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Tag: latanya mcdade

  • ‘Letting us learn how to use it instead of hiding it away’: Prince William Co. schools readies students to use AI – WTOP News

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    Prince William County, Virginia’s public school system is preparing students on how to use AI that is transforming workplaces and the workforce.

    While some fear artificial intelligence will enable students to turn in work that they didn’t research and create, Prince William County, Virginia’s public school system is preparing them on how to use the technology that is transforming workplaces and the workforce.

    “We’ll be launching Copilot” for high school students, said LaTanya McDade, superintendent of Virginia’s second-largest school system.

    “We want our students to be responsible digital citizens — it’s great to have the tools, but we also have to use the tools, responsibly.”

    In a WTOP interview outside Colgan High School in Manassas, McDade said AI-powered services, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, are already available widely on consumer products, including phones.

    McDade said Copilot, which was developed as Microsoft’s generative artificial intelligence chatbot, can be used in ways to assist students organize their work.

    “They’re already using it outside of the classroom, right, without any levels of education around being responsible,” McDade said. “It’s exciting to me to have them leverage the AI tool, like Copilot, and use it for their actual learning.”

    McDade said using Copilot can help enhance and advance learning, “keeping kids curious and teaching them how to problem solve, and ask the right questions, because the thing about AI, it’s all about what you ask of the tool, right?”

    AI will also help teachers create lessons that will require students to do their own work.

    “AI can give you information, but it can’t think for the student,” McDade said. “The types of lessons that teachers will be able to generate using AI will really promote critical that only students can do.”

    ‘You don’t get that human feeling’

    In a separate interview, senior Kareena Grover said AI is “definitely a big and confusing thing to use, but I’m glad Prince William County Schools is letting us learn how to use it, instead of hiding it away — it’s our future.”

    Grover said she is already using AI to help in organizing.

    “I’m applying to colleges, and sometimes my organization habits are a little bit iffy,” Grover said “So, I asked ChatGPT to draft me a college applications timeline — it told me when I should be doing my college essay, when I should be doing my extracurriculars portion.”

    While critics are concerned that students might try to pass off content created by generative AI as their own, Grover said AI content is easily spotted.

    “I mean, ChatGPT is great, it can draft an essay in like three seconds,” said Grover. “But it doesn’t have the voice that humans have, it doesn’t have the same tone and style — you really can tell if it’s made up of ChatGPT or from an actual human.”

    If a student were tasked with writing an article or essay, Grover said AI wouldn’t measure up.

    “You can ask it to fix grammar or punctuation, but making an essay for yourself, you should just do it,” she suggested. “AI doesn’t have the same voice or tone as a human does, so you don’t get that human feeling.”

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  • Prince William Co. gets $350K grant to help recruit, retain aspiring teachers – WTOP News

    Prince William Co. gets $350K grant to help recruit, retain aspiring teachers – WTOP News

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    Virginia’s Department of Education announced over $1.5 million in “Grow Your Own” grants, created to fund apprenticeship programs that help school divisions recruit and retain teachers.

    Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent LaTanya McDade said the new funding will allow the county to pay for up to 25 apprentices. (WTOP/Scott Gelman)

    After nine years of working as a teaching assistant in a special education classroom, Imani Gray decided it was time to work toward becoming a teacher herself.

    It’s something she always knew she wanted to pursue, but the cost of getting a degree and licensing proved to be a barrier. But then she learned more about a Prince William County partnership with the Virginia Commonwealth University that covers tuition and pays educators to work in a classroom while they finish their coursework. It also pairs aspiring teachers with mentors to help them with day-to-day tasks.

    Anticipating that many aspiring teachers face similar barriers to becoming educators, Virginia’s Department of Education announced over $1.5 million in “Grow Your Own” grants, created to fund apprenticeship programs that help school divisions recruit and retain teachers.

    Prince William County, the state’s second-largest school division, received $350,000 from the state to help pay for its partnership with VCU. The funding, Superintendent LaTanya McDade said, will allow the county to pay for up to 25 apprentices.

    “We’re losing a whole generation of future teachers by not thinking differently,” State Superintendent Lisa Coons said Wednesday, after announcing the grant funding at Leesylvania Elementary School in Woodbridge. “This program and the grant funding allow a low-cost [or] no-cost way to become a teacher, and be honored while doing that.”

    In Prince William County, the partnership with VCU offers undergraduates who already have an associate degree the chance to get their bachelor’s degree paid for while they work in a county school. They get paid to work in the school division during the week, according to Shelby Elliott, admin coordinator for human resources with the school district.

    The students train with a teacher-mentor during the two years of the program, and once they’re finished, they get jobs in county schools that are hard to staff, Elliott said. As part of the program, the teachers stay with Prince William County schools for three years after they’re finished.

    The grant, Elliott said, is helping fund the program for the 18 apprentices that started the program in January. The school division is also recruiting a new cohort of aspiring teachers to start the program in May.

    “This is how every teacher should be trained,” Elliott said. “It serves as a recruitment and a retention [tool]. But, for me, the most important thing is that we’re putting quality educators in front of our students.”

    Since starting the program, Gray, who works at Leesylvania, has been involved in team meetings and crafting lesson plans, among other things. It’s a helpful partnership in the midst of a national teacher shortage.

    “It’s very important that the students see that there is someone who is caring about them enough to come to work every day to teach them,” Gray said.

    Alondra Sorto, another teaching resident at Leesylvania, used to be a substitute. She’s at the school four days each week, working with students one-on-one and supporting them in small group settings.

    “It’s a great opportunity for me,” Sorto said.

    Her mentor, third grade teacher Monica Clabeaux, said she was inspired to work with future educators because of the influence her mentors had on her.

    “This is really beneficial, especially for our need of teachers right now, and strong teachers in the classroom,” Clabeaux said. “This program would build stronger teachers, because they will have two years of experience under their belt before they accept a position.”

    Coons, the state superintendent, said initiatives such as the one in Prince William modernize the approach to recruiting teachers.

    “We’re seeing a national teacher shortage, but there are ways that we are really impacting that and doing things differently that will sustain us for the future,” Coons said.

    Babur Lateef, chairman of Prince William County’s school board, said Coons’ visit “represents a significant step in advancing our mission to provide high-quality education for all students.”

    Other school districts, including Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Essex, Henrico, Petersburg City, Prince George County, Surry County, and Waynesboro Public Schools, are also receiving some of the grant funding.

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    Scott Gelman

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