Raising Kids in the Age of AI: A journey into the classroom

How two forward-thinking educators are using AI to make their classrooms *more* human

Disclaimer: This post was entirely written by AI. That’s a first for this Substack, and also a practice I intend to avoid. If you’ll allow me the indulgence of a totally ‘vibe-written’ post, we can run a little experiment to see how engagement compares and discuss after my reflection on Episode 4, which dives deep into writing and how to cultivate kids’ creativity while maintaining productive struggle.

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On our latest episode of “Raising Kids in the Age of AI,” my co-host Dr. Aliza Pressman and I finally got to the “million-dollar question”. When we talk about AI in schools, who is actually driving this bus? Is it the technology, or are educators and families still in the driver’s seat?

It’s a question that carries a lot of fear. And frankly, it should. As our guest Jennie Magiera points out, the “nightmare” vision is something like the Vulcan Academy from the Star Trek reboot. In that scene, young Vulcans are all isolated in “sunken holes in the ground” , surrounded by 360-degree screens. It’s a cold, lonely, “dystopian version of education”. This is the future many parents and teachers rightly want to avoid.

As the son of a (soon-to-be-retired) public school teacher, I know that the default state for educators is “overwhelmed”. The last thing they need is another piece of technology adding more to their plate.

But what if the “who’s driving” question is the wrong one? What if, instead, we ask how AI can be a tool for the best teachers to do the things they never had time for?

This episode offers a powerful answer. We spoke with two incredible educators, Shira Moskovitz and Jennie Magiera, who are already on the front lines. They aren’t letting technology drive. They are using it as a high-powered tool to reach more kids, build deeper equity, and, counterintuitively, make their classrooms more human.

Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:

Shira Moskovitz: AI as a Tool for Equity

Shira Moskovitz is a special education and technology teacher in New York City. Her school has a predominantly English language learner population. She also serves as a tech coach, helping other teachers solve classroom challenges.

She shared a perfect example:

• The Problem: A science teacher came to her with a “classic behavior management challenge”. Students were disengaged, not completing tasks, and not participating.

• The Solution: Shira showed him how to use AI to “flip the script”. They fed his current unit into an AI and had it generate a new project-based learning curriculum.

• The Innovation: The AI helped create a “choice board”. Instead of a traditional test, students could demonstrate their knowledge by creating posters, mind maps, graphic novels, podcasts, or even videos and animations.

• The Outcome: The teacher immediately noticed a shift in engagement. The results were so good, some student work was selected for the district STEM Fair.

• The “Beautiful” Part: One of those students was diagnosed with autism. He was a brilliant kid, Shira said, but was “often not recognized for his brilliance”. Instead, he was recognized for his “challenges and the barriers”. Thanks to this new, flexible project, he was able to “identify his strength” , master the content , and ultimately be “celebrated for it at a district fair” where he received an award.

Jennie Magiera: “Humans Are Still the Stars of the Show”

Our second guest was Jennie Magiera, the Global Head of Education Impact at Google and a former math teacher.

For Jennie, the core problem AI solves is time. She described her early teaching days trying to “clone” herself by recording videos of the same lesson at six different levels so she could work with small groups. With AI, she says, “I don’t need to spend the hours and hours” doing that. AI tutors and supports can “extend my reach and amplify the impact”.

She sees AI being used in two key ways:

1. For Teachers: Before class, a teacher can use generative AI to “build a lesson plan from scratch” or, more powerfully, “refresh” a lesson they’ve taught for 10 years. They can ask AI to differentiate that lesson for different learning needs.

2. In Class: During class, AI acts like an “assistant coach” in the teacher’s ear. As she walks the room, the AI can give her feedback on “common misconceptions” , helping her know when to “pause this lesson and regroup”.

This vision is the direct opposite of the Vulcan Academy. In Jennie’s model, technology should be “ubiquitous, yes, but also invisible”. It shouldn’t be the focus. It should be “elevating... the voice of the teacher, the voice of the student”.

Her mantra is simple: “No matter how Al evolves, humans are still the stars of the show”.

From ‘Hand up Hannah’ to Productive Struggle

Jennie gave another great example of what this looks like for a student.

She described herself as “Hand up Hannah” as a kid —always having her hand up, propping it with her other arm, until her hand fell asleep. By the time she was called on, she’d “forgot why my hand was up”.

With AI, that student doesn’t have to wait. They can “engage with that ai, ask the question, get that real time support”.

This isn’t about getting a fast answer. It’s about building “resilience in the student” and the “agency... to help myself”. Then, when they do go to the teacher, they bring a “much more workshopped question”.

But what about the concern that AI will “stupefy our children”?

Jennie explained that this is where “productive struggle” comes in. At Google, she said, there is an entire pedagogy team that bakes learning science principles into their tools. The goal is to manage cognitive load, not eliminate it. The AI is designed to prompt a student to think, not just give them the answer. It keeps them in that sweet spot of learning “but we don’t want you to be so frustrated that you like throw your Chromebook out the window”.

The Human in the Loop

The visions that Shira and Jennie lay out are powerful because they are relentlessly human-centric. The “teacher in the loop” and “parent in the loop” are non-negotiable.

As I mentioned in the episode, this perspective is not a given. There is a very real, well-funded push from some corners to create a future where AI does replace teachers.

That’s why these conversations are so important. We need to be intentional about the future we’re building. My co-host Aliza made a brilliant point about learning to spell. She misses the old process of going to a dictionary, because the “annoying” process itself taught other skills: frustration tolerance , memory , and how to navigate dense information.

It’s a “both and” situation. We can’t resist new tools, but we must be thoughtful about the skills we risk losing.

The work of educators like Shira and Jennie shows us a path forward. It’s not a future of kids in pods. It’s a future where technology helps us make learning more equitable , more engaging , and more focused on the human relationships that have always been at the heart of education.

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Watch or listen to Episode 03 of Raising Kids in the Age of AI on your favorite podcast platform now: on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.