🗑 My best takeaways from FETC 25

🚀 Introducing TeachAid 2.0: A Massive Leap in AI for Education

TeachAid has rebuilt its AI platform from the ground up to offer the ultimate all-in-one curricular solution: expertly crafted unit and lesson plans, visually engaging presentations, adaptive activities, and final assessments designed for real student choice.

With this leap forward, we’re excited to unveil three innovative features that set TeachAid 2.0 apart:

🚀 Interactive Classroom: Energize your teaching with real-time tools that foster dynamic, engaging lessons.

🎙️ Student Participation Tools: Amplify every student’s voice with features that drive creativity, collaboration, and meaningful contributions.

🎮️ Interactive Assignments & Activities: Transform learning with personalized, hands-on tasks that resonate with every learner.

TeachAid 2.0 isn’t just a platform; it’s the most significant advancement in how AI empowers educators and engages students. Built to save time, improve outcomes, and inspire excellence, it’s the leap forward the education world has been waiting for.

Sign up now to experience TeachAid and discover how AI is reshaping education for the better.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🎙 My best FETC Conference resources

The FETC Conference in Orlando, Florida, is always one of my favorites!

• They bring in fantastic presenters.

• The topics are always so timely.

• The expo hall is huge, so you can learn about your favorite tech tools and products.

• It’s in Florida and there’s no snow. 😂

If you weren’t able to make it to FETC, I have you covered! I share slides, videos and all sorts of helpful resources on my FETC resources page.

In that resources page, I share slides (+ more) from all 8 of my FETC / expo hall sessions there. Check it out!

📺 6 videos from FETC for YOU

I was able to record full video of FIVE of my presentations this year!

Here’s a brief summary of each of those — plus a fun “day in the life” video I made for you, too …

1️⃣ Matt’s FETC “Day in the Life”

• 📝 Summary: Presenting at a conference like FETC is fast-paced. This video takes you along with me through my eyes — courtesy of my new Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. 😎

2️⃣ FETC session: Tomorrow Glasses

• 📝 Summary: AI is going to change the world and the workforce. How can we prepare students for their future in 20 years? Most of the skills they’ll need are timeless, thinking skills — plus a few techy ones, too.

• 💡 Key point: We need to be bold (and willing to be wrong) when equipping students with skills for the future. If we don’t, then we’re just preparing them for today — a world that won’t exist when they hit adulthood.

3️⃣ Expo Hall session: 10 SchoolAI Spaces chatbots

• 📝 Summary: SchoolAI Spaces are interactive student chatbots. You can create your own custom Spaces … or choose from any of the pre-made ones. In this session, I share 10 pre-made Spaces I love.

• 💡 Key point: Student AI chatbots can be great interactive learning experiences — but make sure students have core, foundational knowledge of the topic beforehand (so they’re able to discern any AI inaccuracy/bias/etc).

4️⃣ Expo Hall session: Using MagicSchool to make learning relevant

• 📝 Summary: It’s harder than ever to command students’ attention. MagicSchool’s teacher tools can help you brainstorm ideas and create resources to get a foot in the door to student attention. I share 10 ways you can do this in the session (and accompanying ebook).

• 💡 Key point: Come up with a student interest (i.e. Taylor Swift lyrics, Fortnite) and get ideas to connect it to learning with several of MagicSchool’s teacher tools.

5️⃣ Expo Hall session: Viral learning with Book Creator

• 📝 Summary: Social media is a communication tool — and a language! — that students already use. Let them speak that language when talking about what they’ve learned. In this session, I share practical “viral learning” activities students will love.

• 💡 Key point: “You don’t need the app to create the experience.” Learning can feel like apps, sites, and interests of students without needing to download and use the app.

6️⃣ Expo Hall session: Speedy differentiated instruction with Class Companion

• 📝 Summary: Differentiating instruction seems time-consuming and hard. But it helps when you focus on the key differentiation points — content, process, and product. This session shows how Class Companion can help you differentiate instruction quickly.

• 💡 Key point: Some small adjustments — like tiered assignments, gathering insights, and making small accommodations — can make learning feel personalized to students, keeping them engaged.

📚 NEW BOOK: Making Learning Accessible, Inclusive, and Equitable

I’ve always been a fan of Dr. Catlin Tucker … her focus on student-centered classrooms, her practical strategies right from her classroom … and all of her brilliant ideas.

She has co-authored a new book, and I wanted her to tell you about it herself.

Bonus … she has offered bonus chapters to readers of my newsletter. (That’s you!)

Here’s Catlin …

Feeling burned out? Wish you had more time to design dynamic, student-centered lessons so you could enjoy your time with students?

Or maybe you're overwhelmed by AI and how quickly the world outside the classroom is changing.

Don’t be.

Embracing AI as a design thought partner can help us improve the quality of our learning experiences while better meeting the needs of all students—in a fraction of the time.

That’s why Dr. Katie Novak and I wrote Elevating Educational Design with AI. This book is for educators—teachers, leaders, coaches, and curriculum designers—ready to reimagine lesson design, combat burnout, and create equitable, student-centered learning experiences.

AI offers a chance to shift how we approach teaching, freeing up precious time and allowing us to design with intention. It simplifies the heavy lifting—like generating differentiated lesson ideas, scaffolding resources, and even assessing work—so we can focus on what really matters: connecting with our students and supporting their growth.

This book is not about replacing the human element of teaching; it’s about elevating it.

When used thoughtfully, AI allows us to build resilience, adaptability, and self-directed learning in our students while cultivating strong relationships and social support systems.

Let’s embrace tools that make our work more impactful and rewarding. Grab your copy of Elevating Educational Design with AI and join me in creating the classrooms our students deserve.

As a thank you for the incredible work you do every day, Dr. Novak and I wanted to give you access to two bonus chapters not included in the book!

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!