January Presentations by Elaine Bernal

In late January, I had the privilege of co-presenting at two different events.

The first was a session on Using AI tools to Support Special Needs Education at NYC's CSI Leadership Institute 2026: Harnessing AI to Empower Educators and Enrich Learning. I co-presented with Lia, a sped teacher from Yonders, NY, Thomas Miller, staff developer from the Nation Academy for AI Instruction and Seth and Erica from Microsoft. Our session was on using AI for lesson planning, instructional differentiation, IEP development, transition planning and family communication- grounded in AFT- aligned guardrails and strong student privacy protections.

The second was at the 2nd Annual CFT Educational Issues Conference at the United Teacher Los Angeles Headquarters. The title of our presentation was Co-Teaching Students with Disabilities: Effective Co-Teaching Models for Inclusive Classrooms. I co presented with Lia Council from Yonkers and Sarah Favero from Dist 123, Local 943. The presentation was very well received.