The AI conversation isn’t slowing down, and neither are we!
This summer, EMC² Learning is heading west for the Innovative Schools Summit in Las Vegas, where we’ll be sharing two sessions designed to help educators navigate one of the biggest instructional shifts of our careers.
Artificial intelligence is changing how students learn, how teachers plan, and how we think about assessment. So we’re bringing our brand of playful pedagogy to the Sin City edition of the Innovative Schools Summit to help teachers address the very real landscape of what teaching looks like in this era where the game has changed.
And we’re not going to Vegas to lose.
Session One
AI Classroom Survivor: Teacher Tools to Outwit, Outplan and Outlast the AI Blindside
July 9, 2026 | 10:00–10:55 AM PT | Augustus I
If AI has you feeling like you’ve been dropped onto Exile Island without a map, you’re not alone. New tools seem to appear every week. Every headline promises another revolution. Every social media feed insists there’s one more app you absolutely have to try. It’s exhausting!
Instead of chasing every shiny object, this session focuses on something far more valuable: building an instructional toolkit that stands the test of time.
Using a Survivor-inspired countdown, we’ll explore ten practical strategies that blend AI-powered tools with timeless teaching practices. Along the way, participants will step into the role of students as we model classroom experiences that make technology work for learning—not the other way around.
We’ll explore ideas like:
- AI-powered lesson planning that saves time without sacrificing quality.
- Personalized feedback that keeps students moving forward.
- Classroom routines that preserve creativity, collaboration, and authentic thinking.
- Practical decision-making frameworks for knowing when AI helps—and when it gets in the way.
Surviving the AI era isn’t about downloading every new app. It’s about becoming the kind of teacher who knows which tools are actually worth using.
Session Two
Beat the Bot: Alternative Assessments That Rock and Roll
July 9, 2026 | 11:15 AM–12:10 PM PT | Palace III
If AI has changed the way students complete assignments, then maybe it’s time we rethink the assignments themselves. Instead of asking how we can catch students using AI, we’ll ask a much better question: How can we design learning experiences that make authentic thinking impossible to fake?
This session explores practical alternatives to traditional quizzes, essays, and one-size-fits-all assessments. Through a fast-paced countdown of classroom-ready ideas, participants will experience performance tasks, collaborative challenges, creative demonstrations of learning, and real-world applications that put student voice front and center.
These aren’t gimmicks. They’re assessment strategies designed for a world where information is abundant—but original thinking still matters.
You’ll leave with practical ideas you can adapt immediately, whether you’re teaching elementary students or high school seniors.
Two Sessions. One Goal.
At first glance, these sessions seem like they’re tackling different problems. One is about AI, and the other is about assessment. But in reality? They’re asking the same question:
How do we preserve the human side of learning in an age of artificial intelligence?
We don’t believe the answer is banning AI. Nor do we believe it’s embracing every new tool without question.
Great teaching has always been about relationships, curiosity, creativity, and meaningful challenge. AI can support those goals—but it should never replace them. That’s the conversation we’re excited to “roll the dice” on with hundreds of teachers who’ll be going “all in” on the fun with us in Las Vegas.
If you’ll be at the Innovative Schools Summit, we’d love to see you there. Stop by, say hello, and share how AI is changing your classroom. Some of our best ideas have started with conversations in conference hallways, and we have a feeling Las Vegas will be no different.
You can learn more about the conference and register here: Innovative Schools Summit Website
The activities featured in EMC² Learning presentations and workshops are just a handful of the 1,100+ resources available and on their way to arrive shortly in the EMC² Learning library. This entire library is available to all members with an active Engagement Engineer or Engagement Engineer PLUS account, and is included with your annual site membership. We hope you’ll consider joining us as an Engagement Engineer to unlock a full year of site access. For complete details including our exclusive limited time offer for annual site membership, click here.