Powerful Learning fosters student agency, purpose, curiosity, and connection, and two Verizon Innovative Learning Schools coaches—Rachael Eberhardt from Albuquerque School of Excellence in New Mexico and Murissa Mays from Frontier Schools in Kansas City, Missouri—are seeing artificial intelligence create real opportunities for these elements to flourish. While challenges around academic integrity and equitable access remain, there are many bright spots in their schools.
At Frontier Schools in Kansas City, instructional coach Murissa Mays observed a teacher transform how students approach research and writing. Instead of banning AI, she explicitly taught students to use it ethically and strategically. Students used Goblin Tools to break down complex assignments into manageable steps, particularly helping students who struggled with executive functioning and task initiation. When they began their recent essays, they learned to use Perplexity to locate reliable, citable sources to strengthen their arguments, not replace their thinking.
“Students are now able to streamline parts of their workflow while still producing high-quality, authentic work that reflects their own thinking,” Coach Mays said. The teacher provided sample prompts, discussed boundaries, and invited students to ask when they were unsure if their AI use was appropriate. This transparency around appropriate use directly addresses integrity concerns while building student agency.
At Albuquerque School of Excellence, instructional coach Rachael Eberhardt identifies similar potential for fostering curiosity through Magic School‘s “rooms” feature, where teachers can create AI tutors that play specific roles. Teachers maintain visibility into student work, able to spot when students might be copying rather than developing their own voice.
When Danielle Duryea, a fifth-grade teacher, wanted her students to engage meaningfully with the American Revolution, she created tutor bots representing different historical figures that students could interview while drafting their essays. According to Ms. Duryea, “Students were more engaged and on-task, and their writing was more detailed, as they were able to connect to a time in history that was hard for them to conceptualize initially.” This approach gives students more ways to explore ideas while keeping their learning visible and authentic.
At both schools, the coaches recognized that teacher readiness varied widely. Coach Mays facilitated professional development with Teach Share AI, where teachers learned to generate differentiated learning activities. Starting with prompts like “Generate an intervention activity for intermediate English language learners,” teachers watched as the platform refined prompts for precision, then produced quality instructional materials with one click.
Teachers discovered they could edit the AI-generated documents like Canva designs, adjusting activity types (e.g., do now, independent practice, small group work) and creating tiered resources aligned to student data trends. The impact was immediate: Several teachers expressed newfound confidence in using AI for differentiation. One Teacher Leader Corps member applied for and was selected as a Teach Share Ambassador, expanding AI capacity across the campus by gaining access to new releases and other perks.
Coach Mays also uses AI in her own coaching practice to reduce bias in her classroom observation notes. “I like this because it provides a guardrail for me, to make sure I’m giving unbiased feedback,” she said. “Observations can feel subjective, but asking AI to make my informal notes from the visit more objective makes it easier for me to process what happened in the classroom. It helps me be productive in my follow-up conversations, and it builds trust and teacher confidence when you are speaking from an unbiased lens.”
Meanwhile, at Albuquerque School of Excellence, Coach Eberhardt approached teacher readiness differently. After attending an AI conference, she opened a staff presentation with Google’s Quick Draw, having teachers guess what they were drawing while watching AI predict in real-time to demonstrate how predictive AI works. She then introduced her ChatGPT assistant, “Liam,” complete with Irish accent, to demonstrate AI’s capabilities and limitations in a disarming way.
“Teachers who are, understandably, nervous about AI often don’t realize how often they already interact with it regularly and how it can simplify many mundane tasks,” she said. One social studies teacher, Jonathan Buys, tried using Brisk AI to design an assessment with explicit parameters: include varying content (written and multimedia), consider standards and teacher objectives, and consider student grade level and general class characteristics. The resulting assessment, with the teacher’s modifications, exceeded his expectations.
Mr. Buys explained that he was struggling to develop a cohesive assessment that was standards-aligned, but “the first time I used [Brisk AI], I couldn’t believe how quickly I could develop a comprehensive assessment over a large unit; I was able to upload all my instructional materials and explain to the tool exactly what I needed it to develop.” Since then, Mr. Buys has continued to employ Brisk AI in his lesson planning on a regular basis.
Both coaches emphasize that successful AI integration requires critical evaluation and maintaining student ownership of learning. Whether it’s Coach Mays teaching students to recognize when they need help evaluating appropriate prompts, or Coach Eberhardt’s teachers learning to adapt AI suggestions rather than accept them wholesale, the pattern remains consistent: AI used thoughtfully can amplify good teaching. It can enhance how students exercise agency, explore with curiosity, and connect authentically to their learning.
Ready to explore AI in your classroom or coaching practice? Consider these steps:
Learn more about Verizon Innovative Learning Schools.
