Optional AI Skills
Ethical AI skills that sharpen your child’s thinking — never replace it.
AI should amplify the hard work, not replace it
Some school boards have started bringing AI into classrooms, but too often it becomes a crutch for brainstorming, without the safeguards that make it truly ethical. I take a different approach.
AI as a crutch
What I often see in classrooms
- AI generates the ideas before students have their own
- Brainstorming and problem-solving are skipped
- Grammar and structure are quietly “fixed” for them
- “Ethical AI” is mentioned, but rarely practised
AI as an amplifier
How I use it in my program
- Students brainstorm and plan their ideas from scratch first
- Grammar and critical thinking stay front and centre
- AI is used to question, test and deepen their own work
- Prompt engineering builds independent, self-guided learners
Using AI as a thinking partner, never a shortcut
In 10–20% of class, your child builds the AI skills that enrich their own learning:
- Prompt engineering — asking sharper questions to get more useful answers
- Critical evaluation — fact-checking, questioning and challenging what AI produces
- Self-guided learning — using AI to explore and practise more independently
- Protected fundamentals — grammar and idea-planning are always done from scratch, by your child
The result: independent thinkers who make connections, challenge ideas and deepen their analysis, with the critical thinking that prepares them for the new world.
Why students need these skills now
AI is already in school
Students are meeting AI in class and at home. Knowing how to use it well is quickly becoming a basic skill.
AI can sound right and be wrong
I spent three years catching confident-sounding AI answers that were simply wrong. Students who can’t spot them get misled.
Future-ready thinkers
Post-secondary programs and careers will expect ethical AI skills. Your child builds them on a foundation of real thinking.
Clear rules, built on insider knowledge
For three years, I trained and evaluated AI models for a remote research lab whose clients included OpenAI and Apple. I know exactly how AI thinks, where it fails, and how it can mislead students who don’t know what to look for. That’s why every AI activity follows the same rules:
- Your child’s own ideas and plans always come first
- Grammar and writing fundamentals are never handed to AI
- AI is used to question, test and improve your child’s work, not to produce it
- AI Literacy is tracked as its own skill area in your Student Progress Tracker (see progress tracking), so you always see what we did
The core program is complete on its own, covering all four core skill areas explained in how it works. The AI add-on is there for families who want their child to build these future-ready skills too.
Curious if it’s right for your child?
Ask me anything about the optional AI add-on. I’ll reply personally and help you decide.
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