AI Basic Training in the Library
AI Basic Training: What Happened When a Librarian and Coach Brought the Army and AI to Middle School
 |
| Coach Whitlow and I brought Army training culture into the library for a middle school AI best practices lesson. |
The handouts said UNCLASSIFIED TRAINING MATERIAL across the top. I was in Army camo. Coach Whitlow was in her camo. And her middle school class was about to get their first real lesson in AI best practices.
That's how AI Basic Training was born.
An Unexpected Conversation
Coach Whitlow teaches Career Development and Tools at our middle school, in addition to her coaching responsibilities. Because of our different schedules, we had barely crossed paths before she approached me about doing a collaborative lesson on AI best practices. It happened while I was talking to the Vocabulary & Numeracy teacher, who is also a Coach. That coach and I had done several literacy based collaborations, and I can't help but wonder if she had told Coach Whitlow about our library antics. That she thought about the school library — and that she asked me to team up with her to teach — meant a lot. It was exactly the kind of partnership I'd hoped to build when I returned to school librarianship.
My path back to the library wasn't a straight line. I had spent five years as a Band Officer with the Army National Guard and two years in public library administration before returning to school librarianship. I still serve in the Army part-time. When Coach Whitlow came to me, AI was still relatively new territory for me too. I think that's where most of us are right now — trying to figure out best practices for ourselves while at the same time figuring out how to teach them to students. The speed at which this technology is evolving is genuinely mind boggling.
But the Army and my former experiences as a school librarian had given me something useful: a framework for training that makes complex skills accessible. When Coach Whitlow told me she wanted to teach students ethical AI practices, I knew exactly what structure could work with rotating stations.
Building the Mission
We met a few times to establish her goals before designing the lesson. Coach Whitlow wanted students to understand ethical AI use in practical, real-world terms. She had already used AI herself for car research and wanted to share that experience. I brought an example from the Army — a prompt we used around weight loss while maintaining muscle — both good examples of what actual AI usage looks like.
From there, I proposed a four-station rotation. We called it AI Basic Training and leaned into the military theme completely: camo attire, military-styled handouts, the works. I even played the heroic sounds of an Army Band performing the tune Army Strong as students entered the library to help set the tone. Here's what each station looked like in practice:
 |
| Coach Whitlow assists students at Station 1 |
Station 1: Weak Prompts vs. Strong Prompts Students started with a basic prompt — something vague and generic — and then worked to improve it using more specific directions to create better results. The takeaway: AI is only as good as the instructions you give it.
Station 2: AI Can Sound Confident and Still Be Wrong This station taught students to make AI reveal its sources — essentially asking it to cite its work and then verifying whether those sources were real and credible. Students were surprised when confident-sounding AI responses couldn't be traced to anything reliable. We explained that AI can hallucinate answers that are completely made up.
Station 3: AI Learns from the Internet — Including Its Biases Students ran a structured experiment designed to surface bias in AI-generated responses. Seeing it happen in real time, rather than just being told it exists, was the more powerful approach.
Station 4: The Mystery Cards Students read three writing samples and had to determine which were written by humans and which were AI-generated. This one generated the most conversation — which was exactly the point.
Each station ran about seven minutes. Students used Google Gemini on library and classroom Chromebooks. They were fully engaged throughout.
What the Students Said — And What We'd Do Differently
The debrief at the end was honest and useful. Students told us the activities were helpful, but some felt too similar to each other — a fair critique that points to lesson design. The introduction segment, where Coach Whitlow and I walked through our real-world examples together, was the part they responded to most. They also commented that they didn't know AI would show it's sources or that prompts could be strengthened so easily. I've seen this when helping students use AI in the library for research and/ or other uses. Many try to use it like a search engine and miss out that they can redirect it to try again if they aren't pleased with the product or outcome. This is worth noting and fair game for future learning sessions.
If we were redesigning it today, here's what we'd change: more interaction at the stations, better differentiation in the activity mechanics so each station feels distinctly different (perhaps bringing in photo or art creation AI techniques on a platform like Canva), and a longer introduction where we model the before-and-after prompt comparison live rather than just presenting it. I think a more thorough demo from both of us would have held deeper meaning to the class. The Mystery Cards station probably deserves to be last — it works best as a culminating activity after students have already been primed to think critically. We could have easily presented the Mystery Cards as a whole class activity.
Final Thoughts
AI is still new enough that all of us — educators, librarians, administrators, and even soldiers — are building the plane while flying it. This session happened during the last weeks of school, which made it timely: students are already using AI tools constantly, and they deserve honest, practical instruction in how to use them well and critically.
What struck us most wasn't the lesson itself — it was the image of two educators standing in a middle school library in camo, one a librarian who still serves in the Army National Guard, one a coach who teaches career tools to teenagers, both figuring it out together. That's actually a pretty accurate picture of where education is right now. Nobody has a perfect answer. Kids need this now and so do we. Out of the comfort zone we go.
Coach Whitlow and I are already planning to bring AI Basic Training back this fall with some of the improvements the students asked for. I'm proud of her for walking through those library doors with her class (and camo) to try something new. In the meantime, I've loaded up a few days this summer with AI in education professional development. I want to know more so I can better help our learning community navigate the world of AI.
How have you used a theme or role-play for teaching digital literacy to your students? Share your stories in the comments — we're all still learning from each other.
Comments
Post a Comment