Achieve differentiation in special education with M2

Everything, everywhere, all at once

Danica Rose Garay teaches instructional sciences in a self-contained special education classroom, a complex setting to say the least. Throughout her day, she guides students from freshmen through seniors through biology, chemistry, physics and engineering, and environmental science.

Her students have diverse needs: some have autism, others have specific learning disabilities or intellectual disabilities. Many are English language learners navigating both a new language and complex scientific concepts simultaneously. Each student’s Individual Education Program (IEP) requires different accommodations, different pacing, different approaches.

Before M2, Danica managed these intersecting challenges largely on her own. When a Spanish-speaking student needed help understanding instructions, she would stop teaching, pull out her personal phone, type into Google Translate, hand the phone to the student, wait for his response, and pass the device back and forth. The back-and-forth ate up precious instructional time. Meanwhile, the rest of her class waited.

The pattern was apparent with conceptual questions too. A student would ask for more examples of chemical compounds, and Danica would cycle through the same familiar ones: water, carbon dioxide, maybe a couple others she could recall in the moment. With four different science subjects to teach across multiple grade levels, she couldn’t always hold every example at her fingertips.

Curiosity is a catalyst for learning

The real cost was not just loss of time but loss of opportunity for her students to go deeper with their learning. Danica shared a simple, but fundamental philosophy about how she analyzes student learning in her classes:

“Questioning is one of the best pieces of evidence that a student is learning.”

When students are curious enough to ask, that’s when real understanding begins.

But curiosity can be fleeting if the flame gets extinguished. When a student asks a question tied to what they’re learning right now, and the teacher has to say “I’ll get back to you tomorrow,” oftentimes by the next day, the student has often forgotten what they wanted to know. The spark is gone.

“It’s disheartening when I don’t have time to answer all of their questions,” Danica explains. In a class where students already face extra barriers to engagement, losing those moments felt like losing the students themselves.

The promise of equitable education for students with disabilities is that they’ll receive the support they need to access learning alongside their peers. But when one teacher is responsible for an entire classroom of individualized needs, that promise gets stretched thin—not because of lack of care or effort, but because of the limits of time and human capacity.

So long Google Translate

When M2 arrived in Danica’s classroom, it addressed both challenges at once: the language barrier and the knowledge gaps.

During a lesson on elements and compounds, Danica explained the instructions to her class. Then she turned to M2: “Can you please translate that into Spanish?” Instantly, M2 repeated her instructions in Spanish–no phone to fumble with, no broken flow, no student left waiting while others moved ahead.

Her Spanish-speaking students could hear the translation in real time, ask his own questions to M2, and stay engaged with the lesson without falling behind. Danica recalls:

 “It made all the difference for him to be able to keep up with the rest of the class. And it was so natural that it didn’t disrupt my flow either.”

And when students asked for even more examples of chemical compounds, M2 provided them: methane, sulphuric acid, and so on, beyond Danica’s immediate recall. M2 could also repeat and review content while students worked independently, reinforcing concepts without requiring Danica to pause her one-on-one support with other students.

Curiosity for the curator too

Another benefit for Danica was M2’s real-time coaching feedback. After her first period class, Danica read M2’s suggestion: she could increase engagement and elevate her questioning skills by asking students to provide more examples rather than providing most of the examples herself.

“I can’t believe I forgot about this fundamental technique,” she realized. She had been so focused on optimizing her pacing and delivering content efficiently, she had missed opportunities for students to demonstrate their own understanding, too.

In her second and third period classes that same day, Danica incorporated the feedback. Instead of listing examples herself, she asked students to generate their own. The difference was immediate:

“It instantly turned into an active discussion, with energetic questioning happening all around my room.”

Letting teachers be teachers

Looking ahead, Danica sees M2 as part of a larger shift in how teachers can support diverse learners. “This is a great innovation for us. It takes loads off of teachers’ plates: constantly needing to prioritize, process, and execute based on individual learning plans.

But she’s also thoughtful about the boundaries. “We should strive to find our balance with AI. Teachers don’t always know where to draw the line.” She sees M2 for what it is: a partner that isn’t meant to replace her or take over her instruction entirely. It’s supplemental and an extension of what she is already trained to do, providing the extra voice, extra language, and extra set of examples when students need them.

“Some teachers – including myself, sometimes – are really scared to find out what we don’t know,” Danica acknowledges. 

“It boils down to this: M2 can provide a wealth of information outside of what you already know. It’s just a form of differentiated instruction. Every day, I am learning how to be a better teacher because of M2.”

For Danica, the vision is clear: use M2 to ensure that no student is left at surface-level understanding simply because she could not address it in that very moment. Keep the questions alive. Keep the curiosity alive. Keep the evidence of learning alive.