The S-Cubed AI Coach is for Teachers- Not Student Data

As I’ve begun sharing the S-Cubed AI Coach, I’ve received some really thoughtful questions from music educators.

And I’m glad people are asking them.

Questions about student privacy, what information needs to be entered, whether teachers have to upload videos, and how AI fits responsibly into a music classroom are legitimate questions.

So I want to make something very clear:

The S-Cubed AI Coach is designed to help you, the teacher, teach S-Cubed more successfully.

**It is not designed to collect information about your students.  It's for you only.  **

You do not need to enter student names.

You do not need to upload rosters.

You do not need to enter grades, IEP information, student records, or other personally identifiable student information.

And you do not need to upload photos, audio recordings, or videos of your students in order to get meaningful help from the Coach.

In fact, I encourage teachers to keep student-identifying information out of their conversations with the Coach.

If you are having a problem with a seventh-grade class, for example, you can simply describe the situation:

“My seventh graders are struggling to stay focused during Forbidden Pattern. What would Dale suggest?”

The Coach does not need to know who those children are.

It needs to understand the teaching problem you are trying to solve.

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Think of It as a Conversation Between You and a Coach

That may be the easiest way to understand what I have built.

You + the S-Cubed AI Coach.

That’s the relationship.

The purpose of the app is to give an S-Cubed teacher access to guidance when a question comes up:

Am I moving too quickly?

Why are they struggling with this lesson?

Should I repeat this activity tomorrow?

Can I skip lessons and start at lesson five?  (That's a BIG no!)

My students are getting bored. How can I refresh this without abandoning the sequence?

This class is behaving very differently from my other classes. What should I change?

I only see these students twice a week. How should I adjust the pacing?

I’m having classroom-management problems during this part of the lesson. What would Dale do?

Those are the kinds of questions teachers have sent me by email for years.

And I want to emphasize something:

I have never minded answering them.

I have personally answered teacher questions about S-Cubed since I began sharing the program in 2013.

Many of those questions appear again and again because teaching is complicated.

Two teachers can use exactly the same curriculum and encounter completely different situations because their schedules, students, schools, experience levels, rehearsal structures, and classroom cultures are different.

The original S-Cubed curriculum was designed to give you everything you need to successfully teach the program.

The AI Coach does not change that.

You absolutely do not need the Coach in order to use S-Cubed.

But what I have always wished I could provide is something even more personal:

What if I could be standing beside you when the question actually occurred?

That is the problem that this app solves.  After class, you do a reflection, and then the app helps you.  You tell it what went well and what didn't.  

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When I started building this in July of 2026, I didn't know what it would be able to do...

At that time, I thought primarily about answering the questions I had received repeatedly over the years.

But as I built it, tested it, challenged it, corrected it, and continued feeding it my approach to teaching S-Cubed, I realized it could help teachers in ways I had not originally imagined.

It can help you think through:

Pacing.

Classroom management.

Student engagement.

Differentiation.

Re-teaching.

Refreshing an activity that has gotten stale.

Working around unusual schedules.

Helping a struggling group without holding back a stronger group.

Getting back on track after interruptions.

And, of course, the day-to-day journey through S-Cubed itself.

Sometimes a teacher doesn’t need another curriculum.

Sometimes they need an experienced teacher to say:

“Based on what you just described, here is what I would try tomorrow.”

That is what I want this Coach to do.

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You Do NOT Have to Upload Video Content

This is another question I want to address clearly.

The Coach can provide feedback based on video in situations where a teacher chooses to use that capability.

But **video is optional.  In fact, before you purchase, you tell the app whether you want to upload video of your teaching (not the students).  It is a function that you can choose to use or not. **

You are not required to record yourself teaching.

You are not required to upload anything from your classroom.

You can use the S-Cubed AI Coach entirely through conversation.

Describe what happened by either typing or talking to the app with the microphone.  

Describe what you tried.

Tell it what your schedule looks like.

Tell it where you are in the program.

Tell it what isn’t working.

Tell it what is working.

Then ask for help.

That alone can produce an incredibly useful conversation.

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The Original S-Cubed Program Is Still the Program

This distinction matters to me.

The AI Coach is not replacing S-Cubed.

It is not writing a different sight-singing curriculum for you.

It isn't replacing the teacher.

And it certainly isn't replacing the musicians sitting in front of you.

The students still have to sing.

They still have to listen.

They still have to think.

They still have to make mistakes, adjust, practice, develop independence, and become musicians.

And you still teach them.

The Coach is an additional support layer around the curriculum I created.

The same teaching philosophy.

The same sequence.

The same mission.

More support.

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What About AI and Music Education?

I also think it is important to acknowledge the larger conversation taking place in our profession.

Our national professional organization, NAfME — the National Association for Music Education — is actively addressing artificial intelligence in music education.

In July 2025, NAfME published Guiding Principles, Frameworks, and Applications for AI in Music Education, developed by its AI Task Force. NAfME describes the resource as helping music educators understand ways AI may support areas including instructional practice, creativity, reflection, assessment, productivity, and accessibility while also considering the ethical responsibilities surrounding its use.

Importantly, NAfME's guidance is not simply, “Use AI for everything.”

Nor is it, “AI has no place in music education.”

The conversation is much more thoughtful than that.

NAfME encourages educators to consider AI intentionally and mindfully, with attention to issues including privacy, intellectual property, transparency, ethics, and the irreplaceable importance of human music-making. Its guidance specifically discusses using AI to support rather than supplant music learning.

That philosophy resonates deeply with what I am trying to do.

Human beings are still at the center of this.

The teacher.

The student.

The rehearsal.

The singing.

The relationship between a great teacher and the young musicians standing in front of them.

I have no interest in replacing any of that.

I am interested in using a new tool to help the human teacher become more confident and effective.

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The Same Mission I Have Had Since 2013

When I first put S-Cubed online in 2013, what I was doing was pretty unusual.

Traditional music publishers had not been interested in what I created.

But I knew the approach was working with my beginners.

So I found another way.

I recorded myself teaching.

I made PowerPoints.

I put videos online.

I wrote teaching tips.

I tried to anticipate the problems another middle school chorus teacher might encounter hundreds or thousands of miles away.

The technology was different.

The mission was exactly the same.

Help teachers.

That is still my mission.

The S-Cubed AI Coach is simply the newest way I have found to do it.

And because this technology is new, I think those of us using it have a responsibility to use it thoughtfully.

That includes protecting student privacy.

That includes respecting school and district policies.

That includes remembering that technology should serve good teaching — not become the reason we are teaching.

And it includes being transparent about what the tool is actually designed to do.

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So Here Is the Simplest Way I Can Say It

Don't give the S-Cubed AI Coach student-identifying information. It doesn't need it.

You don't have to upload classroom videos.

You don't have to use the Coach to successfully teach S-Cubed.

But if you want help while you're teaching the program…

If you want another set of experienced eyes on a problem…

If you want help figuring out tomorrow's lesson after today didn't go the way you expected…

If you want help with pacing, engagement, classroom management, differentiation, or simply figuring out “What should I do next?”

That is exactly why I built it.

I have tested the Coach extensively, and even though it is already available, **I am still testing it along with other teachers.  I tested it earlier today.  **

I'm still trying new situations.

I'm still looking for weaknesses.

I'm still asking difficult questions.

Because I want this tool to do what I have tried to do since the very beginning of S-Cubed:

Help teachers succeed.

And when teachers succeed, their students have a better chance to succeed too.

S-Cubed stands for Successful Sight Singing-  that means success for the students AND for you, and this tool can help you if you need it.  

Same mission. New tool. More support.