Dover Area SD teachers demonstrate classroom uses of AI and urge human oversight

District technology staff and teachers gave a demonstration to the board on artificial intelligence uses in K–12 classrooms, describing tools for differentiating text, generating practice items, providing formative feedback and producing student-facing reports — and emphasizing the need for human review and student privacy safeguards.

Samantha (Sam) Helwig opened the presentation by describing types of AI and the recent rise of generative models used to create text, images and video. She said generative AI can produce classroom materials quickly from prompts, but that it learns from large amounts of existing data and can raise copyright or accuracy issues.

Teachers showed examples Heather Zimmerman, a fifth-grade teacher at Dover Elementary, described classroom uses she—s trialed: adapting texts to multiple reading levels, creating targeted practice items, and using an AI-driven "Topic Explorer" that allows students to ask subject-specific questions and provides teachers with detailed reports of student interactions. Zimmerman said, "every time we use it, it has to be checked. I can't just generate something and just push it out to kids. It definitely needs checked. It needs checked for grammar. It needs checked for accuracy." She also described using AI to create charts and data sets tied to existing curriculum materials that students then analyze.

A secondary teacher described similar uses for leveling texts, lesson planning and student writing. In particular, teachers commended AI—s role as an editing partner that can provide immediate grammatical feedback and explain errors; one presenter said the tool can identify frequent problems across a class (for example, passive voice or parallelism) and help teachers target instruction.

Privacy and instruction Helwig raised student-privacy concerns several times. "One of the things that I need everybody to know is in the United States at this moment, there are no laws protecting your data. Anything you put into AI is fair game. It could be sold to anyone. Anything could happen to that data," she said, and urged staff and students to avoid entering personally identifying information into AI tools.

Board questions focused on curriculum and timing: board members asked whether the district should wait until a certain grade before allowing students to use AI directly. Presenters said they do not intend to replace fundamental instruction (spelling, grammar, drafting) and stressed scaffolding: elementary students would continue paper-based writing and explicit instruction in conventions, while older students could be taught AI-literacy to use tools for brainstorming, drafting and revision with human oversight.

What teachers said about classroom impact - Leveling and differentiation: Teachers used AI to rewrite texts to match varied reading levels in the same class. - Feedback at scale: AI provided class-level reports on writing mechanics that teachers can use to target lessons. - Engagement: Students reportedly find AI-driven Topic Explorers engaging; teachers can see students— typed interactions and identify misconceptions flagged by the AI.

Policy and next steps The board is reviewing a first-reading policy on generative AI in education. Dr. Hauck and Helwig reported they have edited recommended policy language based on classroom practice. Board members asked administrators to gather teacher feedback and clarify parameters, and administrators said they would solicit practitioner input as the policy proceeds through subsequent readings.

Ending: Board members thanked presenters and requested additional guidance and teacher input before bringing the AI policy back for later consideration.