AS educators ease into another school year, the familiar conversations around lesson plans, classroom management, and getting students learning are underway. But are we preparing our classrooms for the world our students are entering?

For three of Jamaica’s top educators, the answer is already taking shape.

Fresh from the 2026 Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) annual conference in Orlando, Florida, LASCO Chin Foundation awardees for Teacher of the Year Dorette Rhoden-Henry of deCarteret College; Technical and Vocational Education and Training Teacher of the Year Gavin DeRizzio of Vauxhall High School; and Principal of the Year Orville Richards of St Mary Technical High School have returned to their schools with new ideas on technology, artificial intelligence (AI), assessment, leadership and student engagement.

The international professional development experience, which forms part of the Teacher, TVET Teacher and Principal of the Year award programme, exposed the educators to emerging trends and innovative approaches from education professionals and through leaders from around the world, including Dr Donna Vallese, instructional leadership strategist, and Ted Dintersmith, innovation education advocate.

For the awardees, the experience reinforced a central lesson: education must continue to evolve.

AI emerged as one of the strongest themes from the conference, with all three educators recognising its potential and the importance of responsible use.

Richards, who was particularly impressed by sessions on AI integration, plans to make the technology a stronger part of St Mary’s development strategy throughout the 2026-2027 academic year.

“I am particularly excited about developing a comprehensive AI implementation strategy and providing ongoing professional development for teachers in AI integration and digital pedagogy,” the principal said.

Joe Edlhuber, south-east account executive at TrekAI, an on-demand student tutoring platform, demonstrates to Dorette Rhoden-Henry, LASCO, JTC Teacher of the Year; and Gavin DeRizzio (right), TVET Teacher of the Year, how educators can use the application’s AI-powered learning tools to enhance teaching and learning, during the recent staging of the ASCD Conference in Orlando, Florida.

He also plans to increase students’ exposure to emerging technologies while strengthening the school’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and TVET programmes. The school is already expanding its information and communication technology capabilities through the procurement and installation of additional smart screens.

For Richards, however, AI is about more than introducing new technology.

“If I could implement one initiative across Jamaica’s education system tomorrow, it would be a structured national programme/policy for responsible AI integration and AI literacy for teachers and students,” Richards said.

He believes Jamaica schools must equip students with the digital literacy, critical thinking, creativity and ethical decision-making skills needed to navigate an increasingly technology-driven world.

Rhoden-Henry shares this view.

A Microsoft presentation on video editing using Clipchamp, an application incorporating AI and smart tools, was among the sessions that particularly inspired her. She immediately began considering ways technology could make her lessons more interactive.

She intends to introduce the students to AI as a learning aid while teaching responsible use.

“I will be teaching my students how to compare different AI tools to develop greater critical thinking,” she explained.

Her goal is not to allow technology to replace learning, “but to use it to enrich the learning experience while helping students become responsible digital citizens”.

“We have to create a very interactive space to enhance student learning. The different methods of integrating technology I was exposed to at the conference, will help to make my classroom a place where every child is free to express creativity,” she added.

For DeRizzio, the conference has prompted him to rethink how he structures projects and assessments.

Already an advocate for project-based learning, he plans to give students more opportunities to analyse problems and develop solutions. Instead of prescribing a project, he plans “to present them with scenarios and allow them to identify practical solutions before revealing the actual project”.

The approach is designed to strengthen critical thinking while encouraging cross-curricular learning.

The TVET teacher of approximately 15 years also believes assessment methods must evolve as educators navigate students’ increasing use of AI. One challenge, he noted, is determining whether students genuinely research and understand assignments or simply generate responses using AI.

“Teachers all over the world face this challenge,” he said. “However, the message of being transformational in our approach as a solution was constant.”

Rather than rejecting AI, DeRizzio believes educators should find ways to ensure students use it as a tool to support learning while still demonstrating their own knowledge.

While the conference provided exposure to international practices, the awardees also recognised that many challenges facing Jamaican educators are shared globally, including student engagement, teacher recruitment and retention, digital transformation and preparing students for future careers.

For them, the lesson was not that Jamaica should simply replicate what is being done elsewhere, but that international ideas can provide useful tools that can be adapted to local realities.

DeRizzio sees an opportunity to harness Jamaica’s creative and innovative talent through education. He believes the development of STEAM(STEM + the arts) schools in each parish capital could better prepare young people for emerging career opportunities.

“These are areas our government has touted — and rightly so — for growing the economy, and I believe these types of facilities will be a game change in that regard,” he said.

Rhoden-Henry wants the education sector to prioritise workshops that help teachers understand how technology and AI can be meaningfully incorporated into teaching, while Richards advocates for a coordinated national approach to AI literacy.

For all three educators, the opportunity to attend ASCD demonstrates the value of professional development within Lasco’s award programme.

Programmes Manager Anna-Kay McIntosh-Richards said the awardees’ feedback confirmed the value of exposing educators to global perspectives and return with practical ideas.

“As we prepare for the new school year, it is encouraging to hear how each of the awardees is thinking about applying what they have learned to their respective classrooms and schools. We look forward to seeing how they translate those experiences into meaningful action,” she said. “The true value of an experience like ASCD is not simply in attending the conference, but how educators take those lessons home, adapt them to the Jamaican context, and use them to improve the learning experience for their students.