Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.Career stability. The chance to give back to neighborhoods that shaped them. A knack for working with children. As more than 4,000 new teachers streamed into orientation at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center before next week’s first day of school, they shared what made them feel hopeful about joining the nation’s largest school system. But some of the challenges of teaching in 2026 were also top of mind, particularly around artificial intelligence as educators eagerly await New York City’s new AI policy.One science teacher wondered how he would grapple with students outsourcing their thinking to AI. An incoming middle school teacher said her student teaching stint prepared her for the Education Department’s “organized chaos.” And in an address to the new cohort of teachers, schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels advised them to brace for a challenging start. His first year in the classroom was “probably the hardest year of my life,” Samuels said. “I want you to think about January when it’s cold, when it’s rough outside … you have to make sure that you rely on your why. And for me, that was the belief in the brilliance of every young person.”New York City officials are hoping to hire roughly 6,600 teachers this school year, as the Education Department scrambles to meet a state mandate to reduce class sizes. Yet the profession is facing headwinds that could complicate those efforts: Educators in New York state report lower morale than the national average, according to a survey by the news organization Education Week. Education officials did not say how many teachers they’ve hired so far this year overall. Recruitment typically continues through September.Gabriella Puleri, a 23-year-old incoming sixth-grade English language arts teacher in Queens, said she felt up for the challenge after completing a master’s degree program at New York University that offered a year of student teaching experience. “There’s really nothing that compares to being put in a classroom,” she said.She also felt reassured by a recent cellphone ban and a mandate to reduce class sizes to 20-25 students depending on the grade level.Thousands of new New York City teachers gather inside Barclays Center for an orientation ahead of the first day of school.Even as some recent policy changes are making the job feel more manageable, other questions about the coming school year remain unanswered, including how the school system will grapple with AI. Officials are expected to release a more detailed AI policy before students return on Sept. 10. A draft version of AI guidance released in March did not include clear guardrails for student use and generated sharp criticism, delaying the release of a more comprehensive policy.Jasmine Hall, who is returning to a city-run high school in Queens after a stint at a charter school, said she has seen the rise of AI in classrooms first hand and is craving more guidelines for student writing.“I really hope that there is incentive to steer kids away from AI,” she said. “The kids have just become accustomed to using it for everything.”For Hall, job security was part of the appeal of returning to a district school. Others said they want to give back to a system that nurtured them. Moshab Rahman, who grew up in public housing and went to public schools in East Harlem, credited his teachers with setting him up for success and wants to do the same for his students. “I want to live in a world where people care about each other,” he said. The 25-year-old studied environmental biology and landed a part-time job as a conservation educator at the Prospect Park Zoo teaching visiting school groups. In search of a career involving education, he wound up joining the city’s Teaching Fellows, a fast-track program into public schools that counts Samuels as an alum. Rahman described the experience as being thrown in the deep end: fast-paced, rigorous, and “basically torturous.”This year’s class of Teaching Fellows cohort includes roughly 1,100 new educators, among the largest numbers in recent years, Samuels said. In an interview with reporters following the orientation event, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew acknowledged that teachers are facing uncertainty this year over technology use. The union chief said he’s looking for a more “practical approach” that includes more vetting of the platforms schools are using.Still, he was skeptical that an outright ban is workable. “How are we banning AI in a high school?” he said. “The students are using it anyway. It’s embedded in so many platforms now.”Rahman is still thinking the issue through and said he personally finds AI tools helpful. But he also wonders about how to use it without allowing students to “offload” their thinking.“It’s a real can of worms,” he said.Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
