Breakout Sessions

Douglas Kiang

Computer Science | Menlo School

You Must Use AI In This Course: Discover how teaching with "AI-Forward" strategies unlocks creativity, uncovers patterns hidden in data, and transforms students from passive learners into empowered creators. In this bold and inspiring keynote, Douglas Kiang invites educators to reimagine the role of AI not as a threat, but as a catalyst for deeper thinking, ethical reasoning, and meaningful collaboration. Through powerful stories, classroom-tested examples, and a touch of humor, this talk will challenge assumptions and spark new ideas about what’s possible when teachers lead the AI revolution—and shape the future of learning itself.

Mike Mendelsen

CTO | sideby

What if teaching AI wasn’t just about technical fluency, but about transforming how students see themselves as learners, makers, and citizens? In this interactive breakout session, Mike — former AI educator at NVIDIA, high school teacher, and current CTO/co-founder at sideby — will explore how a transformational approach to learning can deepen AI understanding and empower educators to lead with clarity and conscience. Participants will engage with real-world examples from classrooms, industry training programs, and edtech product design to see how transformational pedagogy can accelerate learning about this technology and because of this technology. Come ready to discuss, demo, and design ways to bring AI to life in your context through a learning-first, human-centered lens.

Chelsea Hatchard

Districts Partnership | Khan Academy

The Power of Khanmigo and Human Connection: Elevating Learning Without Losing What Matters. This session will explore how AI can be a tool for amplifying—not replacing—teacher impact, fostering deeper relationships, and creating more equitable, student-centered learning experiences. We’ll unpack real-world examples of AI in action and highlight strategies for maintaining the heart of teaching—human connection, creativity, and authentic engagement. Join us for a thought-provoking, interactive session that challenges AI fear narratives and instead empowers educators to harness its potential while staying deeply connected to students.

Sarah Ridenour

Director of Learning and Strategic Outreach | Sterne School

Empowering Every Learner: Integrating AI with Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Discover how the power of artificial intelligence can enhance inclusive teaching practices through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This session explores how AI tools can support flexible, student-centered learning by offering personalized content, adaptive assessments, and multimodal engagement strategies. We’ll dive into real classroom applications and share practical tips for using AI to meet the diverse needs of all learners. Whether you're just beginning to explore AI or already experimenting with it, this session will offer concrete ways to deepen equity and access in your teaching practice.

Dave Pettine

CEO and Head of Private School Partnerships | 2 Hour Learning

Rethinking the School Day: A Smarter Model for Student and Teacher Success. What if students could meet, and even exceed, academic benchmarks in just two hours each day? In this session, Dave Pettine, Head of the Private School Division at 2 Hour Learning, introduces a redesigned school model that makes this possible. By combining AI-led, personalized learning pathways with mastery-based progress, the 2 Hour Learning approach delivers core academics in two focused morning hours. This creates space—four additional hours daily—for students to pursue high-impact enrichment: competitive sports, entrepreneurship, life skills, and leadership. The model also re-energizes teachers and enhances the overall student experience, aligning rigor with purpose. For schools feeling limited by legacy structures, this session offers a practical blueprint for achieving stronger outcomes through smarter design.

Amanda Grutza

Founder | The Third Space

AI as a Thought Partner - A Neuroscience-Informed Maker Lab. (Note: Participants are asked to bring along an internet enabled device if possible. Laptops are ideal, but phones or tablets will suffice. Thank you in advance.) Over-reliance on large-language models can nudge students toward copy-and-paste thinking. In this immersive neuroscience-informed lab, technologist Amanda Grutza flips the script: you’ll learn to convert any LLM into a 24/7 Socratic coach that fuels metacognition, surfaces misconceptions, and sparks multidisciplinary creativity. A micro-lecture, prompt engineering, and a hands-on project will walk participants through neuroscience-backed techniques for reshaping AI interactions so the model acts as a thought partner, not a shortcut.

What You’ll Master

• Spotting Answer-Centric Prompts – Learn to recognize wording that invites the AI to deliver tidy summaries rather than probe for student reasoning.
• Socratic Prompt Engineering – Rewrite questions so the model responds with clarifiers, counter-examples, and evidence requests, keeping learners in the driver’s seat.
• Building AI & Classroom Frameworks – Draft quick structures for both:
  • Class projects (history debate, science investigation, design sprint), and
  • AI instruction sets (ChatGPT project briefs, Playlab workflows, built-in guidelines and guardrails) that keep every exchange focused on metacognitive thinking.
• Neuroscience in Action – Apply prediction-error and spaced-retrieval principles to decide when, and how often, the AI should intervene to maximize retention.
• Ethical Guardrails & Bias Checks – Craft guardrail prompts that keep outputs age-appropriate, source-cited, and free from hidden bias.

Aatash Parikh

Co-Founder | Inkwire

Discover how AI can help educators craft captivating, career-connected learning and authentic "real-world" projects. The future of school demands a new student experience for teachers and students. Come explore how to increase confidence in crafting impactful learning experiences and open the door for teacher and student co-design, meeting the evolving demands of both school and the world of work.