AI Educator Summit: Full Schedule

1:10pm CDT

Rethinking Assessment: Using AI to Support Mastery-Based Grading and Personalized Instruction

Tuesday August 4, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Assessment should inform instruction — but the realities of grading workload often mean that valuable student learning data goes underutilized. What if AI could help close that gap?

In this session, participants will explore how AI-powered tools can transform assessment practices by streamlining the creation of interactive, standards-aligned assessments and rubrics that capture meaningful data about student understanding. Educators will learn practical approaches to AI-enhanced feedback systems that provide more detailed, personalized responses to student work — freeing up time for the instructional planning and relationship-building that matter most.

Beyond grading efficiency, this session focuses on what comes after assessment: using student learning data to drive personalized instruction. Participants will practice interpreting AI-generated growth insights to identify learning patterns, form flexible groups, and design targeted instructional strategies that meet each student where they are. The session emphasizes maintaining teacher expertise and professional judgment as the foundation for all assessment decisions, with AI serving as a tool that amplifies — rather than replaces — educator insight.

Participants will leave with actionable strategies for designing assessments that genuinely inform instruction and approaches for using learning analytics to differentiate effectively across diverse classroom contexts.

Speakers

Peter Brunetta

Senior Account Executive, Colleague AI

With a Master's in Education and a decade of experience spanning both sides of the educational landscape, Pete uniquely bridges classroom practice and technology innovation. After five years teaching English Language Arts, he transitioned into EdTech, spending five years developing... Read More →

Tuesday August 4, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Assessment & Feedback

global Y

1:10pm CDT

The classroom X-ray: Using teacher dashboards to compare and support student writing

Tuesday August 4, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Teachers can see the final essay, but rarely see the hours of thinking, deleting, and rearranging that happen before students "Submit" their work. This session introduces a process-centered teacher dashboard that acts as an "X-ray" for the writing classroom. Participating teachers will learn how to compare the workflows of an entire class at a glance to identify who is authentically engaged, who is stuck in the drafting phase, and who may be relying too heavily on external tools. By making the "invisible" visible, teachers can provide more personalized feedback and turn data into meaningful coaching conversations. By focusing on the journey of writing, we move toward a more transparent and supportive form of assessment.

Speakers

Badri Adhikari

Associate Professor, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Dr. Adhikari is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL). His work focuses on artificial intelligence, educational technology, and the responsible use of AI in learning. His research has been supported by the U.S. National... Read More →

Tuesday August 4, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Assessment & Feedback

global Y

2:10pm CDT

AI-Proof It: Redesigning Assignments That Demand Real Thinking

Tuesday August 4, 2026 2:10pm - 3:00pm CDT

AI can write the essay, solve the problem, and answer the question…but it can't replace your student's voice, experience, or reasoning process. Learn practical strategies for redesigning existing assignments so that AI assistance becomes irrelevant (or at least insufficient). Walk away with a concrete process for transforming the most at-risk assignments into tasks that require authentic thinking, personal reflection, and demonstrable skill. No tech expertise required. Just a willingness to rethink what we're really asking students to do.

Speakers

Mark Henderson

Director of AI, Missouri School Boards' Association

Mark Henderson is the Director of AI Initiatives at the Missouri School Boards Association (MSBA). A former high school English teacher, Mark brings a classroom-first perspective to every conversation about AI. As a national speaker and thought leader, Mark helps school communities... Read More →

Tuesday August 4, 2026 2:10pm - 3:00pm CDT

Assessment & Feedback

9:30am CDT

Beyond the Wrong Answer: Using AI to Uncover and Address Student Misconceptions

Wednesday August 5, 2026 9:30am - 10:20am CDT

Every experienced teacher knows that wrong answers are rarely random — they reveal patterns in student thinking that, once understood, become powerful entry points for instruction. But identifying and addressing misconceptions across a full classroom takes time and expertise that the pace of teaching rarely allows.

In this session, participants will explore how AI-powered strategies can help educators anticipate common student misconceptions before they walk into the classroom, analyze discourse patterns during instruction, and develop targeted interventions that transform misunderstandings into genuine learning opportunities. Using AI simulations, educators will practice identifying potential misconceptions across subject areas and grade levels, examining the root causes behind student thinking patterns rather than just the surface-level errors.

Participants will develop effective questioning techniques and discussion strategies that reveal student understanding in real time, and learn to use AI-generated feedback reports to pinpoint where conceptual gaps exist. Most importantly, educators will practice turning these insights into responsive teaching plans — crafting high-quality follow-up questions, designing targeted small-group interventions, and building instructional sequences that bridge the gap between what students currently understand and what they need to know.

This session is grounded in the principle that

Speakers

Peter Brunetta

Senior Account Executive, Colleague AI

Wednesday August 5, 2026 9:30am - 10:20am CDT

Assessment & Feedback

global Y

11:30am CDT

Leveraging AI to improve Feedback Cycles

Wednesday August 5, 2026 11:30am - 12:20pm CDT

This session explores how AI can be used to strengthen feedback cycles and support high-quality teaching and learning. Participants will examine how timely, actionable feedback helps students refine their thinking, deepen understanding, and take ownership of their learning, while also reducing the burden on teachers.

It will introduce participants to Snorkl, which is a tool for students to record and explain their thinking, and then get immediate and personalized feedback from AI. Students insights are also shared educators so they can better understand how their students think, including their strengths and where they need more support.

Speakers

Maggie Kenny

Partnerships, Snorkl

Maggie Kenny is a former middle school special education teacher and a member of the Snorkl team. She works with schools and districts across the country to support formative assessment and help teachers provide more timely, individualized feedback using AI. Drawing on her classroom... Read More →

Wednesday August 5, 2026 11:30am - 12:20pm CDT

Assessment & Feedback

global Y

1:10pm CDT

AI-Proof It: Redesigning Assignments That Demand Real Thinking

Wednesday August 5, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Speakers

Mark Henderson

Director of AI, Missouri School Boards' Association

Wednesday August 5, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Assessment & Feedback

1:10pm CDT

Hit the Ground Running: AI-Powered Assignments for Engagement and Real-Time Feedback

Wednesday August 5, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

In a world where students can find and copy anything in seconds, the real challenge isn't access to content it's cutting through it. This session looks at how tools like Brisk and School AI can help teachers quickly build student-friendly assignments that spark genuine thinking. You'll walk away with ready-to-use ideas and a better sense of how AI can create feedback loops that keep students engaged, accountable, and actually working through the material instead of around it.

Speakers

Patrick McSalley

6th Grade Social Studies, Hancock Place Middle School

I'm a 6th grade Social Studies teacher at Hancock Place Middle School with a passion for using AI to enhance how students think, question, and engage with content. In my classroom, I use AI tools to build interactive tutors, guide primary source analysis, and give students scaffolded... Read More →

Wednesday August 5, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Assessment & Feedback

global Y

1:10pm CDT

Snorkl 201: Going Deeper with Snorkl

Wednesday August 5, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

In this follow-up session, teachers will go deeper with Snorkl by exploring how to design stronger tasks, align feedback and scoring to specific learning goals, and use student thinking to guide instruction. Teachers will learn how Snorkl supports K–12 students across all subjects by capturing spoken, written, and drawn responses and providing immediate, personalized feedback from teacher-aligned AI. Participants will also explore how to use Snorkl with their own curriculum tasks for any subject area, review classwide trends, and use rich artifacts of student work to support next steps.

Speakers

Maggie Kenny

Partnerships, Snorkl

Wednesday August 5, 2026 1:10pm - 2:00pm CDT

Assessment & Feedback

global Y

2:10pm CDT

From detecting AI use to understanding how students work

Wednesday August 5, 2026 2:10pm - 3:00pm CDT

Teachers often feel pressured to investigate whether students used AI in their work. This session introduces process-focused approaches that move beyond AI detection. These approaches are grounded in pedagogy, reveal where students struggle, and help teachers provide more meaningful and personalized feedback to students. The session will help teachers shift from policing to supporting process excellence.

Participants will learn practical ways to move beyond AI detection and instead focus on excelling in the writing process. They will learn how process-centered approaches increase student engagement, transparency, and trust, and foster more meaningful teacher–student conversations.

Speakers