BUFFALO, N.Y. – By now, students are settled in for a new school year, and their backpacks are filling up with papers and books – tools to help them find the right answers. But it’s how they use it that might matter more. AI is something we can’t shy away from. So, how can we responsibly use it inside and outside of the classroom?

“We as educators have to get past the anxiety,” Renee Kumiega, principal, Cloverbank Elementary School, said. “We have to be lifelong learners as well. Figure it out and start putting our kids on that pathway.”

Because, as Kumiega says, they are getting the future ready. 

“We are preparing students for jobs that haven’t even been created yet,” Kumiega said.

That means not shying away from AI. Her teachers did a book study on it, knowing they can’t hide from it.

“It’s a trend in education,” Kumiega said. “We don’t want to hide from it. But how do we use it for the good?”

Like creating lesson plans.

“I have kindergarten [and] I am using it more on the teacher side than a student-facing side,” Lindsay Wright, a teacher at Cloverbank said. “So things like, finding texts that would be leveled to my students’ abilities so that I can reach all of my students equally.”

Wright has been a teacher for 18 years. She’s learned that AI gives her the ability to bring silly things to life.

“If I’m reading a story, I can pull up images, especially super silly things would be a bear riding a bike in a thunderstorm,” Wright said as an example.

It gets kids engaged while creating fun memories in the classroom.

“They are excited to generate stories that would match these pictures that are just completely outlandish and funny and silly and really brings them into the depths of the idea of writing to share their written word, “ Wright smiled.

It also gives Wright more time to spend with students. Putting on her mom hat, Wright says that the extra time AI saves a student should be used to learn from what it’s generated.

“It’s great for generating lists of words or how could you rephrase something that doesn’t fit right,” Wright said.

AI is a tool – not the be-all and end-all, however.

When it comes to discipline, every district is going to have its course of action. For Kumiega, they take it as a learning opportunity. For older kids, a zero on the assignment, detention, and depending on the teacher or the circumstance, a small time frame to redo the assignment are among the consequences of using too much AI.