Preparing Students to Think Deeply in an AI-Powered World
I spend a lot of time thinking about how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can support student learning in meaningful, ethical, and responsible ways, especially for students with dyslexia, ADHD, executive functioning challenges, and other diverse learning profiles.
Recently, I was invited to serve as an Educator Collaborator with KID Museum’s AI as a Tool for Making, Invention, and Creative Expression Collaborative, a select group of educators exploring how AI can support hands-on learning, creativity, problem-solving, and innovation in the classroom.
I spent the day at KID Museum collaborating with fellow educators around an essential question: How do we help students become creators, problem-solvers, and critical thinkers with AI? Over the next several weeks, I’ll continue this work through virtual collaborative sessions with educators from across the cohort.
For me, AI literacy is not about teaching students to rely on technology to do the thinking for them. It’s about helping students understand how AI works, when to use it, when it may not be the right tool, and how to use it with intention. Students need opportunities to ask stronger questions, evaluate information, recognize bias, think flexibly, and remain in charge of their own ideas.
That kind of instruction can be especially impactful for diverse learners, including students with dyslexia, ADHD, and executive functioning challenges, because AI tools can support brainstorming, organization, language processing, and creative expression when used thoughtfully and intentionally.
AI has the potential to push student thinking deeper, but students need to be taught how to use it in that capacity. That is the work I am focused on: helping students use AI as a thinking partner, not an answer generator. In an AI-literate classroom, students learn to brainstorm, test ideas, challenge assumptions, and consider what they might be missing. But they also learn that AI’s first response is not the final answer. They still need to research, verify, revise, push back, and make their own decisions.
One area I’ve become especially interested in is connecting concepts often associated with STEM — such as machine learning, data sets, pattern recognition, and model training — to humanities instruction. My experience with KID Museum is inspiring me to build on this work by helping students understand not just how to use AI, but how AI works underneath the surface. That means looking closely at the role data plays in shaping what a model can recognize, produce, or miss.
In a humanities classroom, that learning connects naturally to language, reading, writing, and critical thinking. I’m exploring how students might use data sets to classify Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon roots, distinguish strong sentences from fragments and run-ons, or examine how different examples shape an AI model’s output.
For students with language-based learning challenges, this kind of exploration can open new doors for engagement and understanding. It also reinforces an important lesson for all learners: AI is not magic. It is trained on data, shaped by human choices, and limited by the examples and categories it is given.
At McLean School, where we specialize in teaching bright students with dyslexia, ADHD, and executive functioning challenges, these conversations feel especially important. Our goal is not simply to teach students how to use technology. It is to help them become confident, thoughtful learners who can question information, think critically, advocate for themselves, and create with purpose.
Through my ongoing work with KID Museum, I hope to continue designing learning experiences that keep student thinking at the center. My students are not simply learning about AI. They are learning how to question it, use it, challenge it, and create with it.
In a world where technology is changing quickly, that kind of classroom matters. It prepares students not just to keep up, but to lead with creativity, integrity, and confidence.
McLean School, in Potomac, Maryland, with transportation provided across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia, proudly serves bright K-12 students, including those with dyslexia, ADHD, and executive functioning challenges. Request more information today.