Bay Area teachers are taking a crack at using artificial intelligence with the goal of simplifying administrative tasks in order to focus more on their students, amid some skepticism.
As Amy Malay headed into her new classroom for the year at Las Lomitas Elementary School in Atherton, she pointed out many of her educational instruments haven’t changed much since she started as a young teacher there in the early 2000’s. The children’s books are stocked up, alphabet cards are up on the walls, and there’s a seemingly never-ending supply of crayons.
But in 2026, Malay also has another instrument in her classroom that is enhancing her teaching ability: artificial intelligence.
“It’s a tool,” she said. “If you can use the tool in the way it’s intended, it has a benefit.”
She says it helps her devote less time to administrative tasks and more time to the true art of teaching the children. It’s effectively her assistant.
“You absolutely have to work with it. It’s not foolproof yet,” she said.
One use case is having AI help tailor her lesson plans, sometimes in real-time. But there is no question, she is the one in the driver’s seat.
“It can give a breadth of examples and you can pull from them. But, I know the student individually. I know what makes that person tick. I can change the lesson,” she said. “I can give an example. I can use their name in the moment. It doesn’t take me clicking it in, it just takes me thinking about the student.”
Malay isn’t alone here. Teachers across the country are starting to use AI in one way or another. Anthropic recognized this and unveiled “Claude for Teachers” this summer, a special version of Claude Pro that is free for K-12 teachers.
“We’ve been able to work with teachers across the country for the last couple of months to really, pilot and iterate with them, to actually build the tools that they need day in and day out,” said Elizabeth Kelly, Anthropic’s Head of Beneficial Deployments.
Kelly says AI tools help teachers enhance their capabilities and in turn, the students’ educational experience.
“By taking away a lot of the sort of, administrative work that teachers have to do to develop these lesson plans or curriculum, it enables the teachers to spend more time with the students one on one, which I think is so important to the learning experience,” she said. “We all remember the great teacher who actually, really engaged with us as a human, and adapted lesson plans to what we were interested in. I think having AI will just be an unlock to enable even more of that.”
There are those who are skeptical, however, and would like to see less technology in classrooms. Leor Melamedov is a co-lead with the group, Schools Beyond Screens.
“As a mom, I’m concerned about technology getting in the way of the relationship between students and teachers, between students and other students, and learning itself,” she said.
She thinks intentional AI training and use could be beneficial for teachers, especially those with strong foundational knowledge and experience. However, she doesn’t think that is necessarily the case across the board.
“For the younger and less experienced teachers, they need to be able to pressure test their own ideas against the kids,” Melamedov said. “They need to be able to get feedback from the kids, see the looks in their eyes as they’re teaching, and iterate accordingly.”
Malay says it is still a learning process.
“We’re still figuring it out,” she said. “But I think the biggest thing is to try, just to get in there, dabble with it and see. It doesn’t hurt.”
She says she’s grateful her school district is exploring best AI practices for teachers so it can amplify the childrens’ learning experiences.
“Critical thinking – it’s more important now than ever,” Malay said.
A concept she can teach in tandem with technology, as AI further integrates with society.
