You've done the summer PD. You got the certificate and the long slide deck about AI.
Then September came along, and nothing in your week actually changed.
Free workshops teach “AI literacy.” University certificates ($1,950–$2,700+) teach policy and integration. Almost no one sits you down and helps you build and ship a real tool you can use in your classroom.
the part no one else teaches.
Is this for you? A quick gut-check.
- Have a classroom problem you've never had time to solve
- Have zero coding experience and want to actually build something anyway
- Are tech-curious and want to go beyond prompting ChatGPT
- Already tinker with tools but haven't shipped anything of your own
- You're looking for a general AI literacy overview or policy training
- You want a university-accredited certificate (see the $1,950+ programs for that)
- You're not willing to spend about 3–4 hours a week building
Already know how to code a little? Even better — you'll move faster and build something more ambitious. There are two cohort levels with their own session times, so beginners finish strong and experienced builders aren't held back.
What you'll build.
You'll work in agentic AI coding — what people online call “vibe coding.” The first two builds need no code at all and anchor the entry-level track; the last two are the experienced track, for teachers who already tinker. Everyone leaves with at least one working tool, and most don't stop at one. Fair warning: it's addictive.
A custom AI chatbot
Good if You want a teaching teammate, not another tab.
Nine tools, built and shipped this year.
Every one of these was built by a working teacher and put to use in a real classroom — extensions, web apps, automations, a desktop app. The cohort is how you get from “wouldn't it be cool if” to one of these with your name on it.
Four weeks. Live. Small enough that you can't hide.
Blank page → working URL
Scope it down
Bring a real headache from your classroom. We cut it down to one tool you can actually finish — and you pick your track.
First working version
You build the core with hands-on help. By the end of the week it runs — rough, but real.
Make it real
Wire it into your actual workflow — Canvas, Sheets, the tools you already use — and test it on realistic sample data, never real student records.
Ship & keep it
Polish, handle the edge cases, put it into use. You leave able to explain exactly how you built it.
No-code builds. Mondays & Wednesdays, one hour live.
More ambitious builds. Mondays & Wednesdays, one hour live.
Eight live sessions over four weeks on Zoom — one hour each, Mondays and Wednesdays. Pick the track that fits your experience and your evening. This is a build studio, not a webinar, so plan to be there.
Built by a teacher,
for teachers.
“I kept building little tools to fix my own classroom, and other teachers kept asking how. So this is me showing you — on your problem, not a demo. If I can build these between bells, you can too.”
A working educator. Currently an AP Environmental Science teacher and Academic Technology Director — still in a building, still in the weeds.
~15 years in education. M.Sc. in Technology Leadership from Brown, M.Ed. from Loyola Marymount, B.A. from UCLA, and too many certifications to count.
Classroom hours and dozens of code projects. The tools on the build wall are ones I built this year.
By the numbers.
This is the founding cohort, so the best numbers are still ahead. I'll add real cohort results here once they exist — no inflated stats, no made-up outcomes.
Serious, but accessible.
Comparable university certificates cost $1,950–$2,700 and hand you a credential. This is $595 and hands you a working tool that's already live in your classroom. The scope is one real thing, finished — on purpose.
For an individual teacher — or a few colleagues signing up together.
- Four weeks, live and online, in a small group
- One (or more) working tool — built from scratch, and yours to keep
- Two levels — entry and experienced — whether or not you already code
- A completion letter describing what you learned and built, with your contact hours — formatted to fit your school's PD, CEU, or recertification requirements
- Group rate when you sign up with colleagues
- A few need-based / Title-I seats each cohort
- Payment plan available
Paying with school PD funds? Common and welcome. We'll send a formal invoice and W-9 for your business office — just note it on the application.
Founding cohort is intentionally small. When it's full, the rate goes to $750.
Apply for the founding cohortPrefer email? chris@secondbellstudio.com
Refunds, plainly: full refund through the end of week one — if the first two sessions aren't right for you, you get every dollar back, no questions asked. After that your seat is committed and tuition is non-refundable. Life happens, though: if you have to step away, you're welcome to finish with the next cohort.
For schools & districts that want this to stick past one workshop.
Quote-based · rolling intake
- Faculty build cohorts, run on your calendar
- A plain-English AI policy your community can actually read
- Quarterly “stack audits” — what's in use, what it costs, what's risky
- On-call hours for the things you can't see coming mid-year
Most schools start with the teacher cohort. The partnership is for schools that want it to stick year over year.
Request a scope callQuestions?
I have zero coding experience. Will I be lost?
No. Most teachers in the cohort start with no programming background. You'll describe what you want in plain English and direct the AI to build it — that's what “agentic coding” means. The entry-level track is built for exactly this and needs no coding experience at all. You'll have hands-on support the entire time.
I already know some code. Will this be too basic?
No. If you have coding experience, join the experienced track — a later session time and a more ambitious build, like a full application of the kind your school usually buys from a vendor. The two levels run as separate groups, so beginners and experienced builders both finish with something worth shipping.
What if I don't finish in four weeks?
The whole structure is designed to prevent that. We scope your project small enough to be realistic in Week 1, and the build is calibrated so one working tool is the target. And it doesn't stop when the cohort does: you keep 1:1 office hours for three months after, plus lifetime access to the founding community once it launches.
Can my school pay for this? Does it count as PD hours?
Yes to both. You'll receive a completion letter describing what you built and documenting your contact hours, which most schools accept for PD or CEU credit. There's a group rate when you sign up with colleagues, and a few need-based seats each cohort for Title I schools. If your school needs an invoice or a W-9, just ask.
How is this different from a free AI workshop or a university certificate?
Free workshops teach AI literacy — what it is, how to think about it. University certificates ($1,950–$2,700+) teach policy and integration frameworks. Neither sits you down and helps you build a working tool from scratch. That's the gap this fills: you leave with a real, deployed tool you own, not a PDF or a slide deck.
Can I build with real student data?
Not during the cohort — and that's deliberate. Builds run on sample data (we'll help you generate a realistic mock gradebook), because pasting real rosters or grades into consumer AI tools can put you on the wrong side of FERPA and your district's policies. You'll leave knowing the compliant route instead: build and prove the tool on mock data, then take it through your school's approval process to connect anything real.
The honest part.
Most AI PD overpromises. We don't.
One working tool. That's the scope — on purpose.
A completion letter and your contact hours — plus a certificate if your school needs one. We just won't pretend a PDF is the point.
The tool is yours, with no LMS to log into forever. You host it yourself — and we'll show you how, usually free or close to it.
It's live, small, and hands-on. Miss the sessions and you'll feel it — this isn't a course you binge in July.
The second bell
is about to ring.
Four weeks. One or more working tools, yours to keep. Come build the thing you've been wishing existed in your classroom.
Prefer email? chris@secondbellstudio.com