From 264 applicants nationwide, NCTE chose 48 classroom teachers representing 38 states, making the selection highly competitive. Lindstrom is part of one of five high school cohorts convened by NCTE, joining educators from different teaching settings across the country to determine specific areas of focus, identify high-need materials, and produce timely resources for immediate classroom use.

Lindstrom’s work in the cohort connects directly to her ongoing teacher research and classroom practice. Since ChatGPT’s release, she has approached AI as an exciting challenge to traditional English pedagogy and as a major shift in teaching, learning, writing, and assessment.

This selection builds on sustained work Lindstrom has pursued since 2023. She participated in EdTech Teacher’s year-long AI in Education cohort, contributed to Bellarmine’s AI Guidelines Task Force, presented her workshop “Revising for Tomorrow: Using AI to Empower Reflective and Critical Writers” at the 2025 NCTE Annual Convention and Brophy Prep’s AI Summit, and is currently participating in Bellarmine’s AI Literacy Cohort. She also played an integral role in helping plan Bellarmine’s 2025 Justice Summit, “Magis in the Machine,” which invited the school community to consider AI through the lens of Jesuit values.

In her own classroom, Lindstrom has used AI-supported tools and workflows to strengthen revision, provide formative feedback, increase accessibility, and protect the authenticity of in-class writing. She emphasizes that the goal is not to use technology for its own sake, but to help students become stronger, more independent thinkers.

“AI can increase access and equity when used well,” Lindstrom said. “It can help students who need more scaffolding, formative feedback, or individualized support. But it has to be balanced with intellectual rigor and authentic, original writing.”

At the same time, Lindstrom believes educators must be honest about the challenges AI brings to writing instruction and assessment.

“Writing is not dead, as some may fear. It is changing, and how we assess it has to change as well,” Lindstrom said. “What worries me is non-learning, when students turn to AI too early and miss the productive struggle that helps them develop as readers, writers, and thinkers.”

As schools across the country consider how AI will reshape education, Bellarmine is contributing to the national conversation by supporting faculty who are willing to engage that change with imagination and a commitment to the Magis.

To learn more about NCTE’s ELA AI Framework Initiative, visit:

NCTE ELA AI Framework:
https://ncte.org/ela-ai-framework/

NCTE High School Cohorts:
https://ncte.org/ela-ai-framework/high-school/

NCTE High School Cohort Five Page:
https://ncte.org/ela-ai-framework/high-school/whitman/