Amplifying AI: Kelly B.

Kelly Berryman loves math, but she also loves many things. Local theater, holiday decorations, and Dr. Pepper Zero, to name a few. An extrovert, Kelly brings high energy to everything she does. In her fourth year as part of the Math Department at NHS, Kelly serves on our district’s AI Ambassador team. Recruited for her tech-forward approach to teaching, she admits she hadn’t touched artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT before joining the group. To her, AI felt invasive and “freaked her out” a little bit.

Now that she has spent more time with MagicSchool, Kelly believes it’s a great entry point. Her first goal was to process how MagicSchool might assist her as a teacher before even thinking about using it with students. While she has been having fun experimenting with MagicSchool and other AI tools, she has identified some limitations. Kelly, who teaches Geometry and Quantitative Reasoning, wishes for more functionality blending solving systems and factoring into geometry. She adds that finding advanced algebra and geometry problems online can be challenging.

“At first, I thought I didn’t want to enable AI or give it more power. Now, I see it as just another tech tool.”

As much as Kelly gets excited about instructional technology, she relies heavily on paper and pencil, especially for work that demands immediate feedback. Kelly creates daily warmups for spiral review on paper, and students frequently work in groups of four for collaborative problem-solving. She reserves Canvas quizzes with question banks for summative assessments.

Kelly sees AI as a collaborative thought partner—someone to consult to spark ideas. Kelly, who stays firm about answering student questions with questions, sees promise in using AI for tutoring. She also likes to use AI to generate real-world application problems and personalize lessons to student interests. Kelly and I agree that if we use AI as responsible adults, denying students the opportunity to leverage AI is unfair, and they need exposure. Her ultimate goal is to make math fun and applicable. Spend an hour with Kelly, and you realize she could make anything fun, even scientific notation.

Kristin Patrick
Blended Learning Coach

  * I Used to Think … Now I Think is a core routine within the Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero Thinking Routines Toolbox.