The AI-Agile Classroom: The 1-Hour Assessment Action Plan for Secondary Schools

Secondary educators are currently caught in a “cat-and-mouse” game with artificial intelligence, leading to a breakdown in trust and a crisis of assessment validity. This workshop proposes a critical shift in perspective: drawing on the work of Phillip Dawson, we assert that validity matters more than cheating. Instead of building higher walls to keep technology out, we will use Ron Ritchhart’s Making Thinking Visible framework to build “AI-Agile” assessments. Participants will move toward a Student-Validated model—where student cognition is so transparent that technology becomes a tool for enhancement rather than a substitute for thought. Whether you are a leader navigating policy or a teacher refining classroom practice, you will leave this session with a concrete action plan to ensure that student learning remains authentic, visible, and uniquely human in an automated world.

Facilitated By

Emily Thomas

Literacy Strategist, EKC, Erin Kent Consulting

Emily J. Thomas is a Literacy Strategist with Erin Kent Consulting (EKC) and an active member of the IB Educator Network (IBEN), serving as an MYP Workshop Leader and DP Literature A Examiner. As the Founder of Playground Pedagogy and Teaching Matters Yoga, Emily specializes in school development through the lenses of assessment design, leadership capacity building, and system-level coherence.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, Emily acts as a vital bridge between policy and practice. She coaches teachers and school leaders to navigate field-wide shifts by cultivating strong disciplinary literacy practices and building clear structures to safeguard assessment validity. Drawing on her experience as a former MYP Coordinator in Korea and Thailand, she helps schools move toward “student-validated” models of learning that prioritize cognitive transparency and de-escalate academic anxiety.

By leveraging her deep expertise in MYP implementation to support system-level change, Emily ensures that school frameworks remain design-forward, human-centered, and authentic. In addition to her consultancy, she manages Drift Yoga in Bangkok and writes the Substack Elsewhere, Examined.