The Human-First AI Workbook: 21 Pages to Get Your School Ready for AI
Every school leader I’ve talked to this summer has asked me some version of the same question.
Think Forward
Think Forward is a publication from Think Forward Solutions where K–12 practitioners — teachers, leaders, parents, and researchers — write honestly about the forces reshaping schools.
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Don't Just Prepare Them to Use It. Prepare Them to Change It.
I refuse to accept a future where we just train our students to be professional “users”—people who rely on tools someone else built, follow policies they didn’t write, and focus on problems they didn’t choose.
Know When to Hold 'Em. Know When to Fold 'Em.
AI fluency isn't about using the tool well. It's about knowing which problems deserve it — and which ones deserve you.
Show Them the Ceiling and the Floor of AI
Students who only see AI's power become marks. Students who only see its flaws get left behind. Fluency is teaching both.
The Most Expensive Assumption We Ever Made
Why leaning into AI conversations in our schools is a must and why prohibition defers the teaching somewhere else
Before You Teach a Single Prompt, Say What You Believe
Why schools must slow down and lean into conversations about AI before sprinting to implement AI
Lean Into AI Now — Your Students Already Have
I was talking with a group of students recently and I asked them how they actually use AI.
Fluency-First AI Implementation
A Think Forward In Practice resource — for paid subscribers
Why I Use AI Every Day—and Why Schools must Teach It
I found ChatGPT in November of 2022, and I’ve used AI nearly every day since.
You Can't Ban Your Way to a Love of Learning
I keep returning to a David McCullough line, set down by Jon Meacham in his foreword to History Matters:
The Concept Before the Screen
Three research-backed lessons that build digital and AI fluency without a device — and the evidence for why this works
LAUSD Capped Screen Time. It Measured the Wrong Thing.
Walk into a classroom and watch a fourth grader work through her assigned minutes on an adaptive reading program.
Think Forward In Practice
For the last year, I’ve given a lot away.
We Hand Students the Keys and Skip the Road Test
We’d never put a teenager behind the wheel with no instruction and no test. We do exactly that with technology — and then act surprised when they can’t drive.
The Massachusetts Youth Tech Bill, Explained
What the new phone and social-media mandates actually require — where they fall short, and how to teach inside them.
The Edtech Backlash Has Joined the Chat
Your District Needs a Committee, Not a Purge.
The Minutes Are Not the Problem
LAUSD just passed the nation's most ambitious classroom screen time policy. It measures the wrong thing.
Beyond the Binary: Why Screen Time Needs a Layered Approach
Reflecting on the screens in school discourse from a year ago, the debate was framed by viral soundbites—sensationalized videos of distracted students, complete with moody music and thin data points.
Impact: What did this cost or add?
Deep-dive #5 in the Forward Lens series
Integrity: How do we verify and attribute?
Deep-dive #4 in the Forward Lens series.