Build great lessons fast
My favorite AI tool, an amazing video from Durham, new resources for teachers, and more.
Happy 2025! Thanks to all of you who completed my reader feedback survey, and welcome to my new-look newsletter.
⚡ One cool tool: Insta~Lesson
I don’t love the teacher-facing AI tools I’ve seen so far. They’re overloaded with features that seem hard to learn, and it’s not always clear how their outputs will actually help teachers succeed. It’s neat to generate resources using AI, but resources alone can’t meet every learner’s needs.
I believe AI can make effective instruction much more accessible. So over the holidays, when I wasn’t chasing my kids around the house, I worked with a few friends to develop an AI tool we’re calling Insta~Lesson. It’s still in its very early stages! But the idea is that:
You name a topic you want to teach.
Insta~Lesson creates a single Google Doc that includes:
a high-quality instructional video,
collaborative practice problems,
and mastery checks.
You give that Doc to your students, then spend your time in class meeting their needs.
Insta~Lesson is far from perfect. But I think it has potential, and I hope you’ll test it out. It’s free! And if you’re interested, you can even become a beta tester.
🤩🤩 Two amazing teachers
I’ve never met Laura or Jessica. But when I watch this video of their classroom in action, I can tell they - and their students - are thriving:
They’re part of a pilot program MCP is running in Durham Public Schools, where we’re adapting district-provided curriculum (in this case, Eureka Math²) to fit the Modern Classroom model. But the techniques they’re using - simple videos, collaborative practice, and mastery checks - are techniques any educator can adopt. And if anyone ever asks you whether self-paced learning works in elementary schools, I hope you’ll show them this video.
🧩🧩🧩 Three helpful resources
You asked for resources, so here’s what I’ve got:
I’ve been building new tutorials for recommended video-creation platforms. I hope these make it easier than ever to record your own videos.
The heart of a strong Modern Classroom is its progress tracker - and Wavio is helping MCP build our best tracker yet. It’s free and I recommend exploring it.
I always look forward to Jenn Gonzalez’s recommendations for teacher tech. Here are her six tools to try in 2025. Insta~Lesson isn’t on that list yet, but maybe next year!
🙏🙏🙏🙏 If you have a few seconds…