The first time I watched a student paste their essay into ChatGPT and ask it to “make it sound better,” I realized something most of the AI conversation was missing. It wasn’t a question about cheating. It wasn’t a question about policy. It was a question about what we want students to become — and whether we, as teachers, still get a say in that.
That moment is why this site exists.
Who I am
My name is David Jacobson. I teach AP World History, Modern World History, and Asian History at Shanghai American School. I have a master’s in Latin American history, a long-running love for graphic design, and the privilege of working with students who are, on their best days, smarter and more thoughtful than I was at their age.
Outside the classroom, I run a student club that does community work in Shanghai, and I serve as an advisor to a group of eleventh graders I follow into their senior year. I mention this because I want you to know the work on this site comes from a real classroom, with real students, not from a thought experiment.
What this site is
This is the companion site to The AI Doesn’t Know Your Students: A Thinking Teacher’s Guide to AI in the Classroom. Everything here is built for teachers who are trying to make thoughtful decisions about AI without getting swept up in the hype or the panic.
You’ll find the book itself, a set of classroom-tested prompts, articles about how AI is actually showing up in schools, and tools I’ve built to help teachers think clearly about what to adopt, what to push back on, and what to ignore. No paywalls. No affiliate links. No one is paying me to recommend anything.
What I believe
AI is not a service we opt into or opt out of. It’s becoming the environment our students are learning inside of. That’s a different problem than the one most PD sessions are trying to solve.
I believe teachers still hold something no model can hold — a room of specific students, in a specific place, on a specific Tuesday. That’s not a sentimental line. It’s the whole argument. If you know your students and you keep asking what this technology is doing to their thinking, you’ll make better decisions than any policy document can make for you.
Get in touch
If you want to share how AI is showing up in your classroom, push back on something I’ve written, or ask a question I might be able to help with, I’d love to hear from you.
david@shouldiuse.ai
I read every message. I try to respond within a week, though during the school year that can slip. Thanks for your patience.
