Anonymous wrote:I have yet to hear anyone provide evidence that AI tools for teachers produce results better than, or even as good as, traditional tools. So we’re going to use it just because it’s there I guess. And just finish off killing the the environment too. Do people even understand how much energy AI consumes??? Are we giving up on stopping climate change just so we can play with this toy the broligarchs made??

Anonymous wrote:I have serious concerns about FCPS piloting AI tools with teachers—and indirectly with students—without fully acknowledging the well-documented harms of excessive technology exposure in childhood. We must talk honestly about the risks of AI and digital tools for developing minds.

Over the last decade, we’ve seen overwhelming research showing that early, frequent, and unstructured use of technology in school (especially in grades K–6) has contributed to a decline in attention, reduction in deep reading ability, and increased distraction in the classroom. Students are spending more time on screens than ever before, and academic outcomes and cognitive stamina have suffered.

At the same time, the rise of smartphones and social media has fueled an unprecedented mental health crisis among adolescents. These platforms are intentionally engineered to be addictive, exploit vulnerabilities in the developing brain, and maximize engagement at the expense of well-being. Major tech companies are well aware of these harms, have been investigated for concealing internal data, and have repeatedly failed to make meaningful changes.

We cannot ignore that this generation is experiencing higher rates of anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleep deprivation, and social withdrawal than any before it—and the timeline aligns directly with the widespread adoption of smartphones and social media. Families, researchers, and youth advocates have been sounding the alarm for years.

Yes—technology and AI can offer tremendous value when used thoughtfully. But when implemented without strict guardrails, especially with children, these tools can be harmful. It is irresponsible to introduce emerging AI systems into classrooms without transparent safeguards, strong boundaries, and a full understanding of the risks.

It is deeply concerning that FCPS would choose to make our children and teachers the test subjects for shaping the use of AI in education. Efficiency is not a good enough reason to gamble with student well-being, cognitive development, or mental health.

Parents need to wake up to the fact that the school environment has become saturated with screens, and that more technology is not always better—especially for young children. We need intentional, developmentally safe, ethical, and transparent technology practices in schools. We need evidence-based decision-making. And we need to prioritize children over corporate partnerships.

For anyone wanting to understand the real harms and research behind this crisis, I strongly recommend these resources:
https://www.dmvunplugged.org/

https://www.instagram.com/jonathanhaidt/

https://www.instagram.com/scrolling2death/

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Anonymous wrote:Gross. I refuse. The day they require me to use AI in my classroom is the day I quit. I don’t care if that makes me an old fogey (I’m 39), but this has no business in a classroom.

I'm a high school teacher. It's already here. My students are using it all the time: to get answers, to develop tests to study for, etc. It's one of the reasons I have gone back to paper for certain assignments.

The students are going to be using it whether or not we want them to. That's simple fact. If they aren't using it in our classrooms, they are using it on our assignments at home.

We can either adapt our teaching to accept this new reality or we can shut it out. If we adapt, we can teach students how to use it as an effective tool and we can explore its ethical uses. If we shut it out, the students are simply going to be using it anyway.

We see it all the time at the high school level now. I've taught myself how to use it and I now consider it a personal assistant. That also means I can knowledgeably talk about it with my students. These are conversations that have to happen, whether we want them to or not.

I am a high school teacher too. I'm sorry, I completely disagree with you. I've actually turned my classroom into a zero tech space this year. (Thankfully it's math, so it's not that difficult to do so--I bought 35 4-function calculators and that's what they get to use). My students are completely helpless and have zero ability to think critically by themselves. AI isn't going to help them break out of that.

But more than that, I refuse to use it as a professional. I will not allow AI to grade student work. If I expect them to do something by hand, they deserve to have it read and scored by hand. They deserve letters of rec written by me, not a robot. If I expect them to create presentations from scratch, I should be creating the rubrics and providing real commentary, not canned comments from a list.

I will absolutely judge any teacher who puts my child's work into AI to assign it a grade, and am mortified that we think that is in any way appropriate. That's not teaching.

You are welcome to judge me and you are welcome to disagree. But you judged me based on your own assumptions of how I use AI, not on how I actually use AI. That comes from a place of fear, I suspect, and not from an understanding of how AI can effectively be used.

I don't use AI to grade student work. I use it to craft rubrics based on input I give it, and then I craft the rubric until it is correct. Every single assignment is still scored by hand and no student work is put into AI.

I use AI to help improve previous lessons, putting in last year's lessons (that I created by hand) and then inputing requested changes based on my current students' needs. I then modify the results as needed.

My letters of recommendation are written by me. No AI at all.

So you made assumptions about my AI usage that don't remotely align to how I actually use it. I notice that seems to be a trend. It's new, and therefore people are afraid of the implications. I understand that.

But know that your students are using it outside of class. You can control your environment as much as you want to, but they are still using it. I'm a realist. I'm going to help my students through this new reality. I'm not going to shield them from it.

FCPS is encouraging elementary teachers to use AI to grade student work. It's included in benchmark now. That's what I was referring to.

When I spoke up that writing letters of rec should count as an IPR for those of us with more than 10 or 20 to write, I was told by both my school administrator and someone at the pyramid level to use chatgpt. That's also what I'm referring to.

It's not fear. It's reality. And it's gross.

It is reality, and we all have to deal with it. Make it less “gross” by using it responsibly. Teach others the same.

Tell your admin you won’t use AI on your letters of recommendation. Just fight back, saying that isn’t a good use for it. My admin discouraged its use.

And how is AI grading student work? Is it multiple choice? I’m not going to lose much sleep.

It's grading their essays. It's providing commentary, suggestions, assigning a letter grade. Teachers just have to click "accept grade" or they can modify it before accepting. My child has written numerous 5 paragraph essays in 6th grade and they only feedback he's gotten has been AI generated commentary. The classroom teacher confirmed it at parent conferences--how so much time was saved since he doesn't have to grade essays anymore, just answer student questions about the feedback AI generated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gross. I refuse. The day they require me to use AI in my classroom is the day I quit. I don’t care if that makes me an old fogey (I’m 39), but this has no business in a classroom.

I'm a high school teacher. It's already here. My students are using it all the time: to get answers, to develop tests to study for, etc. It's one of the reasons I have gone back to paper for certain assignments.

The students are going to be using it whether or not we want them to. That's simple fact. If they aren't using it in our classrooms, they are using it on our assignments at home.

We can either adapt our teaching to accept this new reality or we can shut it out. If we adapt, we can teach students how to use it as an effective tool and we can explore its ethical uses. If we shut it out, the students are simply going to be using it anyway.

We see it all the time at the high school level now. I've taught myself how to use it and I now consider it a personal assistant. That also means I can knowledgeably talk about it with my students. These are conversations that have to happen, whether we want them to or not.

I am a high school teacher too. I'm sorry, I completely disagree with you. I've actually turned my classroom into a zero tech space this year. (Thankfully it's math, so it's not that difficult to do so--I bought 35 4-function calculators and that's what they get to use). My students are completely helpless and have zero ability to think critically by themselves. AI isn't going to help them break out of that.

But more than that, I refuse to use it as a professional. I will not allow AI to grade student work. If I expect them to do something by hand, they deserve to have it read and scored by hand. They deserve letters of rec written by me, not a robot. If I expect them to create presentations from scratch, I should be creating the rubrics and providing real commentary, not canned comments from a list.

I will absolutely judge any teacher who puts my child's work into AI to assign it a grade, and am mortified that we think that is in any way appropriate. That's not teaching.

You are welcome to judge me and you are welcome to disagree. But you judged me based on your own assumptions of how I use AI, not on how I actually use AI. That comes from a place of fear, I suspect, and not from an understanding of how AI can effectively be used.

I don't use AI to grade student work. I use it to craft rubrics based on input I give it, and then I craft the rubric until it is correct. Every single assignment is still scored by hand and no student work is put into AI.

I use AI to help improve previous lessons, putting in last year's lessons (that I created by hand) and then inputing requested changes based on my current students' needs. I then modify the results as needed.

My letters of recommendation are written by me. No AI at all.

So you made assumptions about my AI usage that don't remotely align to how I actually use it. I notice that seems to be a trend. It's new, and therefore people are afraid of the implications. I understand that.

But know that your students are using it outside of class. You can control your environment as much as you want to, but they are still using it. I'm a realist. I'm going to help my students through this new reality. I'm not going to shield them from it.

FCPS is encouraging elementary teachers to use AI to grade student work. It's included in benchmark now. That's what I was referring to.

When I spoke up that writing letters of rec should count as an IPR for those of us with more than 10 or 20 to write, I was told by both my school administrator and someone at the pyramid level to use chatgpt. That's also what I'm referring to.

It's not fear. It's reality. And it's gross.

It is reality, and we all have to deal with it. Make it less “gross” by using it responsibly. Teach others the same.

Tell your admin you won’t use AI on your letters of recommendation. Just fight back, saying that isn’t a good use for it. My admin discouraged its use.

And how is AI grading student work? Is it multiple choice? I’m not going to lose much sleep.

Anonymous wrote:I have yet to hear anyone provide evidence that AI tools for teachers produce results better than, or even as good as, traditional tools. So we’re going to use it just because it’s there I guess. And just finish off killing the the environment too. Do people even understand how much energy AI consumes??? Are we giving up on stopping climate change just so we can play with this toy the broligarchs made??

Anonymous wrote:Teachers saying they won’t use AI at all are going to end up behind their younger peers. AI is not just ChatGPT. People are using it to create interactive study games, interactive timelines to explore the history of a topic, and more. Knowing how to use AI to create instructional materials will become part of the job description.

Anonymous wrote:She touts “at no cost.” Reid just sold FCPS. if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.”

Anonymous wrote:I have yet to hear anyone provide evidence that AI tools for teachers produce results better than, or even as good as, traditional tools. So we’re going to use it just because it’s there I guess. And just finish off killing the the environment too. Do people even understand how much energy AI consumes??? Are we giving up on stopping climate change just so we can play with this toy the broligarchs made??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gross. I refuse. The day they require me to use AI in my classroom is the day I quit. I don’t care if that makes me an old fogey (I’m 39), but this has no business in a classroom.

I'm a high school teacher. It's already here. My students are using it all the time: to get answers, to develop tests to study for, etc. It's one of the reasons I have gone back to paper for certain assignments.

The students are going to be using it whether or not we want them to. That's simple fact. If they aren't using it in our classrooms, they are using it on our assignments at home.

We can either adapt our teaching to accept this new reality or we can shut it out. If we adapt, we can teach students how to use it as an effective tool and we can explore its ethical uses. If we shut it out, the students are simply going to be using it anyway.

We see it all the time at the high school level now. I've taught myself how to use it and I now consider it a personal assistant. That also means I can knowledgeably talk about it with my students. These are conversations that have to happen, whether we want them to or not.

I am a high school teacher too. I'm sorry, I completely disagree with you. I've actually turned my classroom into a zero tech space this year. (Thankfully it's math, so it's not that difficult to do so--I bought 35 4-function calculators and that's what they get to use). My students are completely helpless and have zero ability to think critically by themselves. AI isn't going to help them break out of that.

But more than that, I refuse to use it as a professional. I will not allow AI to grade student work. If I expect them to do something by hand, they deserve to have it read and scored by hand. They deserve letters of rec written by me, not a robot. If I expect them to create presentations from scratch, I should be creating the rubrics and providing real commentary, not canned comments from a list.

I will absolutely judge any teacher who puts my child's work into AI to assign it a grade, and am mortified that we think that is in any way appropriate. That's not teaching.

Anonymous wrote:This is the worst idea I have ever heard. Just contributes to laziness. Bring back textbooks and real curriculums. I don't want AI generated content or worksheets. I can tell when a teacher uses chatGPT because there is usually something wrong.
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November 19, 2025

Dear FCPS Families,

Every day, I am inspired by the resilience, creativity, and promise of our students – and the responsibility we share to provide them with the tools and opportunities they need to find their futures in a rapidly changing world.

We are entering what I believe is this generation’s “Sputnik moment.” The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming every part of our society, and our nation’s schools will continue to be a critical place for both possibility and responsibility. As countries and industries around the world move swiftly to develop and apply new technologies, we must ensure that our students and staff are prepared to lead – not follow – this work.

That is why I am pleased to share that working together with OpenAI, FCPS will be in the first cohort of school divisions across the nation to help guide how ChatGPT for Teachers will roll out across the United States. We are trailblazing a path for hundreds of other school divisions and communities to follow.

ChatGPT for Teachers can among other things provide support, planning, communication, translation, and data analysis at no cost to schools until June of 2027. With ChatGPT for Teachers, OpenAI is delivering strong privacy and security safeguards, ensuring FCPS privacy and security standards are being upheld in these tools. Additionally, this tool will only be available for staff use.

AI will never replace the heart of teaching or the human connections that are foundational to the high-quality education we provide all our students. But AI can remove barriers, save time, and open doors to new ideas and spark innovation in the classroom and beyond.

By working together – students, families, staff, and community partners – we can equip our young people with the skills, confidence, and curiosity they need to meet the future with purpose. Together, all things are possible!

Take good care,



Superintendent
Dr. Michelle C. Reid

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gross. I refuse. The day they require me to use AI in my classroom is the day I quit. I don’t care if that makes me an old fogey (I’m 39), but this has no business in a classroom.

I'm a high school teacher. It's already here. My students are using it all the time: to get answers, to develop tests to study for, etc. It's one of the reasons I have gone back to paper for certain assignments.

The students are going to be using it whether or not we want them to. That's simple fact. If they aren't using it in our classrooms, they are using it on our assignments at home.

We can either adapt our teaching to accept this new reality or we can shut it out. If we adapt, we can teach students how to use it as an effective tool and we can explore its ethical uses. If we shut it out, the students are simply going to be using it anyway.

We see it all the time at the high school level now. I've taught myself how to use it and I now consider it a personal assistant. That also means I can knowledgeably talk about it with my students. These are conversations that have to happen, whether we want them to or not.