Teachers as Agents: Using AI to Create Materials, Plan Instruction, and Develop Assessments

This workshop is built around one idea: the teacher as an agent. Before any AI tool goes in front of a student, the educator sits in the designer’s seat, directing the tool and deciding what is worth keeping. This is not a general AI overview. Every segment is a build, and participants bring one real assignment and one content-area text to work with throughout the session.

The focus is on the three things teachers ask for most: creating classroom resources, building assessment tools like rubrics, and supporting students who need scaffolds to show what they know. Participants build with Claude for Teachers, Brisk, and Gemini with Gems, then get oriented on Diffit, Snorkl, and SchoolAI for creating companion materials to support access to complex texts, hearing student reasoning, and guiding supported practice. By the end, participants leave with materials ready to use the next day, plus a curated resource bank for continued learning.

 Key Learning Objectives:

• Direct AI as a design partner to create rigorous, standards-aligned lessons and student-facing resources from your own curriculum.
• Prompt Claude to generate interactive games and activities, with no coding knowledge: math mini-games, vocabulary match-ups, science simulations, interactive timelines, and grammar and fact detectives.
• Generate and audit assessment materials, rubrics and develop assessment questions.
• Use and adapt reusable Gemini Gems (via edugems.ai) for scaffolds, differentiation, and grading routines you will reach for weekly.
• Know when to reach for Diffit, Snorkl, and SchoolAI to adapt texts, hear student reasoning, and guide supported practice.

The Windward Institute provides professional learning about AI’s potential in teaching and learning. Our workshop does not advocate for or against any specific product or platform.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 4:30-6:30 pm EST
Instructor: Joan McGettigan, Ed.D
Grades: K-12
Price: $120
Credentials: 2 Approved CTLE Hours