Reflections on My Professional Development Workshop on AI

A couple of Saturdays ago, I led a PD workshop for our teachers at AIAN on the theme of AI. The goal of the session was not to provide a list of tools or tips, but to start a meaningful conversation about how we, as educators, can use AI thoughtfully and creatively in our work.

Before the workshop, I had reached out to staff to learn how they currently use AI. The responses were diverse—some teachers use AI for lesson planning and feedback, others for generating assessments or saving time with administrative tasks. The key findings were that almost all teachers use AI, though with varying frequency and for different purposes. I shared several of these examples (with permission) and invited the teachers to elaborate on how AI has influenced their practice. This helped ground our discussion in real, practical experiences from within our own school community.

One of the main ideas we explored was the shift from seeing AI as a vending machine—something that simply produces answers—to viewing it as a collaborator. The importance of refining prompts, asking follow-up questions, and engaging in back-and-forth dialogue with AI can lead to far more creative and useful outcomes. We also discussed the importance of using AI critically: recognizing its limitations, verifying information, and maintaining our role as experts in content and pedagogy.

I demonstrated several examples from my own practice, including how I use AI to create rubrics, organize feedback, and design activities with authentic materials. In one live demonstration, we looked at how AI can support CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) by adapting a real-world graph into language-rich classroom tasks. This showed how AI can bridge the gap between content and language in ways that save time while improving quality.

Throughout the session, the atmosphere was positive and open. Teachers shared examples, raised questions, and reflected on their own classroom experiences. Every ten minutes, I quietly changed hats—a running joke that no one quite understood until the end. When I finally asked if anyone had noticed, the realization turned into quiet laughter and discussion. The hats, I explained, represented the many roles we play as teachers—and how AI, if used well, can help us wear those hats a little more easily.

We ended with a personal invitation for teachers to continue this conversation through a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Book Club, starting with Brave New Words by Salman Khan. The idea is to meet weekly to discuss educational topics, not only related to AI, but to the evolving nature of teaching and learning in general.

I hope that through this workshop I was able to commuicate one key message: AI will not replace teachers—but teachers who use AI thoughtfully will be better equipped for the future. The goal is not to master a tool, but to cultivate curiosity, reflection, and co-intelligence in our practice.