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Mystery Readers at Heard Street School 📚

Before April vacation, Heard Street welcomed members of the community to the school to read to students for Mystery Reader’s Day! The students not only had special guests read to them but were also able to learn about our community partners' jobs.

Mystery readers included Mayor Joseph Petty, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early, Worcester Fire Chief Martin Dyer, Worcester City Manager Eric Batista, Worcester Police Officer and former Heard Street student Officer Tortora, Diplomat to Nigeria Mary Beth Leonard, student-athletes from WPI and Holy Cross, and Arthur F. Sullivan Middle School Principal Ms. Kendra Cox

Thank you to all of our mystery readers for your participation! ... See MoreSee Less

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Worcester Unites Concert 🎻🎷🎺

Worcester Unites recently celebrated another music-filled year with a concert at Burncoat Middle School.

This marked the ninth year of Worcester Unites, an after-school music program offered to all WPS instrumentalists from grade four through high school.

Worcester Unites allows students to further their musical education and skills while also meeting friends from across the school district and performing as part of an ensemble.

High school aged students help coach after their ninth grade year, and are encouraged and supported through the program to pursue careers as a music teacher themselves.

Great job to all our Worcester Unites instrumentalists, and a big thank you to all instructors for volunteering their time to mentor our WPS musicians! ... See MoreSee Less

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🤖 Artificial Intelligence in Teaching: Denmark Comes to Worcester Public Schools

Worcester Public Schools recently hosted a delegation of 30 principals and assistant principals from Denmark!

They wanted to understand the district’s strategy of artificial intelligence in classroom learning. The event was held at Worcester Technical High School.

“One of the significant shifts facing educators today is the increasing presence of AI technologies in classrooms,” the Centre wrote. “As these tools become more prevalent, it’s essential for educators to comprehend both the challenges and opportunities they bring.”

This year, WPS launched an initiative called the “Spark Team,” a group of educators who are early adopters of “future-ready” teaching and learning practices, and who share these practices with colleagues.

During the panel discussion, 15 educators shared examples of how they used artificial intelligence in classroom settings. Examples included:

-A 4th grade lesson focused on the fundamentals of machine learning and AI.

-A Burncoat Middle School lesson about racial bias in AI, sharing how it can misidentify people of color and use job hiring algorithms that favor
males.

-A graphics design class at Worcester Technical High School, where students used AI to develop more robust business plans and presentations.

- A Doherty High School English class that used AI picture-generation to allow students to visualize what they were writing about. AI was also used to expand sentence structure, and encouraged students to develop deeper vocabulary.

The Spark Team training ties into the district’s new “Vision of a Learner” framework, which outlines the “future-ready” skills and dispositions all WPS students aim to have when they graduate from high school.

Read more: worcesterschools.org/denmark-educators-visit-wps-to-learn-about-artificial-intelligence-in-teaching/ ... See MoreSee Less