Is AI using a bottle of water every time you make a query? Are you a bad person if you use it in your classroom? Should schools ban it entirely—or go all-in?

If you've felt confused or conflicted about AI ethics, this conversation is for you.
I sit down with Dr. Karen Boyd, an AI ethics consultant who works with schools and nonprofits, to get real answers about the environmental impact of AI—and to talk through the much bigger ethical questions educators are wrestling with.

In this episode, we cover:

The truth about AI's water and energy use (spoiler: Netflix is way worse)
Why "just don't use it" isn't realistic anymore in 2026
The spectrum from AI enthusiasts to conscientious objectors—and why most of us are somewhere in the middle
Six strategic stances beyond refusing: wait and see, constrain, compensate, rethink the work, and shape the ecosystem
How to identify which specific values feel threatened to you (intellectual property? authenticity? effort and craft?)
Practical ways schools can build ethical AI policies through knowledge sharing instead of top-down rules
Different ways to use AI beyond shortcuts: as a thought partner, adversary, assistant, or accessibility tool
Why understanding how AI works matters even if you choose not to use it

Karen offers a nuanced, inclusive approach that validates different perspectives while helping educators move from "this feels icky" to "here's exactly what bothers me and what I can do about it."

This isn't about convincing you AI is good or bad. It's about having the informed, thoughtful conversation we all need to be having.

Resources mentioned:

Dr. Karen Boyd's website: drkarenboyd.com
Mission First AI Starter Kit (free vendor rubric for schools): https://drkarenboyd.com/blog/introducing-the-free-mission-first-ai-starter-kit

Karen's book on AI ethics (available March 20th)

Get the sustainability chapter of Karen's book for free at drkarenboyd.com/freechapter. No sign up is required, but you can get updates on AI in mission-driven work in your email about once per week if you select "sign up for news and updates" there.

My "Stay Human: Protect Your Brain Power in an AI World" curriculum (mentioned in this conversation) https://shop.truthforteachers.com/products/ai-literacy-lessons-teaching-students-why-writing-and-thinking-matter

Get the shareable article/transcript for this episode here.

Each time we decide which history gets a full unit and which gets a mini-lesson…

Each time we choose whose stories to showcase in classroom libraries while others gather dust on shelves …

Each time we select which family structures and cultures to represent in class and which we quietly pretend don't exist …

We're teaching whose voices matter, what counts as normal, and how power works. That's the hidden curriculum. And it's been operating in classrooms since the first schools were founded.

This episode is about uncovering the hidden curriculum in your own teaching, so you can make conscious choices about the values you're reinforcing.

And, it's about empowering public schools to be unapologetic in their stance about a core piece of the hidden curriculum that should be underlying our work:

Every child who walks into our classrooms deserves to see themselves reflected there, to have their existence treated as welcome, and to leave knowing their life has inherent value.

This episode is a call to remain steadfast in your commitment to care for (and be actively inclusive of) all families in your school community.

We need to proudly own our commitment to teaching kids empathy, curiosity, and the ability to understand–and collaborate with–people who are different from them.

This episode is a rebuke of a coordinated attempt to paint these values as controversial, "political" or "a radical left wing agenda." They are not.

They are educational best practices, backed by long-standing research, that teachers have implemented for decades in schools across the country. It's time to stop playing defense and speak plainly about how we do what's best for kids.

Get the shareable article/transcript for this episode here.

When he got his ADHD diagnosis at age 30, the first thought Andrew Gardner (https://www.agardner.com/about) had was, "Okay, now what? I'm still an idiot."

That negative voice had been with him his entire teaching career, driving him to work 80-90 hour weeks trying to prove he wasn't failing at the basics everyone else seemed to handle easily.

In this conversation, Andrew walks us through what it's actually like to teach with ADHD. He shares the invisible struggles no one could see from the outside, the white-knuckling through administrative tasks, the depression that came from years of that critical inner voice telling him he couldn't do basic things that weren't actually that hard … and eventually, the reframing that changed everything.

Andrew now has over 25 years experience innovating in teaching, learning, facilitation, technology and management. He's taught students from preschool through post-graduate at Yale, Columbia, NYU, and Harvard, advising on and evangelizing the use of technology to help students and teachers become future-ready. He spent over a decade building and leading a professional learning department, certification program, and teacher community at BrainPOP (where he and I were coworkers!)

Since then, Andrew has combined his passion for organizational alignment with his foundation in constructivist teaching and learning into coaching leaders, professionals, and parents. As an ADHD coach, Andrew is especially attentive to supporting the needs and strengths of neurodiverse clientele.
Andrew shares how ADHD shows up differently in the classroom (spoiler: "attending to everything all at once" has some serious superpowers), the link between undiagnosed ADHD and depression in adults, and what it takes to start seeing neurodivergence as a strength rather than something to overcome.

Andrew also shares practical insights on what schools could do differently, how to help students with ADHD build metacognitive awareness, and why getting on the balcony to observe your own thoughts might be the most important skill for managing ADHD as an adult.

Get the shareable article/transcript for this episode here.