Forward

Foreword

When we first began working on this collection of lesson plans, we knew two things for certain. First, we wanted to create something that would be genuinely useful to other educators – a practical resource that you could actually take into your classroom and adapt without having to reinvent the wheel. Second, we wanted to do it in a way that leaned into one of the most pressing, fascinating, and, yes, controversial developments in education today: the use of artificial intelligence.

Every lesson plan you’ll find in this book was written with the assistance of AI. That fact alone might spark curiosity, hesitation, or even a little unease. If you’ve ever wondered whether AI can really understand what we do in the classroom, or worried that relying on it might diminish your own professional expertise, you are not alone. We had those same questions at the beginning of this process. What we discovered, though, is that working with AI is less about giving up control and more about learning how to collaborate with a new kind of tool: a tool that can surprise you, challenge you, and, in the right hands, make your work as a teacher richer and more efficient.

Think of it this way: when you sit down to write a lesson plan, you are juggling a lot at once. Standards, objectives, scaffolding, timing, assessment, engagement strategies… the list goes on. What AI offers is a starting point, a draft that you can shape, refine, or completely overhaul. It’s like sitting down with a very eager student teacher who is brimming with ideas. Some of those ideas are spot-on, some need tweaking, and some you’ll discard. But even the rough ideas can help you think in new directions. The end result is still yours. The professional judgment, the awareness of your students’ needs, the creativity that comes from your lived experience in the classroom – that cannot be automated.

One of the unexpected joys of this project was seeing how AI could stretch our thinking. Sometimes it generated lesson hooks or activities we might never have considered. Sometimes it offered new ways to phrase objectives or differentiate a task. Other times it was a reminder of what doesn’t quite work, like when the AI offered something too simplistic, too generic, or too divorced from the real dynamics of teaching.

Let me share one of my favorite examples from my own educational adventures. I was once using AI to generate discussion questions for an ELA class built around Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The AI confidently suggested I ask my students to analyze the significance of a character who had allegedly been killed by a scarecrow. There was just one problem: no one has ever been killed by a scarecrow in Buffy. In fact, there aren’t even murderous scarecrows in the show. It was an entirely fabricated detail, and while it was laughably wrong, it also made a useful point. The AI could spin a creative-sounding question, but it

took my subject knowledge, and frankly, my love of Buffy, to catch the mistake. That’s the heart of working with AI. It can provide ideas, but it takes a teacher to ensure they’re accurate, meaningful, and tied to what students actually need to learn.

Moments like that scarecrow incident became touchstones for us as we worked through this book. They reminded us that teaching is, at its core, a human endeavor. AI may draft a framework, but it takes a teacher to breathe life into a lesson. And sometimes, it takes a teacher to laugh, shake their head, and say, “Nice try, but not even close.”

We also know that many of you reading this are doing so as part of a graduate course on AI in education. That means you are not only using these lesson plans but also reflecting critically on what it means to design with AI. Our hope is that this book functions on two levels. First, it should be a practical resource you can borrow from freely. Second, it should be a conversation starter about the possibilities and pitfalls of AI in our profession. As you explore these lessons, we invite you to ask: What parts feel authentically useful? What parts feel like they need a stronger human touch? How might you use AI differently than we did? Those questions are just as important as the plans themselves.

Because this book was created with grant support, it is also published under a Creative Commons license. That means it belongs not just to us as authors, but to the broader community of educators. You are free to adapt, remix, and share these materials, provided you give credit. We chose this route because we believe that open sharing strengthens our profession. In a time when so many resources are locked behind paywalls or proprietary platforms, we wanted this collection to be something you could use without hesitation. We also want to acknowledge the students whose work is included in these pages. Their contributions, too, are shared under the same license, not as individual intellectual property but as part of a collective resource that we hope will benefit others.

Of course, publishing openly also raises questions about authorship, ownership, and the very nature of intellectual work in an AI-assisted world. Who “wrote” these lesson plans? The simplest answer is: we did, but with help. AI produced drafts, suggestions, and variations. We selected, curated, edited, and polished. The end product is a blend of human expertise and machine assistance. That process is, in some ways, a microcosm of what our students will face in their own futures. They will enter a world where AI can draft memos, generate ideas, or even create music and art. Their challenge will not be to compete with AI, but to learn how to use it wisely, ethically, and creatively. If this book models anything, I hope it models that.

Let me also be clear: this is not a manifesto that every teacher must use AI, nor is it a claim that AI is a magic solution for the challenges of education. We know there are limits. We

know there are biases embedded in the data AI systems draw upon. We know that technology can never replace the relational heart of teaching. But we also believe that ignoring AI altogether is not a sustainable option. Our students are already living in a world shaped by these tools. As educators, we have a responsibility to engage with them thoughtfully, to test them, critique them, and figure out where they fit… and where they don’t.

Writing this book gave us the chance to do just that. In the process, we stumbled, we adjusted, and we learned. Sometimes the AI’s suggestions were laughable. Sometimes they were brilliant. Always, though, they pushed us to reflect on our own practice. That is why we wanted to share not only the finished lesson plans but also the story behind them. We want you to see this as an invitation, not a prescription. Use these lessons as they are or let them be the clay you reshape into something better. Either way, let them remind you that teaching has always been about adaptation, experimentation, and growth.

If you are approaching this book as a grad student, I’d also encourage you to pay attention to your own process as you interact with AI. How comfortable do you feel? How much editing do you find yourself doing? Do you catch yourself thinking, “Wow, I never would have phrased it that way”? Or maybe, “This doesn’t sound like me at all.” Those moments of noticing are important. They will help you figure out what role you want AI to play in your teaching and in your professional identity.

We are at an inflection point in education. For years, we’ve seen waves of new technology enter our classrooms: interactive whiteboards, online learning platforms, 1:1 devices, and more. Some of those innovations have been transformative; others have faded away. AI may be the most disruptive of them all, not because it replaces the teacher but because it reshapes how we approach creativity, planning, and problem-solving. It challenges us to ask big questions about originality, ethics, and equity. Those are not questions with easy answers. But they are questions worth wrestling with, and that’s why we wanted this foreword to be more than just a preface. Consider it an open invitation to reflect alongside us.

As you move into the pages ahead, know that everything here comes from a place of both experimentation and care. We wanted to see what AI could do, but we also wanted to make sure the lessons remained rooted in real pedagogy. That’s why you’ll see activities grounded in standards, strategies for differentiation, and assessments designed with learning in mind. The AI helped draft, but it did not dictate. The choices, the revisions, the heart of each lesson – those remain ours, and they can become yours, too.

So, to our fellow educators and grad students: welcome. Take what is useful. Adapt what you need. Critique what you find lacking. And, above all, keep the conversation going. Because AI in education is not a finished chapter. It’s a story we are all writing together.