Mountain View High School principal Kip Glazer published her book “Ready to Lead with AI” on Feb. 3. Featuring 198 pages across six chapters, the book draws on Glazer’s experiences as an educator and instructs educators to take charge of and ethically implement artificial intelligence in education during a period of uncertainty and technological transition.

Glazer’s initial interests in technology came from Anderson Cooper’s 2008 interview with rapper will.i.am, back when she was an English teacher. With the rapper appearing as a hologram that projected from Chicago to CNN’s New York office, Glazer said she was taken aback, wondering if technology might be the future, or that, worse, it could go after her job.

“That was actually the fear that got me started to learn more about learning technologies,” Glazer said. “I thought, ‘I need to go get my degree in learning technology so I can get ahead of technology.’”

As a result, she worked quickly to become a Teacher Professional Developmental Facilitator and started her doctorate at Pepperdine University on top of being an English teacher. Later, Glazer said she found lots of success implementing a world-building role-playing game she borrowed from Trent Hergenrader — a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, who had used the technique to teach his creative writing classes. Utilizing it to teach books such as “Importance of Being Earnest” and “Fahrenheit 451,” Glazer claimed that she and her students had a “blast” reading the books and creating games.

After finishing her doctorate in 2015, Glazer switched to become the Instructional Technology Coach at the Kern High School District. While having the opportunity there to provide principals under the district suggestions on new technological implementations, she said she felt unheard, many of her suggestions never making it through.

“I was proud of the work we were doing until one principal casually stated that he would ‘wait a few cycles’ before deciding whether to participate in the program,” Glazer said in the Introduction of her book. “Although stated as if he was expressing mere hesitation, it sounded to me like a firm refusal. After hearing from my immediate supervisor that the principal definitely refused to have me come to his school to work with his staff, I was shocked.”

That experience has pushed her to become Mountain View High’s principal in 2022. Later, in July 2024, Glazer was talking to her friend who is a retired superintendent for a local school district. Glazer said she was asking her friend to coach her into her role as Mountain View High’s new principal, worried about what she should do in the face of the AI boom and off-handedly suggesting that it would be great if someone could write a book guiding these educators.

“I said, ‘I wish there were someone who wrote a book for principals, because they have a hard job and this AI thing is throwing them off,’” Glazer said. “My friend said, Kip, you’re a principal, [so] you should write it.”

This idea became an outline and later turned into four chapters of the book, focusing on discussing how educators can work with middle constituents — experiences Glazer felt weren’t widely written about. Her friend became her writing accountability buddy for a bit, but all progress halted when her granddaughter Juniper was born. A year later, in 2025, Glazer connected with Jennifer Womble, Future of Education Technology Conference chair, who eventually convinced her to continue her book and even connected Glazer with a publisher. By November 2025, the book was done.

“I used to joke about three things that I really wanted to do,” Glazer said. “One, be a standup comic; two, write a book; and three, run a presidential campaign. The other two, I don’t know that I still want, but I still wanted to be a published author. Of what, I didn’t know.”

Her newest book serves an extension to her day-to-day work collaborating with students and her school district to try and implement new AI-based technologies. Most recently, Glazer has been trying to implement Brisk Teaching, an AI-based tool that can help with creating presentations, practice quizzes and more.

Despite the fact that her latest book was just published, Glazer is already nose-deep into her next, “Ready to Lead With Data.” She looks forward to continuing educating and leading the implementation of technology into the world of education.

“I believe that technology is a tool,” Glazer said. “Just like any tools in the hands of the right person and with the right attitude, it can change the world. We have to be thoughtful about how and then for what purpose we are using.”