On Friday, January 31, 2025, the annual "Honoring the Teacher" event was held at the Bodossakeion Building Theater in Kantza, in honor of the employees of the Hellenic-American Educational Foundation who retired last year.

Athens College Elementary School Director Mr. Giannis Kalogeras, welcomed all attendees and stressed that at the dawn of the second century of our School, it is a great pleasure to hold this moving event at Bodossakeion, where it was first established in 1979.

Athens College President Professor Spiros N. Pollalis, gave a short address and introduced the keynote speaker of the evening, alumnus Mr. Andreas Stavropoulos '88, Vice President of Endeavor Greece, partner at Threshold (formerly DFJ) Ventures in Silicon Valley, member of the Hellenic-American Educational Foundation and member of the Advisory Committee on Artificial Intelligence of the Greek Government.

Mr. Pollalis noted that the College, following the rapid developments of technology globally, in recent months has set up a committee on AI, which has received an excellent response from teachers, management, and administration. He said the College is at an turning point in terms of technology and is taking careful steps to incorporate all the new tools at its disposal in the educational process.

At the same time, he referred to the Plan for the transition of Greece to the era of Artificial Intelligence that has been drawn up by the relevant committee and relates to primary and secondary education, which underlines that it has become necessary to introduce Artificial Intelligence at all levels of education.

In his speech, Mr. Stavropoulos noted that since November 2022, when GPT Chat became accessible to the general public, developments are "running". However, he appeared reassuring, saying that there is still time for users to adapt. At the same time, he developed five proposals for the application of AI in education: 

1. Emphasis on group and hands-on projects with an interdisciplinary approach to better embed the lessons from theory to practice. 

2. Emphasis on cultivating students' meta-skills, such as critical thinking, learning how to approach learning, evaluating their resources and realizing that learning new things is essential for personal progress. 

3. Redefining how to assess and the concept of mastery of material. Stavropoulos estimated that in the future most exams will be oral rather than written.

4. Emphasis on ethics and the acquisition of existential skills, i.e. students understanding what people are and what people they want to be, having empathy and realizing their place in society. 

5. Emphasis on cultivating students' mindfulness and their focus on something concrete, as a counterbalance to the era of frantic "bombardment" by digital stimuli. 

A panel discussion with four teachers of the school followed, moderated by the President. Mr. Andreas Karambelas, Professor of Computer Science, Mr. Epaminondas Zafiris, Mathematician, Ms. Lambrini Zisi, Philologist, and Mr. George Stephanidis, Primary School Teacher, presented the ways in which each of them applies the tools provided by AI in their respective fields. Through them, they said, they are able to create new educational material in a short time, provide personalized reinforcement teaching and assessment to their students. 

Listening to the teachers, Stavropoulos commented that the College can play a leading role in the field of AI and is on the cutting edge of technology compared even with schools in America.

In the artistic part of the evening, students of the Traditional Greek Dances Club of Athens College Elementary School gave their own rhythm, by presenting six dances from various island regions of Greece and were enthusiastically applauded by the audience.

The event ended with the presentation of commemorative gifts to the retirees by the President, the Athens College Co-Director Mr. Christos Konstantopoulos and the Psychico College Co-Director Mr. Panagiotis Giannoulatos.