SALINEVILLE — Southern Local Schools are embracing artificial intelligence by implementing a program to help teachers and ultimately students.

The district is implementing MagicSchool AI, a popular program utilized by educators around the world. It is found in nearly every U.S. school district as well as 160 countries worldwide. According to its website, MagicSchool AI is built for educators, by educators, providing a genuine opportunity to reclaim valuable time for educators, combat burnout, and elevate the art of teaching.

It is primarily being used by teachers at Southern, and officials said it will give educators the tools they need to improve planning and teaching their students.

“It’s a great tool for our principals to help and coach our teachers for more effective classroom facilitation,” said Superintendent Tom Cunningham. “We believe it will directly improve instruction and test scores.”

Southern Local Jr. High School Principal Jordan Wrask, who is taking the lead with the program, said teachers are just beginning to become familiar with it to incorporate AI into their strategies.

“It’s a powerful tool,” he said. “[Gifted teacher] Tiffany Scheel is familiar with the system and she has had some students do a test run on it. Students utilize a chatbot and it’s almost like a tutor. They can ask questions and the teacher can see the conversations and make sure the students are on track.”

He added that the system also takes a lot of tasks out of teachers’ hands by generating worksheets and other planning items, helping to save time in the process.

“We just rolled it out and will get familiar with it,” Wrask continued. “We’ll have a professional development training to figure out the tool. The elementary and high school will use it for staff, for now, and the junior high students will use it for interventions. AI is here, and we’ve talked about embracing it from a perspective of positive uses. It takes tasks away from the teachers and helps them so they can focus on other things.”

Southern Local High School Principal Jess Krulik said it is being offered to teachers in the upper classes and he hoped to conduct training sessions soon.

“Jordan will be the lead and Tiffany Scheel has been working with him, and I might have them do a training in February,” Krulik said. “Everyone was encouraged to begin familiarizing themselves and the Columbiana County Educational Service Center has an AI trainer who has trained with us. We may bring her back.”

He added that he has used AI in his tasks and it has been beneficial.

“I use ChatGPT as a tool to save time,” he noted.

SLES Principal Emily Smith said she was still learning about MagicSchool AI but was optimistic about its capabilities.

“It will help teachers with lesson planning, classroom instruction, differentiation and cut planning time in half,” Smith said. “It’s definitely going to be a helpful tool for the teachers.”