2026 AI Educator Summer Institute

The morning "Let's Chat" AI chatbot session will focus on AI Literacy and help provide an overview of varying levels and methods by which AI chatbots may provide scaffolded and collaborative learning opportunities to students who have grown up in the technical age. Students today have access to information faster than ever before. They are accustomed to—and demand—immediate feedback. AI chatbots are especially designed for digital collaboration. By using AI chatbots proactively, with guardrails incorporated by educators, students will learn new content and critical thinking skills simultaneously through creative, relevant, and engaging lessons.

After engaging in the Let's Chat session, participants will be able to build upon current AI Literacy and explore the potential for using AI chatbots to enhance instruction, digital collaboration, student motivation, and engagement.

The Let's Chat Expansion Pack Workshop will provide educators with practical strategies for customizing AI chatbots to facilitate AI Competency. Educators will be equipped to utilize AI chatbots, specifically MagicSchool AI, as a collaborative tool for both educators and students to better understand how educational chatbots are useful and relevant in the 21st Century classroom. Participants will apply strategies discussed in the morning session to actual lessons and be able to customize a generic chatbot for use as an instructional tool. Individualization of chatbots for all age levels and subjects will be further addressed. No coding is required—instead, the focus will be on designing lessons that utilize AI chatbots as a collaborative tool to facilitate metacognitive thinking. Practical lessons will be demonstrated and created during the sessions that encourage students to reflect, ask questions, and attain ownership of their thinking processes while practicing self-directed learning.

The Let's Chat Expansion Pack Workshop will provide educators with practical strategies for customizing AI chatbots to facilitate AI Competency. Educators will be equipped to utilize AI chatbots, specifically MagicSchool AI, as a collaborative tool for both educators and students to better understand how educational chatbots are useful and relevant in the 21st Century classroom. Participants will apply strategies discussed in the morning session to actual lessons and be able to customize a generic chatbot for use as an instructional tool. Individualization of chatbots for all age levels and subjects will be further addressed. No coding is required—instead, the focus will be on designing lessons that utilize AI chatbots as a collaborative tool to facilitate metacognitive thinking. Practical lessons will be demonstrated and created during the sessions that encourage students to reflect, ask questions, and attain ownership of their thinking processes while practicing self-directed learning.

In this hands-on session, educators will explore IBM SkillsBuild through Discovery Education and learn how to navigate courses that build foundational AI and digital skills with confidence. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of AI concepts, digital literacy, responsible use, and workforce-aligned skills that can support both teacher learning and student readiness.

This session will also lay the foundation for the afternoon Expansion Pack Workshop, where educators will apply what they learned to classroom instruction. Educators will use their new AI knowledge to determine when AI is the right tool, how AI can increase rigor, and how AI can provide additional supports or accommodations for students as they design lessons for their own subject areas and grade levels.

In this interactive afternoon workshop, educators will move from awareness to application by exploring research-based Discovery Education SOS Instructional Strategies that can be used across grade levels and content areas. Participants will work collaboratively to develop, curate, adapt, and practice strategies they can immediately implement in their classrooms.

Educators will first explore high-impact instructional strategies that work with or without AI, then examine how AI can be used intentionally to increase rigor, support accommodations, extend student thinking, and create more responsive learning experiences. Using knowledge from the morning session, participants will design or adapt classroom-ready lessons for their own subject areas while determining when AI adds value and when strong instructional strategy alone is enough.

Educators will leave with:

5–7 practical instructional strategies they can use for engagement, discussion, collaboration, and formative assessmentA stronger understanding of when AI can meaningfully support instructionA classroom-ready plan for using AI to increase rigor, support student needs, and strengthen learning

In this interactive afternoon workshop, educators will move from awareness to application by exploring research-based Discovery Education SOS Instructional Strategies that can be used across grade levels and content areas. Participants will work collaboratively to develop, curate, adapt, and practice strategies they can immediately implement in their classrooms.

Educators will first explore high-impact instructional strategies that work with or without AI, then examine how AI can be used intentionally to increase rigor, support accommodations, extend student thinking, and create more responsive learning experiences. Using knowledge from the morning session, participants will design or adapt classroom-ready lessons for their own subject areas while determining when AI adds value and when strong instructional strategy alone is enough.

Educators will leave with:

5–7 practical instructional strategies they can use for engagement, discussion, collaboration, and formative assessmentA stronger understanding of when AI can meaningfully support instructionA classroom-ready plan for using AI to increase rigor, support student needs, and strengthen learning

In this session, I will invite educators to think about AI as more than a classroom tool. Instead of focusing only on prompting or productivity, we will explore AI literacy as a way to help students ask questions about ethics, bias, decision-making, civic life, and real-world systems. Using examples from English and interdisciplinary teaching, I will share practical strategies such as case studies, discussion prompts, short inquiry tasks, and values-based reflection. The goal is to help teachers move from general concern about AI to concrete classroom practice. Participants will leave with a clearer framework for teaching about AI, not just teaching with AI, and they will be ready to extend that work in the afternoon workshop.

The afternoon workshop will be hands-on and product-based. After a short recap and model, participants would choose an existing lesson, text, unit, or topic from their own classroom and use a simple planning template to adapt it into an AI literacy resource. I will provide a small menu of sample case studies, guiding questions, and activity structures so teachers can either build from scratch or revise something they already teach. Most of the workshop will be devoted to drafting, conferring, and peer feedback, with time at the end for revision and sharing. The goal is for every participant to leave with at least one usable product—a discussion protocol, mini-lesson, case-study activity, assessment, or short inquiry sequence. If the participants stay for the entire  three hours, participants will expand their product into a fuller mini-unit; if they stay for 90 minutes, the focus will stay on one strong classroom-ready resource.

The afternoon workshop will be hands-on and product-based. After a short recap and model, participants would choose an existing lesson, text, unit, or topic from their own classroom and use a simple planning template to adapt it into an AI literacy resource. I will provide a small menu of sample case studies, guiding questions, and activity structures so teachers can either build from scratch or revise something they already teach. Most of the workshop will be devoted to drafting, conferring, and peer feedback, with time at the end for revision and sharing. The goal is for every participant to leave with at least one usable product—a discussion protocol, mini-lesson, case-study activity, assessment, or short inquiry sequence. If the participants stay for the entire  three hours, participants will expand their product into a fuller mini-unit; if they stay for 90 minutes, the focus will stay on one strong classroom-ready resource.