Heads up, everyone: AI has arrived and it’s everywhere, including classrooms.

How can students responsibly use artificial intelligence tools to help them learn, not do their learning for them? How can teachers employ AI to amplify their lessons and keep cheating in check? We talk with two educators on the leading edge of AI-augmented instruction, Aaron Romoslawski in Forest Hills and Michael Kennedy in Grandville, about how teachers are creatively preparing students for a world that will be filled with AI.

For more great stories about the changes and challenges of school districts in West Michigan, check out our website, School News Network.org. And if you have ideas for future programs, feel free to send them to us at SNN@kentisd.org. Thanks for listening, and happy studying!

Students in Michigan and nationwide are struggling with reading, but not in Amy Dyksterhouse’s classroom. The fourth-grade teacher at Kettle Lake Elementary School integrates reading skills into all subjects, as part of a K-5 curriculum that takes students from “learning to read to reading to learn.” We talk with her about why Caledonia’s reading scores rank well above state and national averages, and how she engages students with strategies like “brain movies.”

Click here to watch a short video on Amy Dyksterhouse leading a reading activity.

You can download this episode of “Study Hall” by clicking on the embed above, or listen to it right here on School News Network. If you would rather read our conversation, click on the Transcript tab here. You can also subscribe to the podcast through the RSS feed here, find it on many of your favorite streaming platforms, or listen to more episodes in the player below. A shorter version of this podcast can be heard on WGVU Public Media, 88.5 FM.

For more great stories about the changes and challenges of school districts in West Michigan, check out our website, School News Network.org. And if you have ideas for future programs, feel free to send them to us at SNN@kentisd.org. Thanks for listening, and happy studying!

It’s barely past 6:30 a.m. but the student musicians of the ABC Orchestra are rocking hard on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24,” a heavy-metal arrangement of “Carol of the Bells.” The 32 members of this East Kentwood High School ensemble are trained in classical music but play “anything but” that genre in ABC, performing in other schools and community venues while learning how to be gig-ready musicians. SNN talks to students Millie Fernandez, Maggie Geurink and SJ Cale about growing as musicians and as people under ensemble director Ryan Wallace.

For more great stories about the changes and challenges of school districts in West Michigan, check out our website, School News Network.org. And if you have ideas for future programs, feel free to send them to us at SNN@kentisd.org. Thanks for listening, and happy studying!