Artificial intelligence is moving fast, and classrooms are right in the middle of it. Teachers are figuring out what it means for how they plan, differentiate, and help students engage with content in a world where AI is already part of daily life.
While this may seem like a big shift on the surface, Brian Thomas, TCI’s Learning Designer, sees it differently. The instructional fundamentals that have always mattered still do: strong curriculum design, ready-to-use high-quality instructional materials, and teaching approaches that prioritize experiential learning, critical thinking, and collaboration. Those things do not change because AI has entered the room. They become even more important.
AI works best when it has something strong to build on. Teachers who are grounded in good instructional practice and supported by a well-designed curriculum are the ones best positioned to help students grow, even into an AI-driven future. It is an approach TCI has built its programs around for decades
AI Readiness Starts With Durable Skills
Teachers have always known that reading comprehension, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration are fundamental. As AI becomes a bigger part of how people work and learn, those skills have only become more important. The question is how to make sure every student gets the opportunity to build them.
Educators and policymakers across the country have been working toward a shared answer. More than two dozen states have developed portrait of a graduate frameworks, each one a definition of what a truly prepared student looks like beyond test scores. The skills that appear across them are consistent: critical thinking, effective communication, collaboration, problem-solving, civic engagement, and the ability to evaluate sources and investigate through inquiry.
Brian sees this as a confirmation of what strong teaching has always prioritized. His challenge to district leaders is direct: “What does your portrait of a graduate look like? And I can almost guarantee they’re going to be naming some of those very same things.”
For teachers, that alignment carries real weight. “If you’re a good teacher,” he says, “you’re actually doing a really good job of preparing students to live in a world of AI.”
The Active Learning Foundation for an AI-Driven World
When teachers have the right instructional materials, they can focus on what they do best: bringing learning alive in the classroom. That means students are not just learning about geography, science, and history. They’re using geographic tools to solve real problems, conducting scientific investigations, and debating historical interpretations.
Brian calls this the shift from content area literacy to disciplinary literacy. “It’s not just reading about being a geographer or a life scientist,” he explains. “It’s using the language of a geographer. It is using geographic tools. It’s speaking like a life scientist and using tools and processes that life scientists use.” That kind of learning builds something that sticks.
“It’s not just reading about being a geographer or a life scientist. It’s using the language of a geographer. It is using geographic tools. It’s speaking like a life scientist and using tools and processes that life scientists use.”
It also builds exactly what states are asking for in their portrait of a graduate frameworks. The critical thinking, collaboration, civic engagement, and source evaluation that appear across those frameworks are not add-ons to a strong curriculum. In TCI’s social studies and science programs, they are woven into every lesson by design.
“Every TCI lesson is ready-made for that,” Brian says. “Every activity is something that helps build towards that portrait of a graduate.” In an AI-driven world, that has always been the point.
Where AI Fits into the Classroom
Brian thinks about the busiest moment in a teacher’s week: Sunday night. “They’re looking at the week ahead, and they’re thinking about all these things that they have on their plate,” he says, “not only from an instructional planning perspective, but from classroom management on down.” The administrative weight of teaching is real, and it is exactly where AI can do its most meaningful work.
The key, Brian emphasizes, is that AI supports teachers rather than replacing them. It does not make instructional decisions, and it does not interact with students on its own. One way AI can help is as a “teacher’s assistant,” handling time-consuming tasks that pull focus away from instruction. TCI is building toward three specific areas where support matters most: differentiating content for a range of learners, generating and modifying assessment questions, and providing grading support with suggested scores and feedback.
“These tools share one thing in common. They share in common the teacher. We’re focused on supporting that teacher as they provide that rich instruction.”
Differentiation is where Brian sees the most immediate opportunity. In one seventh-grade class he taught, 13 of 32 students had an IEP or 504, several were reading significantly below grade level, and four or five were English language learners. “That is the kind of makeup of classes across the United States today,” he says. Every one of those students deserves access to grade-level content in a format that works for them.
TCI is developing AI features to make that possible, approached the same way TCI builds everything else: intentionally, with safeguards, and grounded in standards-based content.
These features are available only to districts that choose to enable them, and they operate within TCI’s data privacy and security standards. Districts stay in control of whether and how AI is used in their classrooms:
- AI Leveled Reading Options: Goes beyond TCI’s existing reading levels to provide a wider range of options, all grounded in standards-based content. Every level preserves the key ideas, vocabulary, and primary sources from the original text, so every learner can access and engage with the material.
- AI Question Builder: Lets teachers modify and generate assessment questions directly within TCI, drawing only from the lesson sections a teacher selects. Questions can be tailored to individual students or groups, including specific accommodations for students with IEPs.
“These tools share one thing in common,” Brian says. “They share in common the teacher. We’re focused on supporting that teacher as they provide that rich instruction.”
AI Preparation and Life Preparation Are the Same Thing
The thread running through everything Brian Thomas describes is consistent. Strong curriculum, active learning, collaboration, critical thinking, and the ability to evaluate sources and solve problems together. These are the skills that portrait of a graduate frameworks are asking for. They’re also the skills that make someone effective in a world shaped by AI.
Brian puts it simply: “It’s not just AI. It’s just life. It’s getting students ready for life.” That framing matters because it takes the pressure off AI as a separate problem to solve and puts the focus back where it belongs: on the quality of instruction and the strength of the materials supporting it.
For teachers, that’s clarifying. The goal has not changed. A classroom where students investigate, debate, collaborate, and build knowledge over time is already doing the work. AI tools, used thoughtfully, are there to protect that space by handling tasks that do not require a teacher’s expertise, so more of the day can be devoted to what does.
