(Illustration via Pixabay by geralt)

THERE’S A CERTAIN feeling right before summer camp ends. It’s the feeling that through the new friendships, conversations, and activities, you’ve met a revised and better version of yourself. You’re wondering how you’re going to take this self back to your “real life.” Right now, in my professional career, I have that feeling, as if summer camp is drawing to an end. 

In education, we might understand this feeling through “transformative learning theory.” Often applied to adult learning and associated with sociologist Jack Merizow, the premise of this theory is that transformative learning happens through expanding one’s knowledge base, critiquing or examining one’s beliefs, considering new perspectives, and ultimately applying that new information and perspective to one’s own life. For adults, this means taking on the unfamiliar and being willing to grapple with it. 

My transformational experience is taking  place within the Teach Plus Leading Edge cohort. Teach Plus, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote teachers’ voices and advocacy efforts, created the Leading Edge Fellowship to gather a group of veteran teachers to focus on education innovations, specifically, the introduction and implementation of generative AI in the classroom. 

Our cohort of 10, plus our three Teach Plus program directors, are on what can only be described as a transformational journey with AI in our time together. We are learning  by meeting with field leaders like Pat Yongpradit and Adeel Khan, and by diving deep into what it means to be AI literate and AI ready with the organization aiEDU.

We are talking  through our understanding, hopes, and reservations about AI. We are  writing about this work. In our own ways, we have dipped our toes into using AI with students and shared those experiences together. We have made space for reflection about the shifting landscape of education, both within our own communities and in the larger world. 

But really, we are in a bubble. It feels like summer camp precisely because we are tucked away within our group. While we’ve worked hard to externalize what we’ve learned through writing and professional development, it’s the process that has been most transformative. I now understand that all teachers, not just our small cohort, need time to pause, reflect, and learn about AI. 

AI is quickly changing the education space. Unlike other new technologies, it’s not just tweaking, it’s quickly and irrevocably changing key aspects of education like research and writing. In March, Google announced its partnership with ISTE+ASCD to train six million educators, both in K-12 and higher education, in using the Google suite AI tools. To put it in context, according to 2025 Census data, there are 5.7 million K-12 teachers in the US. This initiative is set to reach a meaningful percentage of all educators in the country. 

When I think about what our cohort accomplished and what other educators need, it is time to actually play and experiment with AI tools. But also time to debate and consider the ethical and pedagogical implications of widespread AI use. It is my job to prepare students for the future of school and work; to do this, I must be well-versed in AI and all that it offers.

I’m fortunate to be part of this cohort. To be able to explore and use AI as an educator is to be thoughtful and knowledgeable of it. For the sake of students and our profession, all educators deserve this kind of time and experience. 

Caroline Rose is an 8th grade English language arts teacher at Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester and a Teach Plus Leading Edge Fellow.