About Kate
Katherine (Kate) Avcollie is a secondary educator exploring what literacy and thinking look like in the age of artificial intelligence. Named Teacher of the Year at her rural high school, she designs classrooms where students must explain, defend, and revise their thinking rather than simply submit finished work.
Her students investigate ethical dilemmas in true crime, analyze how information is framed online, and challenge claims produced by both humans and AI systems. In her classroom, writing is treated as a process that must withstand questioning; students draft, explain their reasoning, revise their work, and defend their ideas in discussion.
Beyond the classroom, Avcollie works with educators to rethink literacy and assessment in an AI-mediated world. She leads professional learning through EdAdvance, shares classroom experimentation and learning design through her writing and podcast conversations, and is currently developing an AI Teen Literacy course designed to help young people navigate an information ecosystem increasingly shaped by algorithms.
Her work centers on a question that feels increasingly urgent for schools: how do we help students become independent thinkers in a world where answers are easy to generate but reasoning still matters?
Outside of school, Avcollie enjoys traveling and spending time with her family. Exploring new places and ideas continues to shape the way she thinks about learning and the world.
