In classrooms across Maine, a quiet revolution is underway. Artificial intelligence, once the stuff of science fiction, is now helping teachers plan lessons, draft individualized education plans, and even crack a joke or two. At the heart of this transformation is MagicSchool, an AI platform designed specifically for educators, which has rapidly gained traction throughout the state. According to The Maine Monitor, more than half of Maine’s public school teachers now have active accounts with MagicSchool—an astonishing figure that underscores just how swiftly AI has become embedded in daily educational practice.
The Yarmouth School Department, for example, spends approximately $10,000 annually on an enterprise package from MagicSchool. Mike Arsenault, the district’s technology director, praises the platform’s “Make it Relevant” tool, which tailors classroom activities to students’ interests. “Because the question that students have asked forever is ‘why are we learning this?’” Arsenault explained, adding that AI can help provide concrete answers by connecting lessons to real-world applications. “That’s something that AI is really good at.”
But Maine is hardly alone in this embrace of AI. Across the country, educators are grappling with the promise and peril of generative AI—systems like ChatGPT that can whip up new text, images, or even lesson plans in seconds. A 2024 study by the Center for Democracy and Technology found that a majority of teachers nationwide are now familiar with AI tools, both for personal and classroom use, and suspect their students are, too.
In response to this rapid adoption, Maine’s Department of Education rolled out an interactive AI guidance toolkit earlier this year. The toolkit offers practical suggestions for integrating AI from pre-kindergarten through high school, such as using AI to generate collaborative art projects for younger students or exploring ethical hacking simulations in high school cybersecurity classes. The guidance emphasizes a thoughtful approach: teachers are encouraged to “keep the human in AI” by questioning its appropriateness, monitoring for accuracy, and disclosing when AI tools are used.
Recognizing the need for statewide coordination, Maine’s governor established an AI Task Force in 2024. Its education subgroup has already met three times in 2025 and plans to release a comprehensive report on AI use in schools this fall. The state is also conducting a study on AI integration, with results expected next spring. Nicole Davis, an AI and emerging technology specialist with the Department of Education, estimates that more than 40 school districts have requested AI professional development this year—a number she expects will only grow. “We’re building the plane as we’re flying it,” Davis admitted, highlighting the challenge of keeping pace with ever-evolving technology.
Some districts have moved quickly to set formal policies. Yarmouth adopted AI guidelines last year, focusing on transparency, data privacy, and the need to treat AI as “an evolving tool, not an infallible source.” Superintendent Andrew Dolloff explained the shift in philosophy: “AI is here to stay. It’s part of our lives. We’re all using it as adults on a daily basis. Sometimes without even knowing it or realizing that it’s AI. So we changed our stance pretty quickly to understand that rather than trying to ban AI, we needed to find ways to effectively use it, and allow students to use it appropriately to expand their learning.”
Elsewhere, the rollout hasn’t always been smooth. Maine School Administrative District 75 adopted an AI policy earlier this year, but not without debate. Some school board members worried that generative AI could facilitate cheating or spread misinformation, as reported by The Harpswell Anchor. In Regional School Unit 22 and MSAD 15, committees and policy drafts are in the works. At MSAD 15, a student alleged that a teacher used AI to grade a paper—a claim the district says is inaccurate. Superintendent Chanda Turner clarified to The Maine Monitor that while teachers are piloting AI programs to provide feedback, they are not using it to issue grades.
Julie York, a computer science teacher at South Portland High School, has long been at the forefront of tech integration. She’s used generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini to create voiceovers for presentations, design rubrics, and build chatbots that answer student questions. “I don’t think there’s any educator who wakes up in the morning, and is like, ‘oh my god, I hope I can make a rubric today.’ I just don’t think you’re going to find any,” York joked. She guides student use with a traffic light model: green for assignments where AI is encouraged, yellow for limited use, and red for tasks where AI is off-limits. This nuanced approach, she believes, helps students develop both technical skills and ethical judgment.
AI is also proving invaluable for accessibility. In York’s classroom, students who struggle with public speaking can use text-to-voice software to create video presentations. She’s even built an app that translates her speech into multiple languages in real time—a process that took her just an hour with AI’s help. “I just sat there stunned at my computer. Just stunned,” she recalled.
Across Maine, educators are turning to a handful of popular tools—Diffit, Brisk, Canva, MagicSchool, and School AI—to create study materials, assess essays, and build curriculums. These platforms are subject to strict legal safeguards, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and Maine’s Student Information Privacy Act. MagicSchool, for instance, requires teachers to sign a best practices agreement and claims to erase any student data entered into its system. “We’re always iterating and trying to make things safer as we go,” said MagicSchool founder Adeel Khan, highlighting the platform’s favorable privacy rating from Common Sense Media.
The push for AI in education isn’t just a Maine story—it’s a national priority. In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order promoting AI literacy and proficiency among American youth. According to The Maine Monitor and BBC, the federal Department of Education has since urged schools to use grant funding for responsible AI integration. On September 4, First Lady Melania Trump led the inauguration of a federal task force on AI and childhood education, declaring, “the robots are here.” She acknowledged both the promise and peril of AI, warning of job displacement and mental health risks even as she called it “the greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States of America.”
That same day, the Federal Trade Commission announced an investigation into OpenAI and other companies over the impact of chatbots on children’s mental health. But the national mood was one of cautious optimism. Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the First Lady, “You’re really inspiring young people to use technology in extraordinary ways.”
Melania Trump’s advocacy doesn’t stop at speeches. In August, she launched the Presidential AI Challenge—a nationwide contest inviting five- and six-year-olds to use AI to solve community problems. “As someone who created an AI-powered audiobook and championed online safety through the Take It Down Act, I’ve seen firsthand the promise of this powerful technology,” she said. “Now, I pass the torch of innovation to you.”
Back in Maine, the Department of Education is preparing to pilot a professional development course on AI for teachers, based on the state’s guidance toolkit. As the new school year begins, Yarmouth’s Mike Arsenault sums up the prevailing attitude: “We can do what many schools do and ignore it, or we can address it. And if we address it with our students, we have the ability to frame the discussion on how it’s used, and have discussions with our students about how we want to see it used in our classrooms.”
The future of education in Maine—and across the nation—will be shaped by how thoughtfully schools, teachers, and policymakers navigate the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence. The conversation is just getting started, but one thing is clear: the classroom will never be the same.
