Professional Development

Encompasses a wide range of learning experiences designed to enhance teaching practices and improve student outcomes.

The 10 IEP AI Prompts That Changed My Life as a Special Education Case Manager (and Why I’ll Never Go Back)

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Discover how AI-powered prompts revolutionized my IEP writing process, reducing documentation time by over half while maintaining personalization and compliance. This comprehensive guide shares the exact prompts I use daily as a special education case manager, complete with real examples, implementation tips, and troubleshooting advice. Learn how to ethically integrate AI into your special education workflow without sacrificing the individualization our students deserve, plus get access to ready-made templates that address present levels, goals, accommodations, and progress monitoring for students with diverse learning needs including sensory processing differences and multilingual learners.

How Is AI Changing Bilingual Special Education? A Teacher’s Roadmap for Inclusive Classrooms

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AI can genuinely lighten the load in bilingual special education — translating IEP materials, generating visual supports in multiple languages, drafting differentiated text in seconds. But it can’t build trust with a kid who’s had three schools in two years, and it can’t read a room the way you can. Use it as your aide, not your replacement.

Why Is the SIOP Model the “North Star” for Multilingual Classrooms?

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The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) is a high-leverage framework that makes complex content accessible for English Language Learners and Multilingual Learners. By integrating language and content objectives, teachers can create inclusive classrooms where every student—including those with cognitive disabilities—can thrive. I remember my first year as a teacher in the regular High School. I … Read more

We’re Not Begging for Access. We’re Bringing A.C.C.E.S.S. to the World: Inside a Global Teacher Partnership Closing the Literacy Gap for Multilingual and Neurodivergent Learners

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A national board–certified special education teacher and the founder of a Thailand-based nonprofit for displaced Myanmar educators sat down on a video call that kept cutting out — Bluetooth issues, bad audio, the whole mess. What came out of that hour says something true about how global education partnerships actually start: not in a boardroom, but between two people who finally stopped feeling alone in the work. This post walks through what we discussed, what the global data says about the literacy problem we’re both trying to solve, how the A.C.C.E.S.S. Literacy Framework™ became the bridge between us, and what a teacher anywhere can start using tomorrow.

How AI Became My Planning Support Tool— And Why I Still Make Every Final Call

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When I use AI as a planning support for these students, I’m adding layers that I have to specify carefully. I’m not just saying “simplify.” I’m saying: shorter sentences, concrete vocabulary, familiar cultural references, no idiomatic language, visual cue compatibility, first-language cognate awareness if the student is Spanish-speaking.

AI Equity Starts With Teachers, Not Technology: Why Access Alone Isn’t Enough

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Giving every student an AI tool isn’t equity — it’s just distribution. Real equity happens when a teacher decides how, when, and for whom a tool actually works, adjusting for culture, language, and disability along the way. The technology doesn’t do that part. You do.

Does AI Replace Teachers or Strengthen Them? Designing AI That Amplifies Teacher Expertise Instead

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AI isn’t designed to replace teachers, and the research keeps saying so, loudly. The tools worth using are the ones that make your planning, assessment, and differentiation faster — while every actual instructional decision still runs through you. AI hands you the draft. You bring the expertise.

From QR Codes to Artificial Intelligence: How Human-Centered Innovation Leads the Future of Education

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AI isn’t replacing teachers — it’s asking us to get more intentional, not less human. Using the same “student first, tool second” thinking behind Dr. Ranjitsinh Disale’s QR-coded textbooks, I walk through the Human-Centered AI Teaching Continuum and show you exactly how I use AI to build sensory accommodations, multilingual visual supports, and social stories — the stuff that actually moves the needle for multilingual learners and students with disabilities.

Building an International Community of Practice Around the A.C.C.E.S.S. Literacy Framework™

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A literacy framework sitting in one classroom helps a handful of kids. The same framework, adapted and tested across different countries and contexts by a community of teachers, has the potential to shift outcomes for multilingual and neurodivergent learners at scale. That’s the vision behind building this out as a global community of practice, not a one-off resource.

What School Leaders Get Wrong About AI Adoption (And What Actually Works Instead)

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Most schools buy the AI tool first and figure out the training later — or never. The research is blunt about this: adoption is climbing, but professional development isn’t keeping pace, and that gap is exactly where good intentions go to die. Empower the teachers first. The tool comes second.