Teachers & AI: We Built the Educator Brain We Wish We Had

When AI burst into classrooms, most of us were left to figure it out alone. No roadmap. No training. Just fear-mongering headlines and edtech companies trying to sell us the future.

But back in March 2024, Kelly Booz, the Director of

Share My Lesson

and AFT eLearning, and I teamed up to change that.

We created the AI Educator Brain, a free, evolving resource designed by educators, for educators, to help teachers navigate this new technology with purpose, responsibility, and equity at the center.

What’s in the AI Educator Brain?
– Smart prompts for lesson planning, student engagement, and reflection
– Privacy-first guidance for using AI tools ethically
– Equity-based approaches to integrating AI
– Language to help advocate for your needs in the AI conversation

We also partnered with Microsoft and OpenAI for a webinar series that brought educators directly into dialogue with the people building these tools. Because any conversation about AI in schools that leaves out educators? That’s not a conversation. That’s a sales pitch.

The AI Educator Brain isn’t just a tool, it’s a community.

Through our webinar series, we’ve hosted thousands of educators to explore responsible and meaningful AI integration. These sessions go beyond basic tech tips—we focus on ethics, pedagogy, and putting teacher expertise front and center.

Topics we’ve tackled include:
– AI and lesson planning
– Guardrails for responsible use
– Student agency and critical thinking
– Equity in the age of AI
– What AI can’t do and why teachers matter more than ever

All sessions are free, on-demand, and eligible for professional development credit through Share My Lesson.

Explore the full series here: https://sharemylesson.com/partner/ai-educator-brain

Which brings me to a major development this week:

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) just announced the launch of a National Academy on AI in Instruction, based at the United Federation of Teachers’ New York City headquarters, in partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, and the UFT.

This new initiative will provide educators with training, coaching, and support, designed and delivered with teacher voices at the forefront.

Randi Weingarten, President of the AFT since 2008, emphasized that “the direct connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies, but if we learn how to harness it, set commonsense guardrails and put teachers in the driver’s seat, teaching and learning can be enhanced”

This is exactly the direction we need.

It’s what Kelly and I envisioned over a year ago when we launched the AI Educator Brain. Teachers need tools rooted in pedagogy, not tech hype. We need ethical guardrails, not one-size-fits-all mandates. And most of all, we need to lead, not follow, this moment.

We built the AI Educator Brain because we were tired of teachers being an afterthought in edtech innovation. We believe that educators must be part of shaping what AI in education looks like, not reacting to it after the fact.

We hope the AFT’s new national effort will expand and build on that vision.

Explore the AI Educator Brain: https://sharemylesson.com/partner/ai-educator-brain
Read the AFT announcement: https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-launch-national-academy-ai-instruction-microsoft-openai-anthropic-and-united

This is just the beginning.