At a glance
— Anniston City Schools brought 170 educators together for a districtwide AI workshop focused on ethics, bias and classroom use of emerging technology.
— Consultant Dr. Stacie Chana emphasized balancing innovation with responsibility, urging teachers to guide students through AI’s risks and opportunities.
— Hands-on sessions followed the keynote, giving teachers practical tools to integrate AI while reinforcing foundational learning skills.
ANNISTON — On a quiet Friday morning, while homebound students logged in remotely for an e-learning day, about 170 Anniston public educators filled the Anniston High School auditorium to grapple with a fast-moving force reshaping education: artificial intelligence.
The districtwide workshop, led by Chicago-based consultant Dr. Stacie Chana, blended caution with curiosity, offering teachers both a primer on AI’s rapid evolution and practical strategies for using it in the classroom.
The day began with a recorded message from Superintendent Dr. D. Ray Hill, who encouraged staff to engage openly with the new technology.
“If you possibly can, we’re looking forward to hearing everybody’s opinions about the new AI concept and what we should and certainly be doing in the classroom,” Hill said. “Finish the year strong… We truly appreciate all the work you do for the Anniston city school students. As always, it’s a great day to be a Bulldog.”
Following the video, Theresa Huff introduced Chana, calling her “a leading voice on the future of AI learning” and praising her ability to challenge educators’ thinking while keeping training engaging.
Chana, author of Experimenting With AI: Activities, Discussions, and Prompts for the Classroom and Beyond, opened with a message of understanding.
“I understand how alarming AI can be,” she said. “We all work in schools… so we’re used to being adaptable and making it work.”
From everyday tools to classroom transformation
Chana began by grounding artificial intelligence in the familiar, asking teachers where they already encountered it.
Online shopping recommendations, grammar tools, streaming platforms and chatbots all rely on AI, she said — technologies educators have unknowingly used for years.
“AI is fully integrated into many of the things we do on a daily basis, and has been for decades,” Chana said.
She pointed to the late 2022 rise of tools like ChatGPT as the moment AI became widely accessible, pushing it to the forefront of education. But even as capabilities expand, Chana stressed that core teaching practices remain unchanged.
“Good teaching is still good teaching,” she said. “We are not completely rewriting this. We are adding.”
Teachers weigh excitement and concern
Throughout the presentation, Chana encouraged open dialogue, prompting teachers to reflect on their own experiences with AI.
Some shared enthusiasm.
“It makes me happy,” one teacher said, describing how AI-driven recommendations provide new cooking ideas for her family.
Others expressed unease.
“With AI you don’t know if the picture is real or it’s not,” another teacher said.
Chana agreed, pointing to the growing prevalence of deepfakes and misinformation.
“Right now, we can’t trust it at all,” she said. “This is something we need to teach our kids.”
Questions from educators also touched on whether AI could weaken critical thinking or memory. Chana emphasized balance.
“I still read,” she said. “It’s a tool … I feel like I learn faster because I’m not spending a lot of time going through random links.”
Ethics, bias and a need for caution
A major focus of the workshop centered on what Chana called four “careful considerations”: ethics, safety, privacy and bias.
She warned that AI systems often reflect the limitations of the data used to train them, sometimes producing inaccurate or biased results. In one example, she described an AI-generated image that incorrectly depicted historical figure Benjamin Banneker.
“AI is biased,” Chana said. “Responsible AI use requires us to challenge bias rather than reinforce it.”
She also highlighted broader societal concerns, including scams, deepfake exploitation and the growing energy demands of data centers powering AI systems.
“Ethical use of AI in education forces us to ask the question, not can we, but should we?” she said.
Preparing students for an uncertain future
Chana framed artificial intelligence as part of a larger shift happening at an unprecedented pace.
“We are going to have more change over the next decade than we have had over the past,” she said.
That reality, she argued, places a responsibility on educators to prepare students not just to use AI, but to understand it.
“If we don’t, who will?” she said. “They will not reach those opportunities… that digital literacy is going to be required.”
Teachers also discussed the importance of maintaining foundational skills before introducing AI tools, likening the approach to how calculators are used in math instruction.
“You have to be able to critically think before you put your hand on the key,” one teacher said.
From discussion to hands-on learning
After the morning presentation, educators transitioned into workshops and exercises designed to help them apply AI tools in lesson planning and instruction.
The goal, Chana said, is not to replace teaching, but to enhance it — saving time while deepening student engagement.
High school English teacher Kyle Shelton said the session highlighted both challenges and opportunities.
“AI is currently the boogeyman, but the fact is, it’s here,” Shelton said. “We need to teach our students how to navigate that so that they can be successful in the future.”
As the session wrapped up, the message remained clear: artificial intelligence is not a distant concept, but a present reality — one that educators in Anniston are now actively working to understand.
