Your Lesson Plans Are Training Data Now

Teachers create extraordinary intellectual property: units refined over years, rubrics tuned to real kids, scaffolds built from hard-won experience. Now there's a box on the screen inviting you to upload it all — "drop your materials here and the AI will differentiate them for you!"

Before you do, ask what happens to the upload. Some tools use customer content to train future models. Your five years of lesson design could become part of a product sold back to you.

This isn't a reason to refuse AI help. It's a reason to read the terms like a professional. Look for the data-use section — it's usually short. You're looking for one clear promise: customer content is not used to train models. If it's absent or vague, assume the worst and choose accordingly.

There's a second, quieter issue: once your materials live in a vendor's system, can you get them out? Districts change vendors. Contracts end. Keep your own copies of everything that matters, in formats you control.

Your craft has value. Treat it like it does — the same way you'd guard any professional's body of work. Convenience is a fair trade only when you know the price.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.