(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) Principal Partnership Project (P3) is seeking voices to participate in a school leader well-being video project to share with other school leaders. The project was discussed during the Commissioner’s Principal Advisory Council meeting on June 13.
“Principals are responsible for ensuring the well-being of teachers and staff within the building, but we are certainly just as concerned with supporting the well-being of our principals,” said Stacy Noah, leadership development specialist in the KDE Office of Educator Licensure and Effectiveness.
Noah said the project seeks principals, assistant principals and other school leaders to create a two-to-five-minute horizontal video about strategies they have learned and developed that prioritize their own well-being. The goal is that other school leaders can learn from and use the videos.
“Sometimes we don’t think about what we do to decompress and manage our internal things that are going on whenever we are in the midst of the day-to-day principal world,” she said.
The videos will be collected from now through early August. Email Stacy Noah for more information.
Artificial Intelligence
KDE Chief Digital Officer Marty Park led the council in a discussion about artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom.
Park emphasized the importance of working with AI and keeping up with the emerging technology.
Kentucky is the fifth state to release an Artificial Intelligence Guidance Brief, which Park said is a living document that the KDE Office of Education Technology will continue to update as they learn more about AI. Inside the guidance brief, there are numerous sections that he encourages educators to use as a resource, such as the purpose, definition of AI and incorporating principles.
Principals on the council weighed in on what they’ve seen with AI so far as a developing technology in the classroom. Nick Brooks, principal of Wolfe County Middle School, said he’s had several discussions with staff members in his district about it.
“There’s a lot of fear involved with the unknown and I don’t think any of us feel like experts just yet to be able to lead those discussions as well as we should,” he said. Park said there are several aspects of AI to look out for from a school administrator perspective, especially as it relates to what student information is shared with AI companies and what those AI companies are permitted to do with the information that is shared.
“There are some tools right now that I’m not comfortable with because they’re not saying what they’re doing with the data that you put into it,” said Park. “So, we need to be very careful with those folks because everyone is rushing to incorporate or integrate AI in a way and some of that is reckless.”
Park emphasized that humans have to stay in the middle of everything and not let AI run autonomously. He added that the technology can be a useful tool in the classroom.
“We believe that artificial intelligence is as transformational as things like the internet, as things like mobile computing and smartphones and social media,” said Park. “We don’t want to minimize the impact of artificial intelligence at all, but we want to put it in the right framing so that we can have really smart discussions about it.”
In other business:
- Members of the KDE Office of Teaching and Learning provided an update on the review process of the Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS) for Visual and Performing Arts and KAS for Health Education and Physical Education. Members also discussed the 2025 review schedule of the KAS for Reading and Writing, Social Studies, and Mathematics.
- KDE Chief Performance Officer Karen Dodd provided an update on the Kentucky United We Learn Council.
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