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TAMPA, Fla. — Artificial intelligence is making its way into classrooms across the country.
In April, the White House even created an initiative encouraging schools to embrace AI education, and after a successful pilot program last year, Hillsborough County Schools is spending this week teaching teachers how to use it responsibly.
Hillsborough County Schools is implementing Magic School AI for teachers, and this week’s summit is teaching them everything they need to know about artificial intelligence. District officials say the goal is to have 10,000 teachers using Magic School AI by the end of this school year.
Suzette Foister is a sixth-grade science teacher at Turkey Creek Middle School, but today, she’s the student, learning all about Magic School AI.
“This week we have been listening to speakers talk about AI in the classroom. We’ve been using many different AI products that we’re going to learn about and bring back to our schools,” said Foister.
One thousand teachers are participating in the week-long AI summit. District leaders say it’s focused on four competencies, including responsible use and effective prompting.
“Teachers are using it for productivity just like everyone else would do in their normal life, things like creating a rubric, creating an assessment that would take hours and hours," said Gary Brady, Chief Academic Officer for HCPS. "The teacher is still the expert, but they’re able to put some of these things into these tools and get it done a lot more quickly,” said
The founder of Magic School says there’s a teacher using Magic School in just about every school district in America. The AI platform is specifically for K-12 schools.
“Districts partner with us because they don’t want to use a generic AI. They don’t want to just have teachers use tools that are not aligned to district policies, state standards. They want a curated experience for their educators and have a really thoughtful, intentional use with AI,” said Adeel Khan.
And while some people may have concerns about artificial intelligence being used in the classroom, Foister says it helps with some of her time-consuming administrative tasks, giving her more face-to-face time with her students.
“This is not taking away our jobs. This is not going to do anything but allow us to create a better community, to create a better classroom environment for our students, and to build relationships with them,” she said.
As of right now, students will not be using Magic School AI. District leaders say they want teachers to be experts first before rolling it out to students. They plan on taking a look at pilot schools and possibly putting it out to students in the 2026-27 school year.
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