WY TeacherCon 2026

The ultimate goal of special education isn’t just compliance – it’s EMPOWERMENT. Heavy case loads and limited time can create an uphill battle in ensuring individualized and engaging pathways for students in the special education arena. Welcome to the future of the equitable classroom! This 1-hour interactive presentation delivers practical, classroom-ready, and fully FERPA compliant AI strategies designed to level the playing field. Discover how to safely harness the power of artificial intelligence to supercharge academic participation, unlock student motivation, and foster structured independence for students receiving special education services—all without compromising data privacy.

Bring a laptop or tablet to this session so you can explore how NotebookLM can support integrated classroom activities by helping students work with curated sources, generate questions, synthesize ideas, and create meaningful products across content areas. Participants will leave with practical activity ideas they can adapt for their own classrooms.

Special education educators are the ultimate educational superheroes; balancing diverse learning profiles, endless paperwork, and the constant need for highly individualized instruction - but even superheroes need a sidekick. Welcome to the ultimate, fast-paced hour designed to transform artificial intelligence into your personal co-teacher! This presentation isn’t about theoretical future tech. It’s about practical, immediate, and ethical AI tools you can use now to make your instruction more accessible, engaging, and inclusive. AI won't replace the magic you bring to the classroom, but it will give you the time and tools to amplify it!

While procurement has always been a pillar of K-12 technology integration, Generative AI introduces unique cybersecurity and data privacy threats that traditional vetting processes miss. In this session, we will move beyond the allure of the free tools and pilots to reveal the hidden vulnerabilities of AI vendor negotiations—including data offshoring, liability for breaches, and unauthorized shadow IT. We’ll discuss why securing your district means looking beyond standard PII to protect the "learning process data" that vendors use to train their commercial models. Attendees will leave with a clear risk-mitigation framework and a comprehensive AI Data Protection Checklist. We will wrap up with a hands-on vetting scenario where you will practice using our data protection worksheet to evaluate a hypothetical vendor and defend your district's digital ecosystem.