IPads have bumped out boxy beige computers, Google Apps have digitalized group projects, and new forms of Artificial Intelligence have made a dramatic entrance by way of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. As modern technology continues to shape 21st-century schooling, Needham educators are building an offensive approach to AI’s presence in the classroom.
Their strategy rides on three things: clear guidelines, critical evaluation and AI literacy.
A presentation to the school committee on April 28, led by Chris Gosselin, director of Instructional Technology and Innovation for Needham Public Schools, explored the district’s implementation of Generative AI.
While traditional AI analyzes existing data and makes predictions (i.e. Netflix recommendations), Generative AI creates new, original content by picking up patterns from existing data (i.e. ChatGPT). This kind of interactive AI is where the schools’ focus currently lies.
GenAI’s public debut in 2022 did not come with an instruction manual, said Gosselin, leaving schools in a bit of a lurch.
“[It] was released pretty publicly to students and teachers and all members of our society, pretty much all at once,” he said. “In education, we like a plan, and we didn’t really get a plan. We didn’t get a runway for AI — we got AI.”
Teachers and students found themselves in the same boat: exploring and responding to GenAI as it appeared. When AI first dropped, Gosselin noted, training teachers was the primary concern.
“We felt that was where we had to start so our students could then be supported in using AI appropriately in instructional settings,” he said.
Although teachers may have received the first round of trainings, the district’s multipronged AI strategy seeks to engage both staff and students in the responsible, proactive use of AI tools.
“There is a pressure, sometimes, on teachers to be the expert,” Gosselin said. “And when we think about the ever-changing landscape of technology, there has to be a vulnerability, right? As an adult, especially working with a class of 24 high school students, you have to be vulnerable and say, ‘You know what? These kids in front of me are going to crush it today with technology. I might still be learning, but I’m ready and willing to learn alongside them, and they might even teach me something.’”
Establishing clear guidelines around AI usage — specifically the use of Generative AI — was the first step in promoting responsible use of AI tools. Guidelines for AI use were posted to the schools’ Media and Digital Learning website in fall 2025, Gosselin told the School Committee. These guidelines were co-developed by a committee of K-12 librarians and technology integration specialists, and shaped by feedback from teachers and district administrators.
Uploading anonymous data (vs. personal information) and viewing GenAI as a partner tool (vs. an answer machine) are two areas the guidelines emphasize. They also clarify appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI for educators, encouraging teachers to model good AI usage for students and to engage students with approved AI tools.
These guidelines act as a baseline, said Gosselin, and are guardrails that are meant to be updated.
Critical evaluation, the second piece to the district’s AI strategy, has taken the form of an AI committee at Needham High School. The teacher-led group was created to develop a better approach to AI usage, said English teacher Laura Brinkmann, after staff found themselves doing “a lot of policing.”
“It was really more informed by the way English teachers were seeing students misuse AI tools in the classroom,” Brinkmann said. “… And not having a handle ourselves on how they were using it and the ways in which it was informing their understanding of what we were trying to teach them.”
The committee is motivated by a desire to get ahead of the learning curve on AI and take the lead in building AI-aware classrooms. Committee members meet monthly and, in the last year, have conducted a staff survey, presented AI-centered workshops to NHS staff, and attended an EduTech AI Summit.
The committee’s efforts, coupled with one-on-one meetings, departmental conversations and trainings from major tech partners like Google are part of the district’s approach to embedding AI literacy among staff. This third piece to NPS’s AI strategy is the most forward-looking.
Embedding AI literacy begins at the elementary level and extends to the high school. At Broadmeadow Elementary School, annual AI Summits introduce fifth graders to the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence. For ninth graders entering high school, “Digital Citizenship” class now includes an AI-centered unit. This year, NHS sophomores and juniors in AP Seminar, a research-oriented class, have been given limited access to Gemini to support thesis research and development, monitored closely by NHS tech integration specialists.
“This really gives us the opportunity to have conversations with them in a safe space, and give them time to kind of explore some of these tools with those guard rails and guidelines in place,” Broadmeadow tech integration specialist Katie Collins said of the elementary AI Summits.
NPS students across the board are learning similar lessons: AI is not human; AI is not always right; AI can become addictive.
“I liked that we didn’t just talk about it, we actually got to use it and see that it’s just a tool, not magic,” stated one elementary student, whose feedback was included in Tuesday’s presentation. “AI prioritizes what it thinks you want to hear, not necessarily the truth,” another wrote.
Students are learning to view AI as a resource and thought-partner rather than as a crutch or substitute for their own brains.
“Sometimes AI does make mistakes,” NHS sophomore Quinn Franklin said. “I was able to call it out. I was like, these [research] articles are not fitting what you’re telling me they are. And [Gemini] was able to change that. So that’s one of the great things, you can kind of call it out and change what it’s doing.”
“If [students] put their work into AI, it’s just an easy, quick fix — making it kind of addictive,” added NHS junior Jack Arvedon. “I think it’s really important schools teach how to use it productively so [students] don’t get into this addictive cycle, but also [so we can] use it to its best capability.”
Through clear guidelines, critical evaluation and AI literacy, the district hopes to promote AI-aware classrooms that prioritize authentic student work. In Brinkmann’s English classes, this looks like increasing in-school writing assignments while also introducing approved AI templates — partnering with AI to further student learning.
Staff responses to a recent AI Committee survey suggest unease around AI’s presence in the classroom, indicating there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.
When staff were asked to indicate their own comfort-level using AI, there was an even spread of answers across the 1-5 scale (1: “Not Comfortable”, 5: “Very Comfortable”), with answers trending toward “Very Comfortable.”
However, staff members gave a much more unanimous response when asked: “How comfortable are you with having your students use AI?” Close to 92% of survey participants selected a value of three or less, indicating varying degrees of discomfort.
The district’s AI approach is evolving along with AI itself, Gosselin said.
Moving forward, NPS will focus on collaboration, research and open communication with students, faculty, staff and families. The Media and Digital Learning Department will continue exploring AI platforms that promote student safety standards and data privacy and will work to standardize AI usage across the district.
“Listening more to students about their perceptions around AI is something I want to continue to do,” Gosselin added. “And then building out what AI literacy looks like K-12, right — what does that mean? And then bringing in diverse stakeholders to help make a plan.”
Gosselin said he believes the Media and Digital Learning Department is uniquely poised to help students engage with the Portrait of a Needham Graduate in exciting and creative ways, with programming that allows students opportunities to demonstrate their competencies.
“It’s important to us in the Needham Public Schools, that we continue with a balanced approach [to] provide students and teachers with the learning that they need to be able to engage thoughtfully, respectfully and safely in an AI-rich world,” he said. “That’s what we’re here for, and there’s a lot of work ahead, but we have such a wonderful expert group of technology integration specialists and teachers to help guide the students of the Needham Public Schools along that journey. So we’re well positioned.”
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