More than 750 teachers from around the region gathered in Fairhope this week for Baldwin County Public Schools’ Gulf Regional Innovative Teaching Conference, a two-day event built around a question school systems across the country are still working out: how much technology, including artificial intelligence, belongs in the classroom.
The conference, known as GRITC, drew educators from well beyond Baldwin County to sit in on sessions created by teachers, for teachers, covering everything from classroom management to hands-on lesson planning. But this year’s dominant theme was technology — specifically, how to use it without letting it use up the parts of teaching that matter most.
“This year we’re really focusing on how we’re going to leverage technology to support students, what are the kids actually going to be putting their hands on, and how are they going to use that to extend their learning,” said Jaime Tillman, a teacher at Daphne Middle School.
Jeremy King, Baldwin County’s Educational Technology Support Services Coordinator, said the push isn’t optional at this point. “Our classrooms are full of technology today because that’s what’s in the world,” King said. “We want to make sure that we give teachers the skills that they need to be able to work with students and come into their classrooms today.”
Sessions this year specifically tackled using artificial intelligence responsibly in the classroom, alongside more familiar territory like keeping students engaged during long stretches of screen-based work. Tillman said conferences like GRITC give teachers room to experiment with new tools before those tools ever reach a classroom of students.
“I feel like technology changes from one week to the next, sometimes one day to the next,” Tillman said. “So conferences like this, where we get to come in and kind of play around with it and learn how to make some mistakes when it’s not in the moment, are so precious.”
Baldwin County Public Schools has hosted GRITC for several years running, positioning it as a regional draw rather than a strictly in-house training day. With AI tools now showing up in lesson planning software, grading platforms and student research habits alike, this year’s turnout suggests the conference’s subject matter has only gotten more urgent for teachers trying to keep pace.