learning. In this way, AI offers an invaluable resource of ongoing information and stimulus for group discussion as inquiry evolves and conclusions are generated in a group. Andrew emphasized many of the same fundamentals with careful thought devoted to generating a prompt then diving deeper to verify sources and identify what information can be trusted. Katherine and Andrew have an advantage in their approach to academic honesty; they know their students. They know how they write, how they punctuate and how they use grammar. AI based plagiarism is easier to identify in a small school setting with greater time available for each student. Just knowing that each teacher cares about them and takes the individual time to work with them and their peers nudges students toward doing honest work and claiming ownership of that work. Our teachers agree that a key to developing creative work habits is doing more hand written projects in class both with and without digital aids. Katherine says that her classes are doing more in-class writing than ever before. Combining writ- ing with an emphasis on group discussion is setting a new standard for creating work that directly translates to being productive in later education and work envi- ronments. Our middle school students bring these communication skills to group work while they participate in externships with other students across West Marin in the Magnolia Project. Here, students build on communication and problem solving skills in real world situations in local businesses. By freeing time to explore and participate in discussion, debate and group proj- ects, AI offers a broad range of opportunities to support both students and teach- ers. Katherine said, “… be mindful and curious!” We have entered a new age of information and untold technical and scientific progress. How we manage that change will determine whether AI is a net benefit for society, communities and our students or a tool leveraged only by those with the greatest education, tech savvy and aspirations.
Thank You! In this volatile moment it feels rare to see success rise from sustained community effort to support our kids. As this issue of Stone Soup went to press San Geronimo Valley families, community members, teachers and district admin- istrators volunteered their time and energy to inform voters about our upcoming parcel tax election and get out the vote. The result: our parcel tax passed by the largest margin in its history of over 30 years. Valley voters approved Measure A by a 78% YES total! With this revenue stream secure for the next nine years, our school district can continue to provide our students with an excellent academic environment, robust social emotional learning and counseling services, and access to healthy food at school. Together with the many supportive programs offered in collaboration with the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, our school district is evolving as an ever more inclusive, responsive, community school. As specified by our parcel tax, all funds generated will be used for direct student services; no overhead or admin- istrative costs will be paid from this funding.
Thank You San Geronimo Valley!
In the last issue of Stone Soup, I discussed some of the opportunities and pitfalls associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. These uses can include everything from supporting student research to direct online teaching to student evaluation and administrative tasks. But, where does effective use of AI for broad background research give way to outright plagiarism and invasion of stu- dent’s privacy? In this issue of Stone Soup we will continue this discussion by looking at how the teachers and administration in our district are using AI to support student learn- ing and some of the actions being taken to avoid the negative outcomes, which have been associated with AI in other schools. With input from teachers and our administration, the board adopted two poli- cies in November 2025 (Policy 0441: Artificial Intelligence and Policy 5131.9: Academic Honesty, available on the school website). These policies stress honesty, originality and transparency in a student’s use of AI, the role of AI in supporting our teachers rather than replacing them and accountability for all uses of AI. Our district supports strict controls on the use of student data collected by AI software and vigilance in ensuring that digital applications support equity and access for all students. We are committed to continuous development of AI resources and broad interaction with our community about the direction and scope of artificial intel- ligence as an important educational tool. I spoke with our principal, Jenelle Farhart, about the administrative approach to the use of AI in our classrooms. To date, there have been several staff meetings focused on the use of AI. It is clear that different teachers use AI in very different ways and have specific needs that influence those choices. Teachers have been suc- cessfully sharing ideas and their experience with varied chatbot software and col- laborating about integration, balancing AI with traditional learning methodology and how to best use AI as a bridge from student project ideas to successful project designs. In the larger picture, it seems accurate to say that our teachers agree AI based learning tools can offer effective support for individual students with diverse needs and that students are then able to make the creative jump to writing and presenting information from this knowledge base without “having the computer do the work”, i.e. artificial intelligence chatbots are supporting student’s work and learning, not replacing it.
In the Classroom…..
To better understand how Lagunitas students interact with artificial intelligence in the digital world, and how our teachers use AI in the classroom, I spoke with Andrew Elson (Middle School Teacher, Science and PE), Katherine Sanford (MS teacher, English and Social Studies), Jenelle Ferhart (Principal) and Miles Bozeman (8th grade student). Our students begin hands-on computer use in the classroom at 3rd grade. This timing is driven, in part, by the required use of computers for statewide assess- ments beginning in the 3rd grade academic year. Our elementary school staff is using AI to generate insightful curriculum and interesting paths for student inqui- ry. In many cases AI can be used to suggest questions, planning options and study
SGV Community Center Stone Soup Page 9
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