Cheri Mann, a teacher of English Learners at CCHS, and her newcomer student Keydi Auxume Soto, who just completed the ninth grade at CCHS and iLead Academy, teamed up to give a presentation on artificial intelligence to other teachers of English Learners at the Kentucky Coalition for English Learners conference.
Mann is very tech savvy and quickly saw in late 2022 how AI was developing and entering the education space, so she began exploring various AI tools, including ChatGPT, a website that allows the user to ask questions about virtually any topic and receive answers back in the form of a conversation. She saw that this was a tool that had the potential to revolutionize education and felt like her newcomer students needed to learn how to use it appropriately.
“One of the first reactions of educators was to block ChatGPT in school districts or to use AI detectors that were rapidly being developed,” Mann said. But she believed that teaching students how to use the site effectively for writing, for delving into academic content, and for learning English was the way to help teach her students develop skills they will need for the rest of their lives.
This was one of the points she wanted to drive home during the presentation to teachers of other English Learners, and she wanted a student to present with her so that they could see how her instruction had impacted students in the classroom. “I asked Keydi to help me because she had experience presenting at iLead and she had started using ChatGPT independently to help her with assignments, even writing thank you notes to teachers,” said Mann.
Though Auxume Soto was very nervous about presenting to teachers, she agreed because she wanted to help her teacher. She also said, “I saw one more opportunity to be able to give a presentation in English,” which she knew would help her in the future.
During the presentation, Mann showed examples of how she has used AI to assist students in completing assignments in other classes. Then, along with Auxume Soto, they demonstrated parts of the unit Mann taught in her newcomer class that culminated with a persuasive letter to the district’s technology coordinator in which they advocated for allowing or blocking ChatGPT in the school or district.
Responses to the presentation were overwhelmingly positive. Maura Carson, a teacher for Oldham County Schools, described the presentation as “incredibly fascinating,” and said it provided “countless, practical ways to empower my students to successfully and responsibly use AI to access content.” She also said that hearing a student’s perspective “was so powerful.”
Auxume Soto’s mom, Keydin Soto Fuñez, was also very impressed with her daughter’s performance, stating she feels very proud of what she has achieved despite not speaking English well. She went on to say that she knew her daughter would do well at the conference because of the support she has from her teacher.
Article submitted by Cheri Mann