Kristin van der Meer teaches primary school in Potsdam, Germany, where she also leads curriculum development at Neue Grundschule Potsdam  a Smart School and AI Innovation Lab nominated for the German AI in Schools Prize (KI-Schulpreis) 2025. At her school, she trains eight- and nine-year-olds as “AI Guides” who teach younger classes how to work critically with AI.

She is also the mother of four. That dual perspective,  teacher and parent, shapes everything she writes and says publicly.

Her core thesis: AI is not an upgrade for schools. It is a mirror that shows what we failed to do before. Self-regulated learning comes first. AI tools come second.

She has published in leading German education journals, speaks at conferences across Germany, and is the author of the KI-Kompass, a framework for AI integration in primary schools.