Teacher Appreciation Week 2026: Essay on AI and learning

Many of us hold memories of educators who showed us our hidden potential and saw us for who we could become. Teacher Appreciation Week offers us a meaningful opportunity to celebrate how these dedicated professionals guide students toward discovering their purpose.

For 16 years, I’ve grown as an educator, first as a middle-school band director, then as an elementary music teacher in Arkansas. Today, I’m honored to continue that journey as the 2026 Arkansas Teacher of the Year. This path has been a constant reminder that we as teachers must be lifelong learners ourselves, and I’m inspired daily by my colleagues’ ability to make learning an exciting and engaging experience for their students.

With the help of new tools, we can engage our students in ways that weren’t possible before. Earlier this year, Google introduced me and my 55 fellow State Teachers of the Year to vibe coding with Gemini. With just a few prompts, I was able to create a tool that helps my students with complex learning needs create music based on their intuitive physical movements detected by a built-in webcam.