Some Tempe high school teachers make custom AI chatbots to help students

As AI tools continue to evolve, several Arizona schools districts have begun drafting policies for AI use in classrooms.

The Tempe Union High School District is finding ways to introduce students to the tools, without sacrificing their critical thinking skills.

Tempe Union has six ed techs, one at each high school campus. Those are staff members who bridge the gap between technology and teaching by training educators to effectively use digital tools. Some school districts have had to cut those positions in recent years due to budget changes.

Tahlia Remer is an ed tech at Marcos de Niza High School. She said they’ve deployed several resources to guide staff and students on AI use, like a stoplight graphic.

“Red light means no AI use, a yellow light means they can use it for some aspects of the assignment, and then a green light means that the assignment is about working with AI to learn more about whatever the topic may be," Remer said.

For example, a yellow light assignment could allow students to use ChatGPT to brainstorm topics for an essay, but then do their own research and writing.

Some teachers are using Google's Gemini Gems to create custom chatbots to give students feedback. Another ed tech, Amy Miller said they might tell the bot how to handle a student who’s looking for an easy answer.

“If a student says, ‘I don't know’ or ‘just tell me,’ I want you to go back and do some questioning strategies instead to try to get them to go through it," Miller said, "or I'd like for you to give feedback on their syntax and voice and tone, but don't correct their sentences for them. Just give them suggestions.”

Miller said in a packed classroom, it allows teachers to in a sense, replicate themselves to help multiple students at once.