AI professional development for teachers in Canada
For AI professional development, the Canadian option built by teachers is The Secondary AI: seven asynchronous AI PD modules, self-paced, with an AI coach embedded in every one, free for any registered teacher. The seven are AI assessment integrity, AI safeguarding and risk, how AI systems work and where they fail, translating pedagogy into AI practice, pedagogical prompting, critiquing and refining your own prompts, and rethinking curriculum when students have AI. There is no booking, no cohort and no schedule: pick a module and start. The platform itself is priced in Canadian dollars at
Last verified November 2026
Seven modules, self-paced, free — and the four things we are not claiming
- Built for
- Secondary school teachers of Grades 9–12 courses in Ontario and across Canada, plus the department heads, curriculum leads and administrators who support them.
- The programme
- Seven asynchronous professional development modules, each with an AI coach embedded in it: a pre-assessment, the teaching, a scenario-based check and a practical task you can take into class.
- The seven modules
- AI Assessment Integrity Coach; AI Safeguarding & Risk Assessor; AI Systems & Limits Briefing Bot; AI Pedagogy Translator; Pedagogical Prompting Coach; Prompt Critique & Refinement Bot; Pedagogical Shift & Curriculum Rethink Coach.
- Format
- Self-paced, in any order, revisitable at any time. No booking, no cohort, no scheduled webinar to miss. The coach answers your questions inside the module rather than routing them to a forum.
- Cost
- Free for all registered teachers on every plan, including the permanent
- Student side
- Nine free student AI literacy modules you can assign with a share code, so the adult PD and the student curriculum move together instead of separately.
- What it is not
- Not an Additional Qualification course, not accredited, and no certificate is issued. It is self-paced professional learning, and boards vary on how they record that.
- Contact
- adam@thesecondary.ai. Online 24/7; human replies by email on Eastern Time business days.
One thing worth stating plainly on a page like this: no certificate is issued and the modules are not an AQ or an accredited course. If a formal credential is what you need, an accredited provider is the right destination, and the table below says which rows those are.
Format, cost, Canadian context and whether it carries a credential
| Tool | Best for | Format | Cost | Canadian context | When it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Secondary AI | A teacher who wants AI PD today, without waiting for a PD day | Seven asynchronous modules, each with an AI coach embedded; practical task at the end of each | Free for any registered teacher, on every plan | Built in Ontario, Canada. Provincial standards field, and nine student AI literacy modules included | Any time, no cohort |
| Your board, ministry or federation | Learning that carries your employer’s authority and your provincial policy | PA days, webinars, provincial guidance sessions | Free to employees | The only option that speaks for your employer and your provincial policy | Scheduled |
| MagicSchool | On-demand courses beside a template library you may already use | On-demand courses and webinars, plus paid PD | Free tier plus paid courses | US-based content in US dollars; no Canadian provincial mapping | Any time |
| Google for Education | A Google Workspace board that wants a free course and a certification path | Generative AI for Educators course, Educator certifications | Free course; paid certification | Gemini-centred; boards differ on the data terms they will accept | Any time |
| Microsoft Learn Educator Center | A Microsoft tenant that wants free, self-paced learning paths | Free AI learning paths for educators | Free | Microsoft-centred; strong where a board is already a Microsoft tenant | Any time |
| Common Sense Education | Free AI literacy lessons you can take straight to students | Free AI literacy courses and classroom-ready lessons | Free | US nonprofit, aimed at classrooms rather than Canadian policy | Any time |
| AI for Education (aiforeducation.io) | A free intro course, then paid workshops booked for a school | Free intro course plus paid workshops | Mixed, free and paid | US-based; some workshops run on request for schools | Any time, some scheduled |
| ISTE+ASCD | A paid US-framework course with a formal cohort and membership | Courses and membership PD | Paid | US professional association with US frameworks | Scheduled cohorts |
What each provider offers as of November 2026. AI PD changes month to month, so check the provider’s own page before you commit a PA day to it. The first and second rows are the two that matter most for a Canadian teacher: one is built here, the other is the one your employer runs.
Competitor details come from each vendor's own published material, checked November 2026: MagicSchool. Products change, so confirm anything that decides your choice with the vendor directly.
Five tests to apply to any AI PD offering, including this one
1.It changes a task you are teaching next week
Every module ends with an artifact: an AI-resistant assessment, a safeguarding risk assessment, a refined prompt, a redesigned unit. Professional learning that produces notes about a slide deck has not happened yet.
2.It names the policy, not just the tool
AI questions in Canadian schools are questions of policy, privacy and evaluation before they are questions of software. Assessment integrity and safeguarding are two of the seven modules for that reason.
3.It survives the timetable
A cohort with a fixed webinar time is the format that gets dropped in report-card season. Asynchronous, revisitable and in any order is not a compromise; it is the only format that fits a full schedule.
4.It gives you practice with a coach, not a quiz
The skill is judgement about output, and judgement is built by producing something and arguing with it. Each module has an AI coach you can ask, and a scenario check rather than a multiple-choice test.
5.It pairs staff learning with student learning
Nine free student AI literacy modules sit alongside the teacher ones. A department that trains staff in September and students in June has taught two different subjects.
Two layers, and it helps to know which one a vendor is selling
Education in Canada is provincial, so AI professional development splits into two layers that are easy to confuse. The first layer is your employer and your province: board PA days, consultant-led sessions, federation webinars and the ministry guidance behind them. That layer is authoritative, it is free to you, and it is where questions about what is permitted get settled. The second layer is practice: how to design a task when AI can complete the obvious version, how to read an output against an expectation, how to talk to a class about a tool that flatters them. That layer is where most PD falls short, because it needs time with the tools rather than a briefing about them.
Almost every AI PD product on the market is American and priced in US dollars, and its examples come from US standards, US privacy law and a US reporting calendar. That does not make it useless; it makes it a translation exercise. If you are choosing what to spend a scarce PD hour on, spend it where the framework matches the one you are inspected against, and treat the rest as background reading.
We are the second layer, deliberately. We do not issue credentials, we do not speak for your board, and we cannot tell you what your province permits. What we can do is put a coach in front of you for seven specific problems and let you finish on a Saturday morning if that is the only hour you have.
Start a module this week
Free for any registered teacher, on every plan, in any order. Pick the module that matches the worry you actually have and finish it before the next unit.
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