Professional development for K–12 educators

Think first.
Then add AI.

PD that builds your judgment, not your tool list. Sessions fit inside the days you already have, and we measure what changed every time.

Get the free starter How a session works

One page. Read it tonight, use it Monday.

One hour, one room
Where the worry went
What educators said worried them most
Walking in Walking out
The worry didn't disappear. It turned into a plan.
8 in 10
Left agreeing on one idea: what matters isn't whether students use AI. It's how.
3 in 4
Asked for the next session before they left the room
0
Asked for software to catch students. Every request was about teaching.
We asked the same questions before and after one session with Lexington Public Schools. We ask them at every session we run.
From the field
"AI policy expert Russ Wilcox joined to help our administrators think through how we can partner with AI in schools."
Superintendent's Report, Lexington Public Schools, August 25, 2026
Where to start

Start where you are.

Each question below came, word for word, from an educator in our first cohort. Pick the one that sounds like you.

Free

"Where do I even begin with all of this?"

Begin here

A plain-language orientation to what AI actually does, and the one habit that protects your students' thinking. Read it tonight, use it Monday.

Open the starter →
For your school

"More of this and how to do it with an actual case."

Bring it to your school

A first session that changes the conversation, then a series that builds from there: assessment, practice, and planning, inside the PD days already on your calendar. Nothing to install.

See the sessions →
For teams

"How do you build the framework?"

Build your framework

For the group writing the rules. Your staff's own hopes and worries become the seed of your school's AI guidance, starting with how you assess student thinking.

How the framework works →
A worry we take seriously

Is student data safe?

It's one of the first questions educators ask. You saw it in the chart. So we build it into the session itself: your staff leaves knowing what's safe to share with AI, and what never is.

Plain-English privacy summary available before you book.

In their words

What educators asked for next

Anonymous post-session responses, shared with the cohort's permission.

Similar to how today's presentation was done. With emphasis on unpacking student thinking. High school teacher
When should AI be used, and when shouldn't it? District administrator
To protect students, educators and cognitive rights. High school respondent, on their biggest hope
The method

Three moves. Every session.

First

Think first

Work the problem with your own mind, the way you'll ask your students to.

Then

Add AI

Bring the tool in second: structured, out loud, on purpose. Notice what it adds and what it takes.

Always

Measure what changed

Sessions end with data, not vibes: polled before and after, with the results reported back to you.

Why this order? MIT researchers watched people's brains while they worked. The ones who thought first, then added AI, remembered more and stayed engaged. The ones who started with AI stayed checked out, even after the AI was gone. That finding is our name.

One more idea we teach. Most educators have met exactly one kind of AI: the chatbot that writes. There is a second kind that reads student work instead of generating it. The sessions cover when each belongs, because the difference changes what AI means for your classroom.

Our mission

Protect the thinking. Open the tool.

Schools are being asked to do two things at once: bring AI in, and protect how students learn to think. We think the second has to come first, and that the order is the whole trick. Our mission is a teaching community confident enough to decide when AI belongs in learning and when it doesn't.

Russ Wilcox, founder of ThinkFirst
Russ Wilcox
Founder · ThinkFirst

Russ has spent 16 years building machine-learning systems, and the last several teaching people how to think alongside them. He co-designs AI teaching practice with faculty in UMass Lowell's AITeach Co-Design Lab, keynoted the university's education symposium, advises school districts and state and federal policymakers on AI, and serves as policy chairman of the American Society for AI. He has taught AI to state officials and to community senior-center classes. That range is why every session here is built to be understood, not just attended.

Where we fit

There's good work happening. Here's ours.

Schools need more than one kind of help with AI, and other providers do good work. This is the piece we cover.

Tool trainings teach the software, and they save teachers real time.
We build the judgment that decides when to use it.
Policy consultants help districts write good rules.
We prepare the people the rules are for.
Most PD ends when the session does.
Ours ends with a measurement you keep.
For district leaders

Walk into your school committee with proof.

Every session is measured before and after, and you get the report: what your staff believed, what changed, and what they asked for next. Most PD leaves nothing behind. This leaves evidence. The chart at the top of this page came from our first cohort, written up in Lexington's own public report.

Read a sample report Book a call