Amplified Teacher
The Course Architect Method

A six-step method for building your course with AI, held to your standards. Any subject. Any AI tool. You are the architect. The AI is the builder.

Free, 4-page PDF Start one unit this week One email, no spam

Cover of the starter kit: Teach AI your course, with the six steps. Starter kit · PDF
Why it matters

Most of us ask AI for the wrong thing.

The quick prompt Give me a lesson plan for today.

Generic material with no connection to your course, your students or your standards. A polished worksheet that leads nowhere.

The method

Map the course. Brief the AI on your students and how you teach. Build Day 14 in layers, and check every piece.

Material that fits where the unit is going and sounds like you.

Before any AI · take 60 seconds

Start from who you are.

AI amplifies whatever you bring. Know what that is before you prompt. Four questions come first.

  1. What you love

    What do you love, in school or out of it?

  2. How you teach

    Lecture, discussion, labs or routines: where are you at your best?

  3. What sticks

    What do former students remember from your class?

  4. What you'd build

    What would you teach if you finally had the time?

An engaged teacher is an engaged student.

Get the briefing template in the free kit →
The method

Six steps. One job each.

Each step leaves you with one thing you made, in any subject, with any AI tool. Every step was tested on a real unit first: IB Psychology, Unit 1, 31 days.

  1. Design before you prompt

    AI can't fix a course you haven't designed. The map is your expertise on one page.

    In a real courseAbout 155 days mapped, one row per day, before a single lesson was built.

    You makeA course map

  2. Build the context

    Write your style down once, and every build sounds like you.

    In a real courseTeaching habits written as numbered standing defaults, so even a sub-day packet sounds like the class.

    You makeA one-page briefing

  3. Set a source hierarchy

    Tell it what to trust, or it will trust whatever sounds right.

    In a real courseThe current exam guide outranks an older textbook. A draft that said "follow the textbook" got caught.

    You makeA ranked source list

  4. Build in layers

    Fixing a skeleton takes minutes. Fixing 34 finished lessons takes weeks.

    In a real courseA 34-day first draft became 31 weighted days before any lesson, handout or slide was written.

    You makeOne unit, one day at a time

  5. Close the loop

    When students see their answers change the class, they start to own it.

    In a real course72 anonymous responses led to 11 changes. The next survey asked about each one by name.

    You makeA short student survey

  6. Keep final judgment human

    Polished is not the same as correct. You are the expert in the room.

    In a real courseDrafts said 56-minute periods and a fall recess. Both were wrong. The teacher caught them.

    You makeEvery final decision

What it produces

Built in a real classroom first.

The method built a full IB Psychology course and rebuilt an AP Psychology course before it was taught to anyone. This is some of the work.

Personal exam feedback for 82 students

The teacher scored every exam. AI helped spot patterns and word the feedback. Every student got their own page. Illustration. Names redacted.

One lesson, 27 slides

  • Warm-up retrieval, with answers
  • Live demos: students fall for the bias first
  • "What just happened?" names the concept
  • Exit check and a "done early" bonus

Same method, different course. Built from the standing defaults: demo first, then debrief, with a clear exit check.

Changes students rated "very helpful"

  • Story to open each topic78%
  • Reviewing common mistakes71%
  • More class time to work66%
  • Naming the exam paper47%
  • Seminar rule38%
  • Quick check after notes32%
After Unit 0, 72 responses led to 11 changes. The Unit 1 survey asked about each by name, n = 76. Bars run from 0 to 100%.
What students said

Students can tell the difference.

Students answered an anonymous survey about how their teacher uses AI. Here is what they said, and how the method answers each one.

  1. Student responseMost of the time I get frustrated when my teachers use AI for all their assignments…
    How Amplified Teacher answersIDesign before you prompt

    Better work, not just faster work.

    Careless work plus AI is just more careless work, faster. The method starts from the teacher's design and standards, so AI makes good work faster.

  2. Student responseI want information on the course and the exam to come from an expert, not a robot…
    How Amplified Teacher answersIIISet a source hierarchy

    The teacher stays the expert.

    The teacher designs the course, chooses the sources and teaches it in their own words. The AI packages what the teacher already knows.

  3. Student responseI've heard students justify their own use of AI to avoid learning because a teacher uses AI.
    How Amplified Teacher answersVIKeep final judgment human

    Not a double standard.

    Teachers use AI to package knowledge they already have. Students are in class to build it. The method says so out loud.

  4. Student responseI do find the generated images to be poor in taste.
    How Amplified Teacher answersVClose the loop

    Their feedback becomes a rule.

    "No AI-generated images" goes into the briefing as a commitment. Every build after that follows it, and students see it change.

Two more questions students asked
  1. Student responseI rather not want AI to grade my work or feedback. I would appreciate YOU doing the feedback and grading.
    How Amplified Teacher answersVIKeep final judgment human

    The teacher scores every response.

    Names become codes. The teacher reads and scores every answer against the rubric. AI spots patterns and drafts the wording, and the teacher edits until it says what they mean. Feedback arrives in time to use.

  2. Student response…I have developed a stigma that everything you use is AI. Can you clarify if you look over your assignments…
    How Amplified Teacher answersVIKeep final judgment human

    Yes. Every piece is reviewed.

    The teacher reviews and edits everything before students see it, and invites them to ask how anything was made. Transparency means showing the process, not just admitting to it.

If we ask for their best work, our materials have to show ours.

Quotes are exact and unedited, from an anonymous IB Psychology Unit 1 survey.

Examples

Same standards. Taught your way.

The method fits how you already teach. Five teachers, five styles, one method. Tap one to see the build.

    1. Upload the state standards and your pacing guide.
    2. Ask for two or three films per standard, with ratings.
    3. Build viewing guides that pair each clip with primary sources.
    4. Students judge what the film gets right, wrong, and why.

    Sample buildCA 10.3 Industrial Revolution: Modern Times (1936) · CA 10.8 World War II: The Book Thief (2013). The teacher reviews every one.

    1. Upload the standards and your own worked examples.
    2. Ask for guided notes that match your board work.
    3. Build practice sets in your notation, easy to hard.
    4. Students self-check, then rework only what they missed.

    Sample buildFive chain rule examples worked your way. Twelve problems in three tiers, full solutions. Exit ticket: find the error in a worked answer.

    1. Upload your reading list and discussion norms.
    2. Ask for text-based questions at three levels per chapter.
    3. Build prep sheets: evidence plus one question of their own.
    4. Students run the seminar. You listen and track.

    Sample build · The Great Gatsby, chapter 3An opening question with no single right answer. Five evidence prompts tied to passages. A sheet to track who spoke and what they cited.

    1. Upload the standards and your stockroom inventory.
    2. Ask for a puzzling phenomenon to open each unit.
    3. Build labs from what you own, with safety notes.
    4. Students design the test and explain the data.

    Sample build · energy in reactionsPhenomenon: why does a cold pack get cold? A student-designed test from your stockroom. Write-up: claim, evidence and reasoning.

    1. Upload the standards. Break each into small skills.
    2. Ask for a short check per skill, in two versions.
    3. Build reteach sheets for the most common errors.
    4. Students track their own skills and retake when ready.

    Sample build · two-step equationsFive-question check, plus version B for retakes. Reteach on sign errors, distributing and combining terms. A tracker for each skill mastered.

  • Your subject, your styleStart your own build this week.Get the free kit

Sample builds, not finished courses. The AI suggests. The teacher reviews every one.

From teachers

What teachers say.

Notes from teachers who have tried the method. More coming after the next faculty session.

  • Placeholder[Teacher quote from the pilot faculty session.][Name][Subject] teacher · [School]
  • Placeholder[Teacher quote about the first unit they built.][Name][Subject] teacher · [School]
  • Placeholder[Quote from a principal or department head.][Name][Role] · [School or district]
What Amplified Teacher offers

Start free. Bring it to your school.

Everything a teacher needs to start is free. Schools and districts can bring the full session to their faculty.

For teachers · Free

The starter kit

  • The six steps, and what you make at each one
  • Your course briefing, one line at a time
  • How to brief the AI like a colleague
  • Your first unit, step by step, plus the ground rules

Free. One email with the kit. No spam.

For schools and districts

Bring the session to your faculty.

Teachers see the six steps and one real unit, start to finish. Then every teacher writes their own course briefing before they leave.

  • Faculty sessionTeach AI Your Course: the six steps, the standard, and 12 minutes to write a briefing.
  • Hands-on follow-upTeachers bring one unit and build the first lesson together.
  • Department workGrade calibration, common assessments, and shared briefings so new teachers start strong.

A working teacher replies, not a sales team.